Our kitten is 4 months old and still nursing, what can we do?

Why is this a problem?

Because she looks bloated and her nipples are hanging.

The kitten or the queen?

In nature, no mother allows a baby to nurse past what is suitable. If the kitten is still nursing, it still needs it.

You can try keeping them apart, or putting a shirt or wrapping something around her middle to keep the baby from nursing. A couple days of either method should be enough for the milk to start drying up.

My kittens are almost 5 months, and I still catch one or two of them nursing occasionally. I finally just gave up trying to stop it. I figure, if she's willing to let them nurse with their sharp little teeth, then that's her business.

You didn't say if the little one is also getting other kitty balanced foods. The suckling is OK and normal. I have some moms suck other moms, so... They are just animals and its OK. The mom usually decides when she is through, and will hiss at the baby over a week or two to stop him. At that point they will hit the chow. The milk is the best thing for him, loaded with anti-bodies for the little one, his only protection from infections until his own immune system begins to kick in at about 8 weeks.

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Originally Posted by shintao

You didn't say if the lil one is also getting other kitty balanced foods. The suckling is ok and normal. I have some moms suck other moms, so....They are just animals and its ok. The mom usually decides when she is through, and will hiss at the baby over a week or two to stop him. At that point they will hit the chow. The milk is the best thing for him, loaded with anti-bodies for the lil one, his only protection from infections until his own immune system begins to kick in at about 8 weeks.

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Please read the entire thread, so you have all the information.

It was stated in the first post that the kitten is 4 MONTHS old. Clearly it is already eating solid food and the mother is doing nothing to stop it from nursing.

My 4 month old kitten is still nursing from time to time as well. She was eating her kitten food perfectly fine, then decided she wanted mama again. Problem here is, mama belongs to my son, and he just found out she has worms so we've been advised to try to intervine on the nursing whenever possisbe as the kitten now has worms as well.

You will need to have them both dewormed, if the kitten was not properly dewormed when very young it is highly possible that the worms were present before she went back to nursing on mom.

Thank you for your response. The kitten went to vet on Saturday and was given dewormed and mom went today. The vet said that the kitten probably got worms from mom, and he suggested keeping kitten from nursing as well. Any ideas on that?

Hmm, other than a watchful eye and keeping them separate when you can't watch them, perhaps mom could wear a infant or preemie t-shirt until baby gets used to the idea of not nursing.

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Originally Posted by LadySam

Hmm, other than a watchful eye and keeping them separate when you can't watch them, perhaps mom could wear a infant or preemie t-shirt until baby gets used to the idea of not nursing.

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Great idea!! I'll give that a try. Thank you