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I adopted a 11 week male from the shelter. I've never had a cat this young and some behaviour I'm not sure if it's normal for clumsy cats or there's something wrong.

  • Every night he is suckling on my hand, I try to transfer him to a blanket or soft toy, but he always comes back to my hand.
  • When jumping up a cat tree, couch, bed, table he missed A LOT and then falls, but he always gets up and tries again, but sometimes he falls 4 times in a row. He's never limped or cried in pain, he just carries on, but is it normal for kittens to not know how to climb or hold on?
  • He's very clumsy, he isn't specially aware and just plumps himself down anywhere even if it's the edge of leg, bed, couch and then proceeds to fall again.
  • He doesn't wiggle his butt when attacking.

Is this all normal, or should I be worried?

lila
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Kitty.kat
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2 Answers2

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Typos fixed. Sigh.

Suckling is comforting for young cats, and fairly common -- like a kid sucking his thumb. And I've known some cats to continue as adults; one of my friends had a cat that would gnaw gently on fingertips while being petted if people trusted him enough to let him do so.

Clumsiness: being a kitten, or a youngster of any kind, means you are still learning what your body can and can't do, and those capabilities are still rapidly changing so you want to retest periodically. That's going to involve some errors in judgement. And different individuals have different learning curves. If the attempts aren't harming the kit, and the vet doesn't see a problem, I'd say reserve judgement and trust that the fuzzy one will figure it out.

Not wiggling the butt to dig in hind claws before a pounce: Not all cats do, or do so every time.

My conclusion is that you simply have a kitten, with its own individual personality and quirks and strengths and weaknesses. If you see a serious problem, vet might be appropriate; until then relax and enjoy watching this youngster learn about the world by trial and error, just as we all do.

keshlam
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I don't think the clumsiness normal go to a vet. And the suckling he might want milk ask the shelter where you got him when he was weaned.

kittenlover
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