Wool Suckling: a Cat’s Tale

Sully is a 6-year-old male Domestic Short Hair (DSH) cat, and he can’t resist suckling on his favorite blanket. Sound familiar? What he is doing is called wool suckling, or wool sucking. It is a fairly common behavior, especially for cats under a year of age.

Causes for Wool Suckling

There are several possibilities for what’s behind the wool suckling. A likely one is that the kitty was young when he or she was weaned or was weaned too quickly. For cats, wool suckling is a natural way to comfort themselves, but usually, this behavior ends before the kitty is a year old.

Sully was found when he was 7 to 10 days old. His mom bottle-fed him until he was around 6 weeks old and started offering him food (canned food mixed with milk replacer) as soon as he learned how to lap. This created a need for him to self comfort. He prefers really soft velvety blankets, probably because that is what his mom put in his box when he was little.

Another possibility could be stress or even anxiety related. If there are sudden changes in your home, it could trigger separation anxiety, all which could cause your kitty to need the comfort of suckling. Wool suckling is much like humans sucking their thumbs.

Some other reasons could be the lack of environmental stimulation or dietary fiber, nutritional deficiencies, or underlying medical conditions. Oriental breeds also have a greater tendency for wool suckling behavior than other breeds.

What Should You Do?

Experts say that in some cases, cats will just suck on the material without ingesting any of the fibers. However, ingestion of fabric or other materials could cause a dangerous abdominal blockage, which can require surgery to remove. If your cat fits in the first category, you may just wish to tolerate the suckling behavior and let your cat have that bit of comfort. But if you feel your pet's behavior is harmful or destructive, you should consider making adjustments. As a pet parent, you know your cat best and will have to decide what to do about the wool suckling, if anything.

Possible Solutions

If you do see that the wool suckling behavior is a problem then first have your cat examined by the veterinarian to rule out any potential underlying medical cause for the behavior. In addition, talk to your veterinarian about your cat’s diet in case there is a dietary deficiency.

Next, you can try a few things that have been known to help. You will probably want to begin with the basics and just to remove or hide the item or material that your kitty is sucking on. You can also divert your kitty’s attention with play, get a scratching post, or get a cat tree to climb. Also make sure your litter box and the area where your kitty eats are clean and he or she feels safe.

Sully’s mom hasn’t discouraged him from wool suckling because he doesn’t bite the material or break off fibers that could cause digestive issues, and it does give him great comfort. Sully’s house mate, Avery, doesn’t so much do wool suckling, but he does do a lot of kneading. Avery was also a bottle fed baby.