Kneading ~ Will it ever stop?

[kitty momsy]

         My baby Izzy ~ She was only about a week old when my husband found her at the back of a delivery truck. So tiny and frail!  My heart went out to her the moment I saw her.   This is how she looked like then. Isn't she adorable?

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• kitty momsy
• Mar 11, 2013

            She's been sleeping with us ever since she was a baby.  Oh, my earlobe was her pacifier then.  She did this for about a month.  Anyone of your kitties did that? LOL!

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• kitty momsy
• Mar 11, 2013

            To make a long story short this is Izzy now 2 years old.  NOT tiny anymore 

.  and still kneading my right rib side.  Hence, my questions here. Will she ever stop? If yes, how do I make her stop? Is it too late?

 

[ibiscribe]

Well... cats never really stop kneading--it's an instinctive thing they do, usually when they're feeling comfortable and happy. Cats of all ages will do it, and I've never heard of a cat that didn't knead at least occasionally. There's nothing wrong with her at all, and it isn't something that needs to be stopped (or that you should want to stop)--just be happy to know that it means she's happy. I guess you can try to prevent her from sleeping with you, if the kneading bothers you (I'm well aware that some cats use a lot of claw when they knead!) but it isn't a sign of any kind of mental or physical problems on her part. She's just doing what kitties do.

 

[katachtig]

Some cats like to knead.  They find it comforting.  I have an 11 year old who loves to suckle and knead fleece.  It noticeably calms her down.  My 12 year old has kneaded since we got her at 3 years old.  I have to make sure her nails are trimmed because she likes to knead around our neck and collarbones. 

Then I adopted a couple of kittens when they were 4 months old.  They are now 2 1/2 years old.  They were not kneaders until the last three or four  months; suddenly they really want to knead.  My only guess is that they watched the older cats and decided to try it out.  One of them looks like she is going after a punching bag when she kneads my stomach.

So your little one probably will do it for the rest of her life.  You may try to redirect her to a blanket.  Also, you can move her each time she does it on your ribs and after awhile, she will learn not to do it.  You have to be consistent and do it every time she starts.  Otherwise she ends up confused and will take longer to stop.

 

[catspaw66]

Both of my RB cats Psy and Bear kneaded me until the end.  They were both 17 when they crossed the bridge.

 

[di and bob]

My 5 year old kneads us a lot, my 12 year old not so often. I don't see any changes in them over the years, but I imagine if you don't want your cat to do it you'll have to be like 'mommy' and pull away, not letting the cat do it every time she starts. I agree she would be confused if you let her do it sometimes.My Casper nursed until he was 6 months old, his mommy never did stop him until she dried up. He would just move the newborns over and join in! 

 

[vball91]

My cat is a kneader too, and she would do it a lot on my lap at first (ouch!). What worked for me was putting a fleece blanket under her every time. Now, she only does it when there's fleece under her. And given that I'm cold a lot, it works for us! Her bed also has fleece, so she can knead at any time,

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Both of my girls are kneaders too.  She prefers to knead my stomach.  I had to stop her from doing that when I was pregnant with my kids but as soon as she could she started up again.  Noodles prefers blankets. They are 8 years old.  All of my mother's cats knead.  One kneads Mom under her arm and on her rib cage.  He was actually hurting her after a while so she had to make him stop sleeping in her arms like that.  He had also come to them as a tiny preemie (according to the shelter).  One of her cats also kneads and suckles the bed blankets.  

 

[bcpnpt]

Our guy kneads when he is very content, happy, just loving life.  He will often join us in bed at night; sometimes he gets on top of our blankets then lies down on our backs or hips, or sitting where ever seems comfy - and kneads.  I have an extra small fleece blanket on the bed, purposely for our cat.  Double up the little blanket then drape it over your hip and the kneading is not half as painful to the human.  Another thing you might want to try is to put a shirt of yours or your husbands on the bed.  We once had a cat that would love to get into/on my husbands shirt.  He would search out my husbands clothing and snuggle up into it and knead like crazy, then fall asleep in the shirt.  Have the outside of the shirt facing up, so your cat is sleeping on the outside of the shirt, not the inside.   A single cat hair on the inside of a shirt will drive a human crazy.  Best yet, find an old worn shirt that your cat can now call her own.

 

[katluver4life]

Some do grow out of it, some don't. Both my male and female kneaded as kittens and my male also suckled. The male has since stopped doing both, but my female has the ritual of having to knead on me at bedtime. I click off my lamp to go to sleep and she jumps on my bed waiting for me to "get into position" I have to wear tee's with decent sleeve lengths or else her little needle claws would really hurt. But I love the ritual, and she only does it till she's ready to flip around and curl up in my arm. I would miss this ritual dearly if she stopped.

But some do grow out of it, like my male did.
 

 

[catspaw66]

All of my current ladies are kneaders.  I have to keep nails trimmed or get inaccupuncture.  Sometimes I have 3 doing it on me at the same time.

 

[glenman12]

My older cat never does it..my younger one does it but only during the night mostly around 5:00AM...I sleep on my side and he'll come up on the bed and walk on me kneading, luckily Im covered with a comforter..

 

[callista]

Inaccupuncture? Hehe! So true!

Yeah, trim those nails or you'll have them pricking your skin when kitty starts the knead-and-purr routine.

If she is waking you up, you may have to push her away when you are trying to sleep. They get the point after a while that when the human is buried under the blankets, she does not want to play!

 

[redvelvetone]

My cat has only started kneading recently and I take it as a good sign. I got him when he was five months and he was a former feral so it took him a good while to get completely comfortable. He's been with us for about a year and 4 months now and it's only been the past few months that he's started doing what I thought were normal cat things, like kneading. First time I noticed him doing it was when he'd come to wake me up in the morning, he'd knead on the pillow next to my head or my hair on the pillow. Now he likes to knead this one wooly blanket that I keep on the bed for him and he'll come to that blanket most nights now and knead on it before sleeping with me for a little bit (he didn't use to sleep with me either, or not super often, but lately he has, at least for some of the night. Then a couple of mornings ago he actually started kneading on me while trying to wake me up in the morning. That was the first time he did that. And yes it hurt, but I was actually glad that he is starting to relax more around us and do happy cat things.

So I say be glad when your cat kneads and just trim his claws if you can or cover yourself iwth a blanket first! lol