the sound of baby animals suckling

To me, the mother wolf's position, on her back with her legs in the air, suggests that she's stiff and dead, as it's an uncomfortable position for most canines. Most nursing dogs seem to lie on their sides, for comfort and the pup's convenience (when they are small, they don't climb well, so would have trouble staying on top of their mother's belly.)

As to the sounds, the best I can think of is 'sucking sounds and little grunts'. I would use 'mewing' for a higher pitched grunt, but mewing is more associated with cats.

How about -

The wolf mother lay quietly on her side with her legs stretched out. Her four babies were feeding noisily, sucking noises interspersed with eager grunts.

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?

I think 'suckling' is alright to use, just a little old fashioned, I changed it to 'feeding' (or could have used 'nursing') because I wanted to use 'sucking' as a noise - because there just aren't that many words for that sound.

I think you'd first better study how the feeding of specific baby animals you want to portray actually happens. Some species will suckle, others won't.

If you see and hear how they feed, you will have a better time knowing how to describe it. Having someone describe it to you instead, will make your writing lose accuracy and authenticity.

Looking at videos will also help you avoid making mistakes about other necessary details of the scene, such as the position of the mother while feeding.

No, don't use breastfeed for animals.

If you are in a limited perspective, then one trick is to make the descriptors more about the viewpoint character's reaction rather than the objective sounds. (Similar suggestions were made on your 'windows' question.)

The wolf pups suckled, a (adjective) sound.

Where 'adjective' can be anything from 'greedy' to 'comforting' to 'repulsive' to 'painful' to a dozen other choices depending on how the viewpoint character feels about it. A woman who has just miscarried might hear the sound one way, whereas a woman who is starving might hear the same noise a different way.

In this case you would be describing a reaction to something, and assuming the reader has a pre-existing idea of the sound, which to me seems like a reasonable assumption.

alpacinoutd said:

Hello.

What words can I use to describe baby animals suckling? Is suckling common? Can it be used in stories?

The wolf mother lay motionless on her back with her feet up in the air. Her four babies were suckling...

I need words to complete this and describe the sound that the suckling creates.

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Um, yes, suckling is common. All mammals suckle their young. It is what characterizes the mammalian order (the word "mammal" comes from "mammary.") I can't imagine why a mother suckling her young couldn't be used in stories.

Having spent a lot of time watching videos of puppies suckling recently (while waiting for a particular litter to grow up enough for my pup to come home with me), I'd say the sound consists of gentle smacks and adorable little grunts and squeaks (almost like little squeaky toys). I suspect there are tons of videos of domestic dogs suckling their pups on the web, and wolves would certainly make the same kinds of sounds. Heck, there may even be webcam set ups from zoos or wolf preserves showing mama wolves and their cubs.

frimble3 said:

To me, the mother wolf's position, on her back with her legs in the air, suggests that she's stiff and dead, as it's an uncomfortable position for most canines. Most nursing dogs seem to lie on their sides, for comfort and the pup's convenience (when they are small, they don't climb well, so would have trouble staying on top of their mother's belly.)

?

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The side thing seems to be more common, but some mama dogs will lie at least partially on their backs sometimes, in order to give more access to a larger, slightly older litter, maybe. Wolves don't seem to run to the huge litter sizes domestic dogs do, though, so maybe it's rarer with them. As pups get older, mother dogs (and wolves) sometimes suckle their young standing too (possibly so they can walk away quickly when the teeth start to hurt).

As a mother who has nursed a few babies in her day, the first thought that occurred was--- that's a really awkward, uncomfortable position to be nursing from, for both the mama and the baby. You want both to be in as natural/comfortable a position as possible, so that the nursing experience can last as long as it needs to, rather than stopping because one of them can't hold the pose any longer, or the baby can't get a good latch because they keep falling off.

Don't dogs/cats/pigs have a more reclining stance for nursing their young? As time goes on and the litter grows, they can develop into more of a horse or cow position from which to nurse--- they kindly stand still, and the babies find a teat, and the mother eventually moves away when she feels like time's up.

But I would expect a good number of your readers to have seen a nursing dog or cat in real life, or in pictures, or on YouTube... and the idea of something as strong and powerful as a wolf laying on her back with her feet in the air while her babies have a snack is going to be a little clumsy and incongruous.

Wordwise, rather than "were suckling", I'd go with something more like "suckled greedily." I haven't been around nursing dogs/wolves, but human babies will usually have a degree of enthusiasm and/or desperation in their approach to nursing which is very gratifying to the mama, and encourages them to stay still longer than they might otherwise be inclined to.

I grew up on farms, ranging from 7 to 160 acres in size. I've watched kittens, piglets, and calves nursing (though usually we bottle-fed the calves after the first couple of days -- safer for the calf, easier for us to be sure they were getting fed enough).

Calves, especially when bottle-fed, make a fair racket when nursing. Much sucking, much swallowing and slurping, much drooling.

But then, they're pretty large compared to kittens or puppies. Most of the kitten noises I recall were in the form of faint mewling, as they tussled and competed for nipples, not any actual noise from nursing. I'd expect puppies to sound similar?

As others have said, I don't think any nursing mother dog would lay on its back. Laying on her side puts her nipples easily in reach of her puppies. (Cows stand while their calves nurse, but once again it's about placing nipples and their milk where they're most easily reached.)

Watching the explorer live web cams, I have seen bears lie on their backs to nurse their cubs. The cubs are pretty big when they first come out of the den and the mother bear will still be nursing them after the next den cycle.

https://explore.org/livecams/currently-live/service-puppy-cam

From there you can switch to whichever animal you want. Also YouTube is full of examples to watch and listen to.

Well, this mama wolf has a pretty large litter. Squee.

Unfortunately, the sound of a lion or something in the background hides most of the sounds of the pups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjRKggHu1MQ

This video just cracks me up, but you have to wait for the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjRKggHu1MQ

Hyenas (which are not canines at all) lie on their backs sometimes when suckling their cubs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDvteUuIlqc

Roxxsmom said:

Hyenas (which are not canines at all) lie on their backs sometimes when suckling their cubs.

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Humans too. My God but babies are exhausting.