Why Do Cats Groom? Pancake, Tiller & the Newest Theories

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Hello, I’m Dr. Lauren! Learn my introduction to study extra about me and my two adventurous cats, Pancake and Tiller.

I caught Pancake in the course of a dramatic grooming session final evening. It concerned a lot of splayed legs, and a decided effort to succeed in one thing close to her perineum, that truly entailed what I’m fairly positive was an inverted break up. Earlier within the week, I’d watched a equally decided grooming session play out- this time with Tiller making a valiant effort to groom Pancake into sporting a Mohawk. Fortunately, “The Pancake” who’s a bit Al Pacino Godfather-esque concerning the mattress and sharing it with different cats, tolerated the session properly and no blows ensued.

If consuming and sleeping are two of the most typical actions I see each cats engaged in, then grooming might be a detailed third. A number of occasions every day, after consuming, and undoubtedly earlier than sleeping, generally at 3:00 am between their varied sleep modes, they groom. However simply why do cats love grooming a lot?

Why Cats Groom: Hypothesis and Theories

Cats have at all times been thought-about pretty clear animals, because of their inherent grooming tendencies. Listed below are some theories as to why cats groom:

1. The concept that groomers are positioned socially larger than groomees. And moreover, that grooming is a approach in social settings to permit cats to behave out on aggression points, with out the necessity for overt violence. This principle comes from a barely older paper, however attention-grabbing nonetheless…
2. A more recent paper on an analogous subject discovered that familiarity and genetic relations improved grooming actions from one cat to a different. Once more suggesting a social or bonding operate.
3. Perform. To take away exterior parasites, equivalent to fleas. In one examine, grooming exercise helped to considerably lower the numbers of fleas, in comparison with management cats who wore e-collars and couldn’t groom for the examine interval. Different theories have proposed the elimination of odors, equivalent to after consuming, to scale back the danger of being predated.
4. It’s price noting that grooming can (unintentionally?) unfold anal gland secretions on the haircoat. The anal glands comprise extraordinarily excessive portions of Fel d 1, one of many primary feline allergens that contribute to human cat allergic reactions.
5. Don’t neglect that grooming may point out abnormalities, as properly. Flea allergy dermatitis, as an example, may end up in massive portions of grooming. So can Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome. And urinary tract infections or urinary crystals can result in localized, extreme grooming of the perineum.

So, subsequent time you catch your cat in a grooming session, contemplate for a second if there could also be extra occurring than meets the attention. It might be a easy lick, relieving an itch, eradicating an exterior parasite, or adhering to social construction. However for sure, cats, as at all times, are by no means fairly so simple as they could first seem!