All owners, sooner or later, ask themselves: but why does the cat lick me? Whoever shares his life with a mustachioed friend learns day after day to interpret the signals – of pleasure and not – that his feline sends him.
Among these, the fact of licking one’s master, or one of one’s own kind, is one of the most obvious signs of cat communication.
The language of cats, their way of wanting to communicate with the environment, is not always easy to decipher. Contrary to dogs, which demonstrate their attachment to us very clearly, our moustachioed friends do it in their own way, through signals that it is up to us to know how to interpret. Among these the Micio licks us: but why?
What does it mean when the cat licks its owner?
A newborn kitten (and during the first period of life) is continuously licked by the mother cat: this gesture is then repeated towards someone else for affection. Let’s see in detail.
Cats lick their owners as they engage in social behavior. It is interesting to observe, however, that not all cats lick us in the same way or in the same places.
This is because, depending on the area of our body that the cat licks, the meaning of this behavior is different. Have you ever had a cat lick your hair? And the feet? Or again, has a cat ever licks you and then suddenly bites you? Let’s find out why together.
Why do cats lick their hair?
When the cat licks hair and ears, in his language, is taking care of us. In its feline logic, the specimen is giving its human grooming, recognizing it, in this way, as a family member and trying to eliminate any other odor other than that of its human body.
It is a sign of great affection, a transference of a behavior that is usually implemented with his fellows.
Why does my cat lick my armpits, hands or feet?
If instead of licking hair and ears, the cat prefers areas such as the palm of hands, the soles of the feet or the armpits the behavior is different.
In this case, we are not trying to show affection, but to understand our messages through the smell of our pheromones. When this happens we could find the cat with its mouth wide open pushing its tongue to understand the messages that our pheromones send. How come?
Il pheromones is a chemical secreted by endocrine glands that helps trigger sexual or dangerous behavior in mammals. Thanks to the smell, the cat is able to indicate its state of mind or to find that of the specimen that tickles its nostrils. By licking the areas indicated above, the cat tries to find out more about how we are and how we feel.
Why do cats lick each other?
Cats lick each other to clean each other. It is a denominated gesture allogroomingwhich is carried out to eliminate odors from your friend’s fur, but above all to consolidate social ties and reaffirm a hierarchy between the two specimens.
This same logic is put into action when our moustached friend licks our hair and ears.
The cat’s tongue
We have so far answered the question “why does the cat lick me?” and we discovered that in addition to affection, Micio licks us to get to know each other better. We conclude this article with a small focus on the organ used for licking: the tongue.
The cat’s tongue is one in a kind. This organ is made up of different groups of muscles that move in different directions. Structure with many thorny papillae, the tongue has a rough surface that allows the cat a perfect grooming, as if he were brushing himself by simply licking himself.
This organ, in addition to acting as a brush, is used to remove food remains from the muzzle, drink, taste food, detect its temperature and composition and ingest food.