I'll try and explain what I mean in the title. My belief is that many cat owners apply too much downforce with their hands and fingers when petting/stroking their cat. I'd like to see more try a different method in which a feather-light touch is applied. The petting is very delicately applied. Much more delicately than one imagines. And it should be carried out very slowly too.
Slow and delicate is an alternative style of petting which particularly applies to men I would suggest. I think an experiment using this technique is worth trying to see your cat's reaction.
I sense that many cat caregivers have never really given much thought to the amount of downforce that their petting should deliver. We pet our cats in an instinctive way which suits us. It is as we are doing it to a fury little human and therefore the downforce is correct for humans.
But is it correct for domestic cats? I sense not. I think cats can sometimes find their human caregiver a little too heavy-handed. And if that is correct it slightly undermines the relationship.
The feather-light handling should be accompanied by a quiet melodious and friendly voice too. The sound should project friendliness and gentleness.
I am simply questioning the status quo. Is the default pressure applied when petting your cat companion entirely pleasant from your cat's perspective?
The primary objective of petting is to please the cat. Is that forgotten sometimes? Do some people only think about pleasing themselves?
And I think that if you sing to your cat while you pet them in a way that they particularly like they will associate your singing voice with something very pleasurable.
The advantage of that is that if you sing without petting him it should please him. It's a form of training. Of conditioning.
I think this tip would be very useful for somebody who likes to sing around the house. I don't particularly do that. I only sing when I pet my cat (sometimes). However, I do know a lot of people like to sing occasionally because they've got nice voices.
You can link that nice voice to something nice for your cat by petting them at the same time. Just a thought.
The concept is based upon reward training i.e. positive reinforcement. If you want to train a cat to do something new, get them incrementally to do certain things and at each stage you reward them with a food treat. They link the food treat with doing a certain action which you want them to do. This encourages them to do the thing that you want them to do. That's training through reward.
It is the link between doing something and the reward which makes it work. It is the link between singing and petting which makes singing an enjoyable experience for a cat. That's my theory.
Having written this, I have just noticed that quite a a lot of people sing to their cats. Or, they sing to the four walls of their home and their cat likes it. So clearly, cats are making a link between the human caregiver that they have learnt to love and singing by that person.
It's an association. I'm pleased because I didn't know this when I dreamt up the idea for the article. It seems that I am not alone.
For example, one person says that when she sings her cat comes up to her for a cuddle. That's the point I'm making.
There is a group of people who believe that petting your cat with a wet toothbrush is a good idea because it replicates the kind of sensation in an adult cat that they experienced when they were newborn kittens being licked around the head by their mother.
Petting a cat with a wet toothbrush. Image: Reddit.com
I'm sure this is true. It is probable that the toothbrush more accurately replicates the sensation of being licked by a mother than petting with the fingers on the forehead. But I don't think it is significantly better.
Personally, I don't see a great advantage in petting with a toothbrush. I think a cat companion will enjoy a very similar sensation if you pet their forehead with two or three fingers. This is what I do also
I actually use three fingers on the part of the head you see in the photograph because it avoids touching the ears when you pet at that position. I don't want to disturb his ears. I also do the same thing with a flea comb.
I believe that cats don't particularly like it if you use the entire hand to pet their forehead and squash their ear flaps down. I don't think it's a big issue but it is not quite as good as doing it with three fingers.
Sometimes if you pet a cat's forehead with the entire hand, they shake their head afterwards as if to adjust their ear flaps and return them to their natural, neutral position.
The conclusion for me, is that you should pet their forehead with two or three fingers and then the entire hand can be used to stroke the back of their neck which by the way my cat loves and then down the body.
The sides of the face i.e. the cheeks can be petted with a couple of fingers as well. I usually use the back of my fingers to do this as it is more convenient and actually it is gentler because the positioning of the fingers means that the muscles of the fingers act as a kind of spring system and allows the fingers to follow the contours of the cheeks more reliably.
Flea comb as an alternative tool to pet your cat. It does two things at the same time. Image: MikeB
As mentioned, I also pet my cat's head and cheeks with a flea comb. This provides a very similar sensation for the cat as a toothbrush and has the added advantage of checking for fleas.
Sometimes domestic cats can be picky about what they eat. Perhaps they are fed too much or they are just picky like some people. I know of two ways and there might be more of encouraging a domestic cat to eat.
The first is to gently stroke your cat on their back when the food bowl is presented to them. If they didn't eat before, in my experience they will begin to eat if you do that. Why does this happen? It probably has something to do with newborns being licked by their mother and nursing. It is a throwback to those early weeks.
Stroking a cat can encourage eating. Image: Pixabay.
The second method is well known which is to gently heat the food in a microwave. It should be a matter of seconds only, perhaps about four seconds. Heated food will smell more strongly and as domestic cats rely on smell to identify food and its palatability, this should help.
My cat likes prawns which I keep in the fridge. If I want to make them particularly attractive to him, I break them open which helps the smell to come out more and I warm them with a 3-4 second microwave session at 100%.
His behaviour indicates to me that this makes him more interested in the food. A counter argument to the above is that if your cat rejects the food that you give him, he is not hungry enough. On that basis you should do nothing and not try and encourage him to eat it. If a cat is genuinely hungry, they will eat what is placed before them.
I sense that there is a pattern of behaviour in some homes in which the cat, out of routine and to a certain extent boredom, meows for food but is not hungry. This is similar behaviour to people who eat out of habit at certain times of the day even if they aren't hungry.
Or when they settle down to watch some television, they like to eat at the same time. It's a double pleasure which is better than a single pleasure.
Domestic cats should only eat when they are hungry and the same goes for people! The feline obesity epidemic is partly due to eating were not hungry and for pleasure just as humans do.
Please read Sandi's comment below about adding warm water or broth to cat food to make it more palatable in lieu of warming it up in a microwave.
The video covers a number of domestic cat body language signals. I will let you explore them (Galaxy is good) but one of them is always important. It is when a domestic cat goes 'belly-up' and presents their belly to their human caregiver. How do you interpret it? And I think the answer actually is not a black-and-white one. And it is also difficult to generalise. Different cats respond in different ways.
But you'll find that Jackson Galaxy makes one essential point. He says that when a dog presents their belly to the human caregiver it is a request to be petted in that vulnerable area. This is not the case with domestic cats, however. It is not an invitation to pet their belly but more a signal that they trust you and even love you if you believe that there can be love from a cat to a person.
It is a signal that a cat is relaxed in the company of their human caregiver and in the home. And to take that as an invitation and pet the belly may result in the cat doing what Jackson Galaxy calls the "wraparound". This is when your cat grabs your hand and arm by the hindlegs and forelegs and then bites the hand, all at the same time. And it can be quite difficult to extricate your arm from that sort of clamp! This is due to overstimulation. It can happen when petting too much in any situation.
However, if you pet very gently when your cat does this it may work out okay or even well. It depends on the cat's character, which is why I have to say that, sometimes, domestic cats do invite their human caregiver to rub their belly albeit gently. My cat does this. It seems to be instinctive to them. Perhaps it is a natural extension of the signal that the cat feels reassured.
Provided you do it very gently and with great respect, I believe a cat can take pleasure from having their belly rubbed. Once again this points to different circumstances and different reactions from different individual cats.
Jackson Galaxy talks cat behavior. Screenshot. In this still image Jackson is talking about cats' pent-up energy like a balloon expanding.
Some people think that when a cat presents their belly to a person or another animal it is an act of submission. I think that you will find this argument no longer holds water. However, you will see cats who are friendly to each other and playing when one rolls over onto their back to invite more play.
However, it cannot be denied that the one sure signal that a domestic cat sends to their caregiver when they lie on their back with their belly up is that they feel confident enough to do it i.e. present a vulnerable part of their body to others. They need to feel reassured in their own home to do it. They need to be sure that the people they are living with won't harm them. This all comes about because of a great relationship between person and cat and a calm, agreeable home.
And it is not too uncommon that domestic cats roll onto their back when they are very warm i.e. on their human caregiver's lap. Or on the bed next to them. This combination of warmth plus being in contact with the owner creates a feeling of great reassurance which sometimes results in the cat having enough confidence to present their belly.
I have taken the title from The Mercury News. The reason why I am writing this note is because a reader of that online newspaper asked a question of their resident expert, Joan. They said that their nine-year-old beloved indoor cat had suddenly taken to clawing at her after she petted him for more than a minute. She found it very odd because he is usually very docile. She wanted to know the cause. I'd like to throw my hat into the ring.
Cat being petted. Image: Getty.
Joan suggested two possible causes: that the cat was feeling pain for some reason and petting him exacerbated the pain causing the inadvertently provoked aggression in response. And secondly she thought that he might be feeling stressed because of a change to his lifestyle as a result of the pandemic.
It's a good question which implies that for many years this woman has been petting her cat in a completely acceptable way. Therefore nothing has changed in the way that she is petting her cat. Therefore the change must come within the cat i.e. there is pain or the environment has changed.
The most likely cause would be that this middle-aged cat has developed sensitivity to petting. This could be quite easily investigated. It may be a certain area of his body which is tender. The owner could do what veterinarians do namely palpate her cat which means to feel her cat and apply a bit of gentle pressure. She can then observe her cat's response. An aggressive response after palpitating a certain area would clearly indicate pain in that area. She could then telephone her vet is there was no external injury.
Cats perceive these circumstances as the person being aggressive towards them. They don't rationalise the fact that they are injured and the person is trying to find the injury. They just feel pain and the pain is being caused by a person so they think that person is deliberately causing them pain. And this would apply even if they have lived with that person for many years in a very good relationship. It's instinctive.
If that doesn't produce any results then you need to look to the environment. I don't believe the coronavirus is the problem (but see below). There may be something else in the environment which is upsetting him. For example, there may be a cat outside which he has noticed which is irritating him because that cat is invading his territory. He wants to attack the cat but can't because he's an indoor cat. Therefore he redirects his aggression at his owner. Petting can irritate under these circumstances and therefore he claws the owner. This, I believe, is the most likely kind of environmental issue causing this abnormal response to petting.
There might be someone else in the home which is upsetting them. Or the owner might be away a lot more than before. On reflection Covid might be a factor on this basis because if the owner was home all the time and then it suddenly away from home the cat might be upset. However the aggressive reaction under these circumstances is unlikely.
The first thing to do is to check health as Joan said (the most likely cause) and then to go through the environmental tick box possibilities until you hit the right answer. The problem might subside naturally with patience.
Let your cat guide you as to when and how you can pet her. This is all about that phrase that I constantly use "respect the cat". Part of the process of respecting the cat is to understand when she would like to be petted and how she would like it done. Each cat is an individual and their owner should be in tune with their cat's rhythms, routines, likes and dislikes. This is learned through intelligent observation. There are some basic rules in any case about petting a cat which I'm sure you know about.
Let your cat guide you as to when and how you can pet her. Pic: Pixabay.
It is quite easy to let your cat train you on what they like in terms of petting. The owner should use common sense and then fine tune the petting of their cat through observing the response to arrive at the style or method which suits the cat. Although, of course, most domestic cats are very similar in this respect. But some might be more sensitive than others. You can detect irritation in a cat's body language if there is too much petting.
The question as to when you to pet your cat will normally become clear to an owner because there are moments within the daily rhythms and routines of a cat which obviously become a time when petting should be carried out. So, for example, if I'm watching television in winter and I'm wearing a thick dressing gown my cat likes to jump onto my lap to keep warm. That's a natural moment for me to pet my cat. Indeed, my cat will request it, not overtly or through a meow but in a subtle but obvious way to an owner who is fully in tune with their cat's behaviour and character.
The bottom line is that the cat calls the tunes in the best interactions between cat and person. The interaction will last longer if the cat initiates it. A person should not foist their desire to pet their cat on their cat. Before you start you should know that your cat will like it because they liked it under similar circumstances before. You can't presume, though, that domestic cats always like to be petted because they don't. It's up to the owner to know when they are receptive to it and how it can be done.
I referred to being 'trained' by your cat in the title. This is effectively what it is. Cats train their human owners in a very subtle way because the person concerned wants to please their cat so they do what their cat wants. The cat gets what they want which is, in effect, 'training' the human. So, for example, my cat has learned that when I come back from the shops in the morning to buy a newspaper, I sometimes bring back food and within that food there might be some prawns for my cat as a treat.
He expects this treat when I return from the shops and I am aware of this. My cat goes to the fridge after I have returned expecting me to dish out three or four of large prawns. I know what he wants and he vocally asks for it. I want to deliver to him what he wants; he has trained me.
This barn cat is drooling while purring. He likes the attention so much that he asks for more by tapping the man on his face, which is completely understandable. Cats do drool sometimes when purring as they are contented but purring does not uniquely signal contentment. It is a more complex signal or symptom.
Drooling often means mouth health problems, particularly stomatitis, an inflammation of the mouth. You'll see it in neglected domestic cats or feral cats. Drooling when content has its origin in the nursing kitten who is ready to receive milk from his/her mother's breast. Drooling is preparation for the moment. I guess it is the production of saliva to digest the expected meal. And sometimes cats drool when kneading their owner as it replicates the kitten-mother relationship when feeding. It is an example of adult cats being kept in a permanent state of kittenhood in human-to-cat relationship.
Barn cat taps man on face for more petting please. Screenshot from video on this page.
Poor oral health is one of the most common cat health problems per insurance claims. It is a particularly common problem as cat owners tend to ignore it. They can't see into their cat's mouth to check except fleetingly when their cat yawns. And wet food can exacerbate, it is believed, tartar on the gum line. Dry cat food does not really help clean teeth although I feed my cat Hills Oral Care which I believe does help somewhat and he likes it (too much actually). It is a large pellet so cats have to chew on them more. I believe that normal sized kibble pellets are too small as some cats swallow them whole. Dry cat food is addictive because it is sprayed with animal digest which is designed to taste great to a cat. The food itself is tasteless.
Try and check your cat's mouth for oral health. It is very important. Gingivitis precedes stomatitis. One sign is bad breath. This may help diagnose stomatitis.
No, you cannot get toxoplasmosis from petting your cat. You might get it from handling faeces from your cat in which there are toxoplasma gondii oocysts. It is rare though. A child might get them on her hands if she plays in a sandpit where a cat has pooped. The child then may put her hands into her mouth, as children do, and ingest the oocysts which would cause an infection in the child. But, I stress, you cannot get toxoplasmosis from petting your cat.
T. gondii oocyst. Image: MikeB.
It is interesting to note, by the way, that contact with your cat generally has no influence on the probability of people having antibodies to the parasite. In other words, contact with your cat does not expose you to toxoplasmosis resulting in antibodies being produced inside you as a defence against this disease. Kissing your cat might be more problematic. Read about it by clicking here.
That is why only 20% of people in the United Kingdom have antibodies to toxo. In contrast to that percentage, 80% of French and Germans do have antibodies to toxo because they eat more raw or undercooked meat.
That tells the clear tale that by far the majority of infections in humans of toxoplasmosis comes from eating raw meat. Let's do justice to the domestic cat and not frighten ourselves unnecessarily. If you want to protect yourself against toxoplasmosis then prepare your raw meats properly and don't eat like the French and Germans do!
I should also stress, by the way, that being infected with toxo from cat faeces can only happen during a two-week window in which the parasite is viable after the cat's first consumption of contaminated wildlife. It's a short period of time which further highlights the point that people can live with domestic cats safely and they should not be fearful of contracting toxoplasmosis from the cat. This also applies to pregnant women who simply have to take some precautions.
On that subject, if you are pregnant, you can reduce the risk in several ways:
by wearing gloves when handling raw meat and by washing your hands afterwards;
only eat thoroughly cooked meat or meat which has been smoked, cured or frozen for at least three days;
by washing vegetables and fruit thoroughly before eating them;
