Does your cat licks you often and it’s making you why does it lick you? There are many reasons why your cat might lick you. In the section Why does my cat lick me, you will find the most probable reasons and you need to identify which one of them is the relatable one.
8% of cats’ lifetime is spent on grooming, whereas 50% is spent on taking naps. Therefore, it’s normal for cats to take naps a lot or lick things in general. Both characterize normal behavior. However, you must be curious about why does my cat lick me instead of another cat or themselves.
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Why Does My Cat Lick Me
There’s no scientific reason for why cats might lick you, whereas, the veterinarian believes that it could be due to various reasons after studying cats’ behavior closely. Some of the reasons can be:
Experiencing Affection
If your cat licks you occasionally, it might be expressing affection or might be depicting altruistic behavior, friendliness, and affirmative behavior. Cats show a behavior characteristic known as allogrooming, which means that mothers can groom their kittens or other cats. Grooming is a form of growth in cats and it strengthens their relationship.
Therefore, if your cat licks you, it can strengthen your bond with it.
Seeking Attention
Cats also lick their owners to get their attention as licking gets the attention quickly. For instance, when your cats lick you, you give it rewards through talking to, petting, cuddling or in some other way interacting with the cat. Hence, she learns it as a way of getting quick attention.
Identifying You as a Part of their Community
Cats mark other animals, objects, and humans by creating a familiar group. You might be included in their communication group, therefore, they might link you. Usually, mother cats lick their kittens after marking them with a special scent.
Displaying Kitten Related Behavior
Kittens suckle and knead while nursing to seek comfort. Hence, your cat may suck you to seek comfort reminiscent of nursing in weaning. You need to review whether your cat was weaned too early, if yes, it might be the reason why the cat licks you. In such cases, you must knead and purr them if they lick you.
Cat Likes Your Taste
Cats lick injects to investigate skin and hair of interesting scents. If you use a certain moisturizer, shampoo, serum, lotion, cream, cologne, perfume, mist, or other tropical products that have a scent, the cat might lick you due to the scent coming from you.
The perfumes and mists contain chemicals that are harmful to cats, as they lick them and the chemical goes into their metabolic system. Elongated licking of chemicals can be disastrous to them, they may contain toxins for animals. Hence, use the products carefully if your cat licks you.
Human sweat also attracts cats as well. Sweat contains salts, sugars, and other substances which can be harmful to your pet.
Relieving Stress and Anxious Behavior
Why does my cat lick me is a common question and one cause of the licking might be that your pet is anxious or stressed over something. Through licking, the cars can relieve stress due to some indicators. They might be feeling some discomfort, or medical condition (nausea and pain). If there is something that triggers licking, you can ask your vet about it.
It Feels Good
Cats feel good and endorphin hormones are released after they lick an object. They feel naturally high after licking themselves or others and want to repeat the act again and again.
Why Does My Cat Lick Me Rather Than Biting Me?
Are you curious why your cat licks you instead of biting, it’s due to their behavioral displays. There can be two major reasons, they either want you to become attentive to them or show they don’t want to harm you. Cats bite when they don’t want to be petted or are in the mood to play with their owner.
Cats might be sensitive in some areas and maybe don’t want you to touch them. You can just stroke at them and then move to other parts and observe how they react closely. After playing with your cat, let them go, so they won’t bite you.
How to Make My Cat Stop Licking Me?
Do you not like it when your pets lick you or touch you with their tongues? For cats, their tongues are spongy and seem rough, hence, you might not like them. If you want to stop them from licking you, you need to observe the indicators that make her show this behavior.
If there are no medical concerns (destructive scratching), you just need to consult your vet about it first. You can also use punishment or distraction to keep your cat from licking you:
- An interactive you of a favorite toy
- Cozy scratching post
Don’t punish your pet just to remove its habits, as it might damage your bond with the cat.
Is Cat Licking Dangerous or Safe?
Cat licking is safe as long it doesn’t touch open wounds or suck toxins, as both can lead to sections that can be a nuisance.
Why does my cat lick me isn’t a hard science by a cat behavioral thing, you need not worry about it. Meanwhile, you can spend your time observing why your cats lick you.
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