More than just grooming: Four reasons why cats groom each other
Created: 01/11/2023, 20:00
By: Anne Hund
The fact that the fur noses care for each other is not just a sign of affection.
Hierarchy can also play a role.
Cats are particularly clean animals that spend a lot of time grooming their fur.
In the first few weeks of life, the mother cat does the cleaning by licking her babies.
However, the animals in multi-cat households also frequently groom each other.
According to experts, this is exactly a part of social behavior.
What exactly is behind it?
Cats like to groom each other - it's part of social behavior.
(symbol image) © imagebroker/imago
More than just grooming: Four reasons why cats groom each other
The fact that cats brush each other is seen by connoisseurs as a sign that the animals trust each other, i.e. have known each other for a long time or are related to each other.
The gesture can contribute to the well-being of the other animal and is often interpreted as a token of love among other animals.
Animals that are strangers to each other, on the other hand, will hardly exhibit this behavior.
Mutual grooming, just like mutual rubbing, can also demonstrate the cohesion within a group.
Incidentally, experts have observed that cats clean each other's head and neck area in particular.
Meanwhile, those who do not belong to the group will not be able to enjoy it.
This allows cats to differentiate themselves from other animals.
Sometimes cleaning can also turn into intensive play, they say - which is more common in younger cats in particular.
Here, too, however, cleaning is interpreted as a more benevolent gesture, unlike in a fight.
Find out more reasons why cats need their own kind and why a second cat at home makes sense in many cases.
But the hierarchy among the animals can also play a role in communal grooming.
Observers report, for example, that older animals lick their younger conspecifics more often, which in turn is not the case so often.
An obviously instinctive behavior that the animals learned as kittens and later pass on to weaker fellow combatants.
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By the way, cats are still among the most popular pets.
But such an animal means a lot of responsibility.
Find out here how separation anxiety manifests itself in cats and what you need to consider as the owner.