Why do cats rest their foreheads? What does your cat's sleeping position mean?

In terms of expressing emotions, individual dogs and cats can give a head start to many people and they are not at all embarrassed by their lack of knowledge of human language - a smart animal will always be able to convey its idea to its owners. Alas, in some situations, having your head stubbornly pressed to a wall or floor is not at all a sign of universal resentment.

We want to advise you to be more attentive to what is happening to your furry pets.

Turning your face away with displeasure, hiding your gaze, and pointedly ignoring someone calling you by your nickname is one thing. But the animal’s head pressed, precisely compulsively squeezed into the wall, for no apparent reason, is something completely different.

And in most cases, such behavior does not bode well, since it is dictated by a reflex reaction to bad events in the body. For example, a stroke or growing cancerous tumors.

An ordinary injury without visible external marks? Easily! Poisoning, be it food poisoning, heavy metals, or an unknown toxin? Yes, quite a similar picture. Salt imbalance that provoked cerebral edema?

Of course, if a cat or dog lay with its face against the wall for a while, and then got up and went about its business, it is premature to worry. It is important to monitor your pet’s behavior - if there are new attacks, it’s time to think about the worst and play it safe.

And you don’t have to act on the principle of “you got into trouble, you got what you deserved, and if you pretend to be offended, then you’ll get over it.” What if the animal feels bad and strives to enjoy life for the last time?

Love your pets!

But we don’t say goodbye to you here, come back again!

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“Oh, it seems our cat is broken,” this phrase is probably uttered by every owner of a furry predator sooner or later. Incredible tricks and stances that would be the envy of world champions in rhythmic gymnastics - this is about our pets. But, fortunately, most cat poses can still be classified and even develop into a kind of sign language!

So, what do the positions in which a cat sleeps say?

Tangle: I feel good and calm

This is the most common sleeping position for cats. It means that the pet feels calm and safe. The ball helps minimize heat loss, and cats usually sleep in this position very comfortably. However, if you have not previously noticed that your pet likes to sleep curled up in a ball, and now you see him in this position every now and then, then you should pay more attention to your pet and check his health.

Covering your nose with your paw: get ready for the cold

There is a sign: if a cat sleeps, covering its nose with its paw, it means frost will hit soon. And it really does come true!

The fact is that cats immediately feel when the temperature in the room begins to drop - even if this is completely invisible to humans yet, explains the director of the Murzik cat cafe, Maria Tuvashkina.

On my back, stretched out with my stomach up: I’m happy!

A pose that opens the belly indicates maximum comfort for the cat. This means that nothing bothers him, he feels like a full-fledged owner and completely trusts all the people who are nearby.

Like many other animals, in cats the stomach is the most unprotected part of the body, and they usually try to protect it even during sleep. But if a cat sleeps on its back, with its paws spread wide, it means that it is 100% sure that its sleep will not be disturbed by a sudden threat from which it will have to defend itself, says cat breeder Irina Sokolova.

Sitting with my paws tucked under my body: I’m not feeling well

If a cat tries to sleep in this position, something is apparently bothering him - he is rather not sleeping, but dozing, trying to be alert in case of danger. In addition, this pose may indicate health problems.

If the cat is ruffled, his fur is bristling, and his sleep is sensitive and restless, most likely he is unhealthy, says veterinarian Alexey Filatov. – Take a closer look: if at the same time your pet’s appetite has worsened, or the animal has become less playful, immediately show it to the doctor!

WATCHING THE TAIL

Everything seems to be clear with sleep. How do you understand a wide-awake kitty?

The best indicator of a cat's mood is its tail. If the tail pointing upward, then this indicates a good mood, a desire to communicate with a person. Active wobble a cat's tail moving from side to side means dissatisfaction and irritation. If at the same time the cat begins to press its ears back, then it may even attack, so it is better to move away from the angry pet. But twitching the very tip of the tail speaks of curiosity and readiness to play. Tail drooping and hanging calmly indicates a calm and peaceful state,” says Maria Tuvashkina.

BY THE WAY

If a cat lightly butts you with its head, it means that it is asking for affection or wants to thank you for something. Trampling in one place can be regarded as a real declaration of love. And if the cat impatiently “dances”, slightly lifting its front paws off the floor (some cats like to do this at the scratching post), then it is greeting someone very long-awaited. Quick licking of the front paw or nose means excitement and indecision, and vertically raised ears indicate curiosity.

BRIEF CAT DICTIONARY

Meowing is also a full-fledged language! It’s not for nothing that cats use it primarily to talk with people, and much less often to communicate with each other. With the help of meowing, a cat communicates when it is hungry, wants affection, or asks to leave the room or the house. But to communicate with their relatives, cats usually use other sounds - for example, hissing or snorting, when the cat is irritated or afraid, preparing to attack or defend itself.

Moore - calm

Meow - greeting, request

Intermittent meowing - a response to a person’s call

Rumbling - dissatisfaction, warning of attack

Howling - anger

A short cry - fear

Hissing - readiness for defense

You love your cat very much, but sometimes she acts so strangely that it leaves you scratching your head. There are forms of cat behavior that seem to make no sense. Even if you are unable to understand why your cat behaves in a certain way, this does not mean that its behavior is not functional or has no logic. Here are seven things that make sense to your cat... but may not make sense to you:

1. Caress and bite
The setup for this behavior is that your cat jumps onto your lap and curls up into a ball. She may even rub against you as if she is asking to be petted. You start petting the cat, she purrs with pleasure, and then after a few minutes she suddenly turns around and hits or bites you. Why does she do this? Although this drastic change in mood seems to come on suddenly, it is a fairly common behavior in some cats who, at some point, reach a threshold of tolerance. The behavior, known as “petting aggression” or “pet-induced aggression,” occurs when a cat becomes overstimulated from continuous petting and when signals sent through its body language go unnoticed by you. At this point, the cat sees the only way to get you to stop touching it - to scratch or bite you. To avoid this in the future, pay attention to your cat's body signals that indicate she is reaching the limit of her tolerance. Typical signs of such signals are twitching of the skin on the back and sides, wagging the tail furiously, wagging the tip of the tail, stopping purring, changing body position, ears laid back, meowing, staring at your hand. If you notice any of them, stop petting immediately and you will be able to avoid unnecessary scratches and teeth marks on your hands.

2. Grass and vomit.

This story usually happens with cats that are allowed to roam outdoors or with those for whom caring owners purchase grass from pet stores. Many cats love to eat grass, love to sit in the grass, and do everything they can to look like little fluffy sheep. Usually, after a few minutes of chewing young greens, you hear the familiar sounds of “bue-bue” - the cat begins to vomit. Many cat owners want to please their fresh grass lovers and grow grass in pots on windows or in planting boxes all year round. But cats have to pay for their pleasure by cleaning up vomit, and sometimes even washing bed linen if the cat chooses the owner's bed as a suitable place to empty its stomach. From all of the above, a logical question arises: why do cats like to eat things that almost always lead to vomiting? There are several theories among experts about this, but no one knows the exact answer. According to one version, the cat uses the grass as a way to treat an upset stomach. Some cats may also chew grass to help clear hairballs from their stomach that do not pass through the gastrointestinal tract.

3. Wetting paws
Why does your cat dip its paw in a bowl of water and then lick the water off it, rather than just drinking it the normal way? This doesn't seem to make any sense to a human, but it is a very practical behavior from a cat's point of view. Sometimes, a cat chooses this strange way of drinking if the water bowl is too deep or too narrow. Cats have long whiskers and don't like being crushed by the sides of a bowl. Immersing the paw in water, in this case, makes drinking more convenient and enjoyable. A cat that lives in a house with several cats or other animals may resort to this method of drinking from a safety point of view if the atmosphere between the animals is tense. She may not feel comfortable enough to put her head in a bowl that would obstruct her view. If she needs to constantly watch her rear, then a wet paw is the best way to drink while remaining alert. Finally, the third reason for this behavior is that if the water level in the cat's bowl is always different, she may not be sure at what level the water is this time, and in order to avoid getting her nose wet, your cat may develop the habit of drinking by plunging her paw .

4. Rear view
For many cat owners, this seems like very offensive behavior. The cat jumps onto your lap to sit or cuddle, but all the time stands with its butt to your nose. The cat may even lie down on your chest, placing its butt almost on your face. It may seem that no matter where your cat decides to sit, whether it's on the coffee table in front of you or on your computer desk while you check your email, you'll always get the same view of the bushy tail and everything underneath it. In fact, it is very simple to explain this behavior. It is not offensive, it is actually very beneficial for the cat and means showing great trust in its owner. Since a cat is an animal that is both a predator and a prey, the cat's instinct makes it constantly look for safe places to rest and sleep so that a larger predator does not sneak up on it. If a cat turns away from you when it settles next to you, it shows that it trusts you and perhaps even that it intends to observe the environment for both of you. In addition, since a cat is a predator, it makes sense for it to remain vigilant and have an overview of its surroundings in case an unwary bird flies by or a mouse slips by.

5. Crazy cat dance
Your cat suddenly, and for no apparent reason, decides to run around the house as if she's chasing an imaginary mouse. She dances around herself, she pounces on an invisible enemy, she jumps on the furniture and her cat tree, as if there is a lot of game around and all of it needs to be caught. You carefully examine everything around, but cannot find a single sign of the presence of any prey, not even the smallest spider or cockroach. What makes some cats go crazy, jump and throw themselves at walls, catch invisible bugs and birds? Most likely, your cat saw some shadow or a bright spot on the wall, or she simply accumulated so much energy inside herself that she must immediately get rid of it. Cats are hunters and they are designed to move. If your cat sleeps too much and doesn't get adequate exercise, and if you don't play with it every day to burn off some of its pent-up energy, your cat may just suddenly decide to get rid of the excess energy on its own and start chasing sunbeams and invisible friends. Also keep in mind that cats have more finely tuned senses than humans and your cat may hear, smell or see things that you won't even notice. Therefore, she may well chase the broom that the neighbor is sweeping behind the wall, since she hears this sound through the walls. Don’t rush to call your cat crazy or attribute to her the ability to see ghosts, just remember first how long ago you played or just talked with her. Maybe she's just really bored.

6. Love of paper
No matter how many toys you buy for your cat or how interesting you arrange the environment, she probably won't notice if she sees a piece of blank paper, book or magazine lying on the table in front of you. She will immediately come running and sit on it, not paying attention to your objections. If a piece of paper or magazine is lying directly on the floor, your cat will most likely sit on that piece of paper, ignoring all the beautiful beds you have purchased for her. It doesn't make sense, does it? There are several reasons for this behavior. When it comes to sitting on the paper or magazine you are reading, your smart cat knows exactly where your attention is directed and if she wants attention, she obviously needs to position herself between your eyes and the paper. As for the paper on the floor or on the table, which no one pays attention to, this can be attributed to the cat’s natural desire to be on a slight elevation. If a cat wants to sit on the floor or on a table, but at the same time she only wants to be a little highlighted in status, to be a little taller, she may feel that the paper makes her that way because it is different from the rest of the surface. In addition, paper is a very warm material and cats feel this, as they have very finely tuned thermoregulation.

7. After eating, bury it.
You set out a bowl of food for your cat and she lazily chews the contents, and then she gets up and starts burying the contents of the bowl just like she does in the litter box. Is your cat really telling you that the food is tasteless and like the contents of the litter box? Or is the cat trying to tell you to eat this crap yourself, but she won’t eat it? In fact, this is normal behavior and is based on the cat's survival instinct as a predator. If your cat hasn't finished eating, her behavior of burying leftover food is an attempt to hide food so as not to attract other predators to her habitat and hunting. Also, this behavior prevents potential prey from receiving warning that a predator is in close proximity. Even indoor cats that never go outside to hunt retain these survival instincts.

The article was prepared based on materials from the website of Pam Johnson Bennett.

Almost every owner of a pet cat notices how their pet stares for a long time and carefully at the wall, as if he has found something very important and interesting for his eyes. Many people wonder why the cat is looking at the wall. Moreover, the wall to which the pet’s attentive gaze is directed is often ordinary, there is nothing special in it for a person, without bulges and depressions, without spots and dots. Often a wall can become a place of attraction for inquisitive cat eyes for a very long time.

Are there clear answers to this question? Undoubtedly. First of all, cats and cats are predators. Their main purpose in the house is to catch mice. And although our apartments do not have these rodent pests, feline animals never lose their natural instincts. For this reason, nothing can hide from their watchful eyes, neither day nor night.

Facts and figures

A cat or cat that sits, seemingly relaxed, perfectly sees everything that is happening nearby and around. Then, everyone knows the fact that representatives of the cat world are perfectly oriented in the dark, they see perfectly in the absence of at least some glimmer of light. By nature, cats are nocturnal predators. They need special vision at any time of the day for hunting, and the latter for survival. That's why nature bothered to give them everything they needed for this.:

• Cats' vision is 6 times sharper than humans.
• Just as in the Russian song they sing “I recognize my dear one by his gait,” so a cat sees its owner 100 meters away.
• Thanks to the special convexity of the eyes, each meow is able to monitor what is happening around him within a radius of 190-270 degrees, which is 1.5-2 times the all-round visibility of a person.
• In the dark, the pupils of a cat's eyes dilate significantly, and the illumination of the retina increases tens of times.
• A cat and a cat can distinguish up to 50 flickers per second, which is 2 times the frame rate.
• Cats and cats have the same retinal photoreceptors - rods and cones - as in humans. But the ratio of the former is 25:1, while the latter is 4:1.
• Behind the retina of cats' eyes is the tapetum, a greenish-yellow reflective layer of cells that enhance vision.
• Plus, for successful hunting of cats in pitch darkness, not only their keen eyes are responsible, but also a very developed sense of smell, as well as all kinds of whiskers-navigators that detect the smallest vibrations in the air.

Square and circle

When a cat carefully looks at a wall that has not been subject to any changes by members of the household, this means that the wall has been “occupied” by a midge, or a mosquito, or a spider; a speck of dust, speck, fluff, etc. has settled on it. As a hunter, it is important for a cat to know “where the wind is blowing”, i.e. what is it? Plus, the meowing creature, as one of the most curious animals in the world, is interested in the development of this situation. Surely, the cat is wondering where this insect came from, and where it will go later. This wall is like Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square” - a bright circle for a cat to think about.

And another answer: for the tailed purr, as one of the cleanest animals on Earth, it is important to know when the wall will shake off this disgrace, or when its owner will do this. The gaze of the pet speaks eloquently about this, even screams. A cat and a cat speak a similar language to people.

When a cat looks into the eyes of its owner, it means that the animal wants something: to understand the mood of its older brother, to catch the wave of his mood. And then, having figured out this point for himself, he begins to say with his eyes what he needs - either a fun game, or a hearty meal, or change the water in the bowl, or the filler in the tray.

Wall or void

The process when a cat looks at a wall or in a corner is reminiscent of meditation. A cat's brain is the size of a walnut. And a cat thinks no less than ours, and also draws conclusions. But the instincts of the pet take over everything; he will look at the wall, since any point on it serves as a hypothetically moving object. And if she also moves her paws, then she is potential prey.

Also, a cat and a cat can stare into space for a long time. What is emptiness for humans is not always the case for cats. A tiny ray of light can play its game in space, or some small object casts a shadow, and it trembles. Or a light breath of wind blows crumbs across the floor, creating the effect of a living creature.

There is an opinion that cats are able to see brownies, ghosts, otherworldly entities, incorporeal creatures from a parallel world. The cat is an ancient animal that came to us from the distant past and preserved religious things from there. Anything is possible. No one can confirm this hypothesis, nor can anyone refute it, why a cat is the first to be let into a new house.

Caprice or illness

A cat can not only look at the wall, but also rest its head against it, while still growling and releasing its claws. The Internet is teeming with photos and videos of a tailed pet resting its head against a wall or corner. Looks funny. But in most cases, such behavior of a cat’s pet is a fairly serious signal of its ill health.

For example, in the absence of the owner, the cat jumps and runs around the house. Cat Kevin McCallister “home alone” can fall off a shelf and land on his paws, fail to fit into a kitchen corner on sharp turns and hit a corner, or get a huge slap on the head from an overturned hard object. Finally, the same wall can cause illness. The cat ran and hit his head against the wall with all his might.

A cat can complain of being unwell using “meow-meow”, but it won’t help, people don’t understand. When the animal runs into a wall, it complains of pain in the head. The wall is a cat's assistant - it tells the owner what is hurting his beloved cat.

A person often notices something similar behind himself. When he has a headache, he wants to push it against the wall. A hard wall seems to be able to drown out the pain in my head. In the case of a cat, the wall seems to scream that the family pet needs medical attention.

There was a situation when a cat fell out of a high-rise building window. He survived, they picked him up, carried him into the apartment and released him, he crawled to the wall and rested his head against it. At a veterinarian's appointment, the cat's owners learned that their pet had a concussion.

In addition to a concussion, the reasons for a cat running into a wall can be various poisonings, metabolic disorders, nervous shock, and worst of all, tumors of the brain or spinal cord. You definitely need to contact an experienced veterinarian and, when all the bad things are behind you, your pet will again enjoy life, watch its “cartoons” on the wall and gratefully purr fairy tales in the ear of its beloved owner.

VETERINARIAN CONSULTATION REQUIRED. INFORMATION FOR INFORMATION ONLY.