Cat Body Language 101

hey gang hairball hey gang it is i your cat daddy jackson galaxy today we are taking on cat body language cat body language 101 what should you know about your cat really no because misinformation might lead to a scratch or a bite misinformation may lead to your cats trying to tell you they're either overly excited over stimulated in pain uh or very scared of something so today we're just gonna start scratching the surface as it is so the first thing that we're gonna talk about today is the tail there are things that we mistake about cats and why do we do this because let's say it all together cats are not dogs we look at cats through dog-colored glasses way too much and we think just because a dog does something well it must be okay if a cat does it too so let's take off our dog colored glasses and let's put on our cat glasses the wagging tail that's the biggest one when we think about well dogs do it so cats must be as happy as a dog when when they're wagging their tail actually completely the opposite whereas a dog wags their tail from excitement or happiness and i know there's a dog trainer out there or a behaviorist who's like oh god the cat guy's getting it all wrong but you know from generally right with cats let's look at them as energetic balloons which is really what they are they sleep for a good portion of the day from that raw cat perspective that ancestral perspective to gather up energy for the hunt now they wake up and they don't have a release for that and then once they start getting stimulated in a negative way that balloon is full and i always see the tail as sort of that air valve the valve that just lets out that air that energy from them and so that's when when they start getting agitated you'll see them flick then if they just don't get release at that point but more energy comes in the balloon is getting bigger and bigger now we're going from a flick to a wave then we're going from a wave to a full wag and once you see that wag kind people step away from the cat or give them a toy to play with or give them some nice peace and quiet because they are letting you know i am absolutely agitated and so that is when i say not a dog we put on our cat colored glasses instead of our dog colored glasses another thing that you'll see a lot of the times to let you know that your cat is agitated or just not liking what you're doing for some reason or another the ears beginning to flatten down and maybe flick at the same time that's that's agitation that what i call back lightning when you see the little ripples go down their back that also sign of agitation sign of displeasure but in a sort of activated way these are ways to let you know that your cat is verging on over stimulation the more you do that full-bodied pet the more you're going to start seeing the tail flick the more you're going to start seeing the ears flick or flatten down they're getting ready and that is not a choice let's let me let me just put this in the most plain terms your cat is not making a choice when they're getting over stimulated their body is making that call for them so that when you say my cat doesn't like me because he attacks me and i'm petting him one second and he's attacking me the next no you're over stimulating him and his body responds so do keep an eye on your hand when you're petting down the head to the tail watch out for the tail flick watch out for the ear flick the back lightning eyes start to dilate it's time to step away from the cat it's time to play with them it's time to just give your hand a break or they're gonna break your hand that's a good one another example of dog colored glasses and cat body postures is being on our back when a dog rolls over on their back yes it is a submissive position but it's also we see it as an invitation to rub the belly cats totally different thing yes the the original impetus there is kind of dog-like because they are showing you their most vulnerable part right the the midline right down here if a cat is in the wild and they come upon a fox or some other form of predator you think they're gonna roll over on their back and invite that animal to eviscerate them down the middle no of course not but when they roll over on their back to you that is a display of trust that trust means love but that doesn't mean rub the belly that is an invasion now of course there's plenty of you out there are gonna be like hey my cat loves it when i rub their belly fine fine i get it but by and large that cat hug means i'm vulnerable to you but don't rub it in literally get it if you rub you're going to over stimulate you're also going to invite the all four paw wrap around and which is just being over stimulated so why push it besides those two things there are general tail body postures that mean certain things for instance if your cat is walking around in that absolutely mojito cat pose that one that is just purely confident happy and what is the day going to bring me today let's go find out that tail is up and with a little crook at the end of it what i call the backwards question mark up at the top that lets you know that the cat is confident ready to explore happy to see you in fact once that that little question mark goes up straight like this now i'm excited i am now thrilled about what life has to bring me okay now as the as the tail starts going down we start getting a little more not hesitant but a little more on our guard right once we get to sort of parallel to the ground we're exploring and we're exploring we could be doing it confidently but it's more of a hmm what's going on here now as we get down like this we might be getting a little scared something bad might be happening of course the worst one is tucked all the way under the body and that is i am really scared right now something bad is happening when the tail is up but bottle brushed out any time a cat makes their fur big they make themselves bigger that is fear i am trying to make myself bigger so that this thing that i'm coming in contact with knows that i'm not to be messed around with so when you see a cat totally fluff their tail out their body out sometimes even adopting that halloween cat posture which is that sort of u shape to their whole body again they're making themselves big and in making themselves big they remind me of that kid on the block who was you know kind of undersized and whatever compared to the rest of the kids and he'd puff his chest out when he meet somebody new just to make sure they knew that he was you know a big guy that's what your cat is doing as well so just as a cat who's afraid is going to blow themselves up to sort of send the message that they're not afraid also think of what it looks like when a cat makes themselves small when a cat is threatened with something a lot of times they will start to go a little bit showing their sides and a little bit compacted why two things one they can spring up and come at you the other thing they can do is flip over on their back and you might think that that's a submissive gesture it is not a submissive gesture that cat has the most power in their entire body in their hind legs so if they go at you with bunny kicking with those hind legs and with those claws they're going to do some serious damage to whatever they choose to go to town on another thing that tells you if a cat is feeling threatened is when they pin their ears to the back of their head why are they doing that their body is telling them to do that because something is coming at them that if they get into a fight they may get their ear ripped so they're gonna plant it to the side of their head prepping for the fight at the very same time of course it's not a choice when they do this it's in their body they have a sympathetic nervous system if something like fear hits them poof out they go of course i just moved on from tails to the rest of their bodies so let's talk about eyes and ears uh those are also very easy ways to know if your cat is relaxed or on guard about something and on guard might mean hey i'm hunting something in that case a lot of your cat's attention is going to be pointed forward so that's ears eyes are focusing in and that's really key when their eyes turn into little slits they are paying very close attention to what's right in front of them as opposed to when their eyes get dilated now i'm looking all over the place cats have incredible peripheral vision by widening out their pupils they're also getting a full lay of the land they're letting in as much light as possible in a general way just to make sure that everything is cool here i've got escape routes but yet i see what's going on now i get thin in here and i am looking at you buddy i am focused in on you my whiskers are focused in this way i'm getting as much information as i possibly can i mean this is where cats turn into like the predator people because all of the things that have evolved over the years of the centuries to make cats the superior hunter that is whiskers getting the general temperature in the air and focusing in trying to get information that way eyes ears everything every hair on their body focused in on their prey but if your cat is doing that to your ankle you know what's happening right your cat gets down low they start to stalk they're hunting these are things that are naturally present in cats in the wild when we put them in a home and we start seeing these things whether they're directed at you or another cat or a child for instance i can tell you right now they're treating those beings as prey and that usually doesn't wind up too good for the one who's being preyed upon it tells you right off the bat your cat has a lot of excess raw cat energy it's time to play with your cat guys another thing that expresses actually confident ownership of territory cat mojo that your cat is expressing their mojito self is scratching or coming up against something remember if a cat comes up to you starts rubbing up against you with their body or their cheeks or the top of their head or even making biscuits on you these are ways of getting scent on you there are scent glands all over a cat's body including between their paws and they're just getting it all over you and that means i own you slash i love you in cat language so take that for what it is it's a compliment even when cats scratch on a surface uh yes it is destructive to furniture etc but it's also a sign of ownership if a cat comes up to you and they start doing this to you again it's not usually scratching but it's about a little more biscuit making smurgling is also very much and i love you for different reasons you can see the cat daddy dictionary on smurgle right there but again it's confident ownership it is confidence in the raw cat with the person that they're with or the place that they're at i mean what is unconfident body posture when it comes to a person or a thing it's that backing up and peeing on it that's when you know things are not confident you know this is one of those times where as i get ready to wrap up a video i'm like man i am not done there's a million other things i could be talking about well on the positive side of that we'll film a million other videos maybe not a million but a bunch more getting more into depth with some of these body postures and if you look on this channel you are going to find that this stuff already exists so dive a little deeper in nothing stands in a vacuum when it's about a cat's body all of these things work in beautiful harmony it really is a miracle of physiology and behavior all rolled up into one fuzzy amazing looking ball of cat so there you have it you guys learn more for yourself learn more here if you've got some ideas about what you'd like to see on this channel that's what the comments are for pass this on to somebody who just got a cat for the first time in their lives so they don't get scratched up uh so that they know what i love you means and i don't love you so much means and how to get them to love it etc etc pass this on to somebody else don't forget to subscribe because that's how you know when the next volume of these cat behaviors are coming your way all right you guys until next time light and love and mojo to you [Music]

Channel: Jackson Galaxy

Views: 673,300

Rating: 4.9586854 out of 5

Keywords: jackson galaxy, cats, my cat from hell, animal planet, cat whisperer, cat guy, cat guy animal planet, cat expert, cat advice, cat health, cat behavior, pet care, pet, cat breeds, types of cats, cat care, cat training, cat supplies, cat toyskitten care, sick cat, cats and kittens, cat illnesses, cat symptoms, cat psychology, taking care of a cat, cat behavior problems, kittens, kitten videos, cat videos, kitten health, adult cat, adult cat videos, jackson galaxy videos

Id: WzuhuaeS0aQ

Length: 13min 27sec (807 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 25 2020