Why Does Your Cat Lick and/or Bite You?

oh hi mowgli is doing right now what a lot of people have questions about as a matter of fact i was doing a little bit of the google you type in why does my cat and what comes up is a lot of why does my cat lick me so much why is my cat lick me and then bite me well we're gonna go into a little bit of that today and i'll give you some answers first and foremost let's start with the makeup of a cat's tongue what is a cat's tongue anyway well obviously you know what a tongue is but the makeup of a cat's tongue says a lot about why it hurts so much when you get licked by your cat why it's feeling like you're getting exfoliated whoa i mean on the bright side you're not being charged an arm and a leg for exfoliation microdermabrasion you know that kind of thing your cat's doing it all for you but why does it feel like that well it starts with the papier papilee papier papillae plural of papilla anyway here's the spelling right here they're backwards-facing barbs that are made of keratin so they're really really tough and if you think about what they would be used for in terms of cat's evolution it's all about you know if they're hunting and they kill something then what they're gonna do is eat everything part of it is licking meat off the bone that's why it's so rough when a cat licks you because those barbs are there for a reason pretty amazing even big cats have this exact makeup of their tongues just for the same reason all right now you know what a cat's tongue is all about there is more information on that that was really short take a look at this video floating above my head so now let's get into why cats lick so much and why they lick you so much it's the root of cat mojo the root of that cat confidence and swagger is a confident feeling of ownership of territory and part of that territory is you i'm not saying that you're just you know a scratching post or something but in a way you kind of are because whether it's scratching or whether it's when they sort of rub their sides up against you or give you the head bonk or or any of that stuff including licking they're leaving scent on you there's pheromones in their tongues they're scent glands between pads and on their sides and all over their body so the more they rub up against you and everything they are saying you are a part of me we are in this together i own you human i own you live with it so when we talk about how ownership equals mojo mojo confidence also you know sort of intertwines with affection and affection is another reason why your cat's licking you that feels simple doesn't it the idea that i love you so i'm giving you the old cleaning that goes back way back to their kittenhood one of the earliest experiences is their mom cleaning them and licking and licking a lot cleaning a lot also in the meantime showing them affection also in the meantime teaching them how to groom themselves at the same time so it's something that's just ingrained in them and i see this especially with kittens who are weaned too early you know ideally we would see kittens weaned anywhere between 8 and 12 weeks away from their mom but especially in rescue especially when we're getting them off the street we see kittens as early as three to four weeks without their moms so those early experiences whether it's licking cleaning or whether it is the smurgle you know going like this to you which is something that they would do to mom while they were feeding these things are direct lines to the earliest memories of protection of security of affection they will do the same thing to you it's a nice thing whether it's territorial or affection based they mean well now when we talk about this sort of you know how mom would just clean them like crazy and teach them and show affection and all that now we're getting into one of your big complaints where it's not just i'm getting exfoliated but then i'm getting bit on top of it i just it's a lick lick like bite and it does remind you that old tootsie pop commercial you know the old owl who's saying how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop lick lick you know one two three just showed my age but uh anyhow hey kittens are squirmy they don't want to stay in one place at one time so mom will bite onto their onto their scruff which has very few nerve endings and that way they can she can just hold them into place if that doesn't work they'll bite down here i'm never biting that hard so you'll notice that when your cat goes like liquid bite often it's not a real chomp it's more of a hold you know they're trying to just grab and hold you and so that's part of it and the other part is just over stimulation the more they lick the more they overgroom and you've seen this a lot with cats with other cats but you'll also see it to you because all that gets transferred to you is that eventually that licking just gets so almost that that pattern just gets so much that they get over stimulated and they bite so that's the lick to bite lick dash 2 dash bite which is trademarked so don't ever use it you've been served and then there's also just a really simple explanation you taste good i mean whether it is the sugar that gets secreted from your system or the salt that is on a lot of us as it is on me right now because it's really hot out here man if mowgli can get a hold of me right now he would just be licking like crazy that's a good exfoliation right there anyway i'm getting really off track right now the bottom line is we taste good now with the uh the whole they like the way you taste thing or any of the other reasons i just listed before i give you some solutions about how to maybe not have your cat lick you until you have no skin or bite you or any of those things i want to give you a very bright lettered red warning this is do you see that it's a warning which is that when your cats are licking you one of the things you want to make sure of is that you're not covered in lotion that you're not covered in perfumes essential oils that you might put on yourself your cat can't lick those things most of it will be toxic to cats if they're basically eating it you know and there are a lot of things that are toxic cats you don't want to take that chance so if you know that your cat's an over groomer and you know that you're going to be sitting around with your cat just please perfumes lotions essential oils those are big no-nos and then we get to our next thing which i know you've all been waiting for drumroll please how do i get my cat to stop doing this this is all great jackson i feel totally educated but make it stop well some of it is a little simple some of it may be a little more involved i mean in one way breaking that attention breaking that sort of it almost turns into a hypnosis when they start getting into that soothing feeling of grooming so in order to break it you just break it if if you're lying there and your cat's going crazy licking on your skin or biting your face or whatever pick him up put him down this is not punishment punishment does not work whether it's the spray bottle whether it's shaking your finger you behave whether it's you know grabbing them by their scruff and doing anything rough with your cat it does not work all it ever serves to do is make your cat afraid of you you can break that spell just by pick up put down if they come back you do it again they have to know that there is no there is no satisfaction from doing what they're doing and they're only going to do it so many times as long as you are consistent speaking of consistent the second thing is a lot of us sort of inadvertently reward the behavior so if your cat is licking you and you start talking to them oh you know mowgli i like it when you lick my hand and bite my ring i think you're the most adorable little guy in the world it kind of hurts but it's really adorable you see what you're doing is you might as well be saying i love it when you do it please do it some more do it all day long it's the nicest thing blah blah blah blah blah you don't want to punish but you don't want to encourage at the same time you basically want the effect to be nothing the next thing you can do is just cover the area so for instance i have one of my cats just loves my forearms and i know that she loves to be in bed at a certain time so i will just cover my arms just if you wear long sleeves or something like that if you're in bed you put a blanket over you i know that might seem really inconvenient but just from my standpoint it's better than locking your cats out of the room any day of the week the one other idea you know if we start thinking about the territorial aspect of this whole thing your bedroom is a very important place in terms of scent identification same thing goes with your couch you're sitting on your couch your scent is really strong there and they're trying to complement it so if you want to really help them out give them other ways to complement their scent scratching posts that are nearby beds cat trees things like that wherever they lay on i told you there were scent glands everywhere if they lay on it then they're gonna feel better about their scent being in the room you put a bed on your bed someplace for them to go and start smurgling and start they might even start to bite and and lick the fur on the bed which you know usually is okay as long as they don't eat it basically a scent identification would be you know security blanket think linus in in the peanuts you know just like having a blanket which that blanket also will have scent identification so it's a little wobby all right that's it you guys uh you know it's really interesting when i google and i find things like this and they're all these different forms of the question why do they lick why do they lick to bite why do they lick me all the time why does it hurt so much hopefully i've answered a few of those but if you do have questions put them down in the comments down below here and don't forget give this channel a like and you know what the form of showing affection right here is if you subscribe to the channel so go ahead and do that because it makes this channel tick don't forget comments below don't forget i'll be back with more videos really soon don't forget all light and all love and all mojo to you [Music] meow

Channel: Jackson Galaxy

Views: 1,575,047

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, cat breeds, types of cats, cat care, cat training, cats and kittens, cat psychology, taking care of a cat, cat behavior problems, jackson galaxy videos, cat daddy, cat, why does my cat lick and bite me, why does my cat lick me, why does my cat bite me, why does my cat bite, cat bite, cat licking, why do cats

Id: gQP4GKREuhw

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 04 2022