Once you enter the weird, quirky, full of attitude and furry world of cats questions like why do cats knead, why do cats purr, and what does catnip do to cats are normal lingo.
That is the beauty about cats. They are weird, odd and humorously mysterious.
And they seem to always give their owners something to work with.
Maybe she just messed up your new toilet paper. Maybe she is making weird cat noises by the window.
Lying flat on her back maybe ?.
You get my point, right. And this time she is kneading everything and giving you a question to read this post and get busy learning why do cats knead ?.
So let’s go ahead and look into.
5 Reasons As To Why Do Cats Knead ?
By the way I hope you are not worried because your cat just started kneading everything she is seeing ?.
If you are experiencing your kitten or cat kneading for the first time. Relax honey !!.
It’s a very common feline behavior like scratching.
When a cat kneads it tends to make a back and forth movement with the help of her front paws in a rhythmic fashion.
Looking at your cat kneading brings out a nice aww from you isn’t it.
It looks like she is kneading a dough to make cookies or something. The subject of kneading may vary from squishy surface, soft beds or blankets. She may even knead you if you are lucky sometimes.
So if your cat is kneading, don’t worry enjoy. She is absolutely fine.
1. Kneading Is An Instinct Wired In Them From Birth
Kneading is a way a kitten communicates with her mom to let her know she is hungry and wants milk. Sometimes a kitten may knead for comfort too.
A young kitten may out of instinct knead at her mother’s stomach while nursing to help stimulate milk produce.
Now since this behavior gets immediately rewarded with milk, this tendency get’s hardwired in her behavior and she may bring these tendencies in her adult life as well.
And she may sometimes knead things with an expectation or need in her.
Very similar to how habits get created in human minds as well.
2. A Kneading Cat Is A Happy Cat
Let me say this. Every thing in nature is living, relative and subjective.
So it is the same with cat behavior as well. Not everything will be applicable as it is on every cat but you can use this information to percieve what is happening with your cat as well.
So yes if you are wondering as to why do cats knead and is it because she is happy ?.
More often than not the answer is yes.
Cats knead to express how happy and content they are.
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah !!.
I know what people say, cats are aloof. Cats have attitude. Cats don’t care.
Let me tell you one thing. The one thing that every being in the universe understands is compassion.
A cat’s compassion may not be as clear as in the case of a dog but it’s there in ample amounts.
It takes a very special kind of person to see that. Love doesn’t always nedd to be wishy washy.
A love in whose umbrella even the attitudes that you don’t like can find expression is real love isn’t it.
Cat lovers are very capable of that.
So yes if a cat is kneading you she may very well be expressing her love for you.and thinks you belong to her.
Many times you will observe that your cat starts kneading your lap immediately after you have given your cat a nice back scratch.
So it may just mean your cat is showing her love to you by petting/massaging you back.
This may be a painful experience for you if you kitty has sharp claws. And out of “your instinct” you may wish to scold your cat. Don’t do that.
Your cat is ruled by instinct. Not you.
Be wise and routine trim her nails so that she can express herself in the lap of a wise person.
3. She May Be Marking Her Territory
In our previous post on how to stop your cat from scratching, we discussed how the evolution of cats from wild to the domesticated environments has happened.
We highlighted how many changes in cat behavior have happened in the course of time.
There are certain wild instincts that are still in place in a cat’s psyche.
Marking her territory is one of them. And it is also one of the possible reasons as to why do cats knead ?.
They knead because they are marking their territory.
Cat paws have certain scent glands very unique to specific cats that they use to tell that everything withing this boundary including the human belongs to them to other cats.
Cats kneading a sofa or sometimes even you is an indication to other cats in the neighborhood or even in the same house to back the hell up.
Whatever I am kneading is mine.
If you somehow feel that your cat is kneading or scratching something or someone more than normal.
You need to redirect their wild expression to a scratching post.
4. She Maybe Setting Up Her Resting Place
I was a messy kid. I had this bad habit of not making my bed when I woke up.
My mother scolded me by saying even cats and dogs make their beds.
And then there is you. First, I ignored her then I realized that dogs actually clean their place up before resting.
And guess what when I looked into why do cats knead and also realized that this behavior maybe connected with them cleaning their place up for resting.
I started cleaning up my bed too. 😛
My mother caught me up on that one. But yeah, the point being cats tend to knead cozy comfy places to give themselves a nice place to rest and sleep.
The kneading tendencies have been long before cats got domesticated.
The ancestral tendencies are still alive in our fur babies and kneading thus is a wired tendency that cats use to express all of these things that we are discussing.
5. A Kneady Cat Is A Needy Cat
As I pointed this out in the earlier section.
The tendency of kneading gets developed at the time of birth and may very well continue to adulthood.
And behind this tendency there is a demand for food or comfort.
If your kitty is particularly needy she may knead all the time to demand your attention.
That may happen because in the past the behavior may have been associated with a reward.
If your cat purrs along with kneading you there is a good chance she is using all human sensitive tools to get something from you, most probably food.
So these were all the reasons as to why do cats knead.
I seriously hope you enjoyed reading it. And by the way, if your cat is kneading you a lot more than normal and in the process digging her claws into you.
You can try clicker training to reward her not to do that every time she wants something out of you.
Does your cat knead a lot ?. What techniques do you deploy to take care of that ?.
Go ahead comment out any query you might have in the comments section below.
Take great care of yourselves and your kitty and I am going to see you in the next one !!.
