Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Why Does Your Cat Smell Your Face?

Interesting facts about cats

Although a cat's sense of smell is not as good as a dogs' but it's far better than a human's. Like dogs, cats use their sense of smell to gather information, including information about us.

When your cat sniffs your face and breath, they're simply memorizing your scent. They recognize your scent and find it comforting. 

But why are they doing it every day or even a few times a day?

Cats rely heavily on their strong sense of smell to give them information about food, prey, and their general surroundings. Sniffing you often tells them a lot about your diet, the cosmetic and personal care products you're using, and your unique skin chemistry. Memorizing your scent also helps them to build trust and familiarity, so let your cat sniff away!

Cats have an organ at the roof of their mouths behind their front teeth called the vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson's organ. When your cat takes a sniff and leaves its mouth open for a few seconds, it's actually drawing air into the mouth and up into the Jacobson's organ.

Also, when your cat makes a strange face when smelling your face, hand or feet, it is because it smelled something interesting and is drawing the scent into the Jacobson's organ to get a better smell.

Does your cat trust you?


Posted by Erika M Szabo

9 comments:

  1. Wow, I never knew this! That pic of the cat making that face though .... lol!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cats are amazing! Years ago I had a slew of indoor cats. One year on my birthday, (the first day of Spring) at 3 in the morning I woke up to the sound of water running in the bathroom full blast. Since the hubs worked nights I got up to give him a piece of my mind. To my surprise, my oldest cat was sitting on the sink waiting for me. Dave, the hubs, was not home and should have been. I looked outside and it was snowing so hard I could not see anything. Turned out the cat woke me up to let me know something was wrong.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow! Smart kitty! We had one of those watch cats when my daughter was just a few months old. Whiskers woke me up by hitting my face and meowing furiously. I checked on my daughter immediately and found her burning up with fever.

      Delete
    2. cats are a lot smarter than most people think

      Delete
  3. They are indeed. My neighbour's cat torments my little dog by walking past the patio doors really close, or staring in. She's knows she's safe.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Replies
    1. Cats were once worshiped as gods, they have not forgotten this.

      Delete

Advertise with us