{"id":444,"date":"2015-02-12T18:39:03","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T18:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/petcarefacts.com\/?p=444"},"modified":"2015-02-12T18:41:15","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T18:41:15","slug":"cat-got-your-tongue-interesting-facts-about-your-cats-tongue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/training-and-behavior\/cat-got-your-tongue-interesting-facts-about-your-cats-tongue","title":{"rendered":"Cat Got Your Tongue? Interesting Facts About Your Cat\u2019s Tongue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cat<\/p>\n

Why does it feel like sandpaper when your cat licks you? Is the kitty in need of a drink because his tongue is just horribly dry? \u00a0Unlike dogs and humans, a feline tongue has a rough feeling because it is covered in little fissures call papillae<\/em>. The papillae is constructed like tiny backward barbs made of the same hard substance as our fingernails, called keratin<\/em>. \u00a0This was designed to help your cat clean her coat. \u00a0The little fissures and barbs are like mini combs, sorting through and brushing cat\u2019s fur. \u00a0Grooming this way helps the feline remove dust, dirt, and loose hair so she can stay sleek and clean.<\/p>\n

Why cats groom<\/h2>\n

Historically, the papillae was necessary for cats to feed themselves in the wild, as the keratin helps breakdown and remove flesh from prey. \u00a0Cats also groom to survive in the wilderness, since they do not want to leave any evidence or traces of where they have been, and grooming removes the smell.<\/p>\n

Cats tend to over groom when they are stressed out, and need to be calmed. The act of grooming actually releases endorphins in the cat, and in times of great stress can actually result in psychogenic alopecia, or bald spots and sores as a result from too much grooming. \u00a0If you start to notice increasing hot spot areas and baldness, see a vet and talk to her about how to lower your cat\u2019s stress levels.<\/p>\n

How the tongue works<\/h2>\n

A feline\u2019s tongue is unusual in other ways, in that they have far fewer taste buds than humans, and have no palate for sweet treats. \u00a0\u00a0As carnivores, cats were intended to only eat meat, and therefore have no need to consume anything that might have a sweet\/sugary flavor. This is probably for the better, since one of the most common cat ailments<\/a> is dental disease, and sugar is a fast-track to tooth decay.<\/p>\n

A cat\u2019s tongue is the miraculous tool that they rely upon for drinking water. \u00a0\u00a0Once believed to act as a spoon and curl around the liquid before quickly pulling up pockets of water, the cat\u2019s tongue functions in a completely different way. \u00a0The tongue dips downward and then flicks across the surface of the water, causing a small tube of water to be pulled off the surface. The cat\u2019s mouth closes over this water column before it has time fall back into the bowl. \u00a0The cat\u2019s tongue moves this way at the rate of 4 times per second \u2013 too fast for detection by the human eye. \u00a0Thank goodness for the guys at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and Princeton who filmed the process in slow motion, and solved the mystery of how cat\u2019s drink water!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why does it feel like sandpaper when your cat licks you? Is the kitty in need of a drink because his tongue is just horribly dry? \u00a0Unlike dogs and humans, a feline tongue has a rough feeling because it is covered in little fissures call papillae. The papillae is constructed like tiny backward barbs made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-training-and-behavior","tag-cats"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/cat-licking-nose.jpg?fit=650%2C433&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5xKys-7a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petrofile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}