What’s your cat trying to tell you? Because we cannot use pheromones to communicate with our cats and marking our home with urine would be inappropriate, today I want to talk about visual cues and cat body language to understand and communicate with our cats. Stick with me because at the end of the video I’m going to share with you that one thing that will truly enable you to communicate with your cat.
Throughout history, cats have been seen by humans as mysterious, hard-to-read, self-centered creatures that have either to be worshiped or vilified. They look at you in the eyes and they stay in that position with no interest in doing anything but just looking at you and judging you. We grow nervous. We know that we need to do something but really don’t know what. Why are cats so hard to read?
Nature designed cats to be the ultimate hunter. Feral cats have a success rate of around 30% and make a kill about every 52 minutes. They have terrific night vision, independently swiveling ears, and a very good sense of smell. They can even smell better than dogs. There are bigger, faster, and stronger animals in the environments where cats are originally from. Cats are preyed on by larger predators. This has made cats adopt the “run first, ask questions later” policy. Another consequence of being prey is that they have evolved to be very good at being quiet and hiding illness, which are excellent self-protecting strategies because in the wild, predators won’t target them as easy prey.
While these are great adaptations for living in the wild, it makes it very difficult for us cat guardians to decipher them. They are subtle and use communication methods that greatly differ from ours. Their communication is basically visual and olfactory, although sometimes they can also use sound. In the book “Decoding Your Cat” (link below), they put it very nicely: if communication had a volume control, humans would shout, dogs would talk, and cats would whisper.
Because humans are not strong visual communicators, I would recommend you start reading from the body parts that are easier to read, which are the body and tail, and finalize the assessment with body parts that are harder to read, like whiskers, eyes, and ears. Whenever we find contradicting signals, the “stay away” part of the message prevails.
1. The Tail
What can we learn from our cat’s tails?
- Straight Up Tail (Flagpole): A straight-up tail happens when our cat is content, happy, and confident. We will observe this behavior when a cat approaches another cat or a person in a friendly attitude.
- Upright Tail with a Question Mark: When the same upright tail offers a slight bend, a question mark at the very end of the tip, in addition to being content and happy, we have a cat that is playful. It’s a good moment to get a toy or a treat and help them spare some energy.
- Puffed Tail: A puffed tail means excitement and fear. It can happen during play sessions when they are extremely aroused, but mostly it happens when they are scared, in an attempt to look bigger in front of a threat that has suddenly come into play.
- Tail Movement: Tail movement is an easy one to misread if you’ve been around dogs. A slight flick can be observed when hunting while they wait to pounce. When the tail is twitching, it means they are agitated or nervous. This can be seen when we pet them, and when the tail starts twitching, it’s time to start thinking about letting them go. If we don’t stop, we will soon meet the lashing or wagging tail, which is more aggressive than twitching and happens with a longer portion of the tail. This means high arousal and can end up in aggression.
2. The Body
The body carriage contains a lot of information and is divided mostly into three parts:
- Water-like (Merging with Environment): When our cats are comfortable and relaxed, they display a loose posture. Don’t misread this one. If our cat is completely relaxed, water-like, and shows a belly, this is not an invitation to pet them there. This means they trust us and are comfortable. The best thing we can do in those cases is just let them be. The second-best is to give them a head or chin rub, but leaving the vulnerable and exposed parts untouched.
- Smaller (Hunched or Crouched): Cats that are usually fearful or uncertain become smaller. They usually curl the tail around them as well.
- Bigger (Puffed and Sideways): When their fur is puffed and they put their bodies sideways, probably arched, they are trying to tell the recipient of the body language that they are bigger than they seem. Adopting a bigger posture is usually a sign of a cat that’s getting ready to fight, while a smaller cat is in flight mode.
3. The Eyes
There are three main cues that cat eyes can give us:
- Fixed and Relaxed Stare: This means that our cat is calm and it’s a way to show us affection. This fixed and relaxed gaze sometimes comes with a slow blink, which is the cat’s way to say, “I love you. I trust you.” When I notice that Mia is giving me a relaxed gaze, I sometimes initiate the “I love you” blink, and if I’m lucky, she does it back. If you’re not blinking at your cat, I highly encourage you to start doing it. You’re going to see that they answer most of the times, and it’s a very beautiful way to say, “I love you. I trust you.”
- Dilated Pupils: Dilated, big, and wide pupils mean that your cat is fearful or aroused. This is the way animals get more light in and receive more information from the environment. When it happens during playtime, it means that your cat is about to pounce or start “crazy mode.” Dilated pupils can also happen in low light environments, but that doesn’t imply that the cat is aroused or playful.
- Ears:
- Pointing Forward: Means that our cat is alert, attentive, or even aggressive. It usually comes with whiskers pointing forward as well, all trying to receive as much information as possible from the direction they are pointing at.
- Rotated Outwards: When the ears are rotated outwards, it means that our cat is fearful.
- Flat Against the Head (Airplane Wings): When on top of being outwards, the ears are flat against the head (also known as airplane wings), where you can barely see their ears, it means that our cat is extremely fearful and probably aggressive.
Endnotes
To interpret cat body language,
Play with me:
- Slight tail twitch
- Fixed relaxed stare
- Upright position with or without question mark
Go away:
- Tight body posture, either becoming smaller or bigger
- Ears and tail twitching or wagging
I’m relaxed:
- Casual gaze
- Slow blink
- Water-like body postures
Whenever we see contradicting body language, the one that’s saying “go away” always prevails. There’s a way to talk to cats in a common language that both you and your cat can understand. When our message is clear and the outcome is positive, our cats can understand what we are saying to them. Cats can be trained the same way we train dogs, using positive reinforcement and clicker training. If you have never heard about clicker training or have but never tried it before, I really encourage you to watch this video and learn clicker training in three easy steps. It is really a game changer for cat parents. If you already know what clicker training is, this playlist has our best clicker training tutorials so that you can take your clicker training to the next level.
Stay wild, stay safe, see you outdoors.
