With warm body and soft hair, cat owners will feel relaxed when petting their cat. Especially after a day’s work, seeing the cat’s big shiny eyes is also a good comfort. Cat owners often can’t help but kiss their cats to show love. Some cats will take the initiative to approach and lick their owners. Why? Is this a good behavior? Next, we will discuss the behavior of cats licking people.
1. Cat’s licking behavior is a way of social communication
Usually one cat will help the other lick the places they can’t lick, such as the top of the head and the inside of the ears. But cat only lick the other who he likes and be familiar with. When they are licking each other’s fur, they can exchange the taste of both sides, and the familiar taste will enhance the feelings of both sides.
Cat licking the owner is the greatest compliment to the owner, which means that your cat feels extremely trust and peace for your existence. Congratulations! You are already a “family” certified by the cat. The cat will continue to lick the owner because she learned from the mother cat when she was a kitten that family members have to lick each other to express trust and love.
2. Cat licking the owner may be a symptom of anxiety
Some cats will have uncontrollable compulsive licking behavior when they feel stressed or anxious. In order to relieve their nervous emotions and stress, cats will excessively licking even to baldness. Some cats also have obsessive-compulsive disorder due to stress, such as excessive licking of the owner’s skin.
In order to avoid the cat’s excessive stress and other physical diseases, when the cat has these excessive licking movements, the owner needs to be very careful to check the cat’s stress or anxiety source. If you really can’t find the cause, you should take her to see a vet!