Why do most cats hate it when you touch their belly, feet or tail?
With cats, it's a different story: Most are visibly uncomfortable when someone touches their belly, and the same applies to their feet and tail.
Key points
- "If these early warning signs are ignored, they might escalate to biting, hissing or scratching." But why do cats dislike it so much when humans touch these specific areas?
- When it comes to foot rubs, there are two possible explanations for why most cats hate them.
- Off-limits petting zones "Cats are prey animals as well as predators and so they can be very protective of areas that are particularly vulnerable to injury during attack, such as the belly area," Sarah Ellis, head of cat mental well-being and behavior at the cat welfare charity International Cat Care, told Live Science in an email.
Although cats have evolved a special feature called the " primordial pouch " — basically a flap of loose skin and fat on their belly — which provides a little extra padding to protect vital organs during fights, most cats still feel threatened when humans touch or rub their belly.
Additional details
- Positive responses to petting of the belly, feet or tail can also signal close bonding to a human, Ellis said.
- Others enjoy having their tail stroked briefly and show their pleasure "by pushing their rump into the hand of the petter and holding their tail up in the air," Ellis said.
- Although there has been little formal research into this question, animal behavior experts proposed a few ideas for why cats don't like to be touched in certain areas.
- Cats, meanwhile, can be hunted by dogs, urban coyotes, and even birds such as hawks and owls, making it natural for them to be protective of their bellies.
- "They might do a quick head turn, looking at your hand, or they might start moving away from you or wiggling around a lot, basically trying to get away from the petting," Mikel Delgado, a cat behaviorist and senior research scientist at Purdue University, told Live Science in an email.
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