We cats have tongues that are pretty special! If your cat tries to pet you, or gives you a gentle lick of sandpaper, you know it. But there’s more to kitty tongues. So let’s see.
- Cats lick you with their barbed, sandpaper tongues for many reasons. They lick you as a sign of love. They may want to marry you, just as they would any member of the feline family. They might think your hand, arm, or face is delicious! Or they may be marking you, as cat saliva is one of the many ways they leave their scent behind.
- Those barbs are more complicated than you might know!
These are called papillae. These small pointed spines are curved and hollow, and made of keratin. This design does an amazing job of grabbing loose fur, dirt, and even small critters like lice. They are also able to deposit excess saliva on their fur in a way that facilitates cleaning. - Yes, big cats also have barbed tongues.
Of course they do, considering that one of the most important purposes of the papillae is to effectively clean the meat from the bones. And with bigger tongues come more papillae…and more! - Cats have a hard time spitting things out because of those papillae that are turned away.
That’s why we sometimes end up with hairballs. And it’s also easy for something like string or ribbon to get tangled in those barbs, which is why you have to be careful what you leave around the house. - Cats use physics to drink water!
A surprising amount of research has gone into the way cats drink water. The tips of our tongues barely touch the surface of the water we drink. Then we raise it at lightning speed to create a liquid column. So fast, in fact, that it creates inertia, defying gravity for water to reach our mouths. House cats do this at a rate of four laps per second. Big cats (lions, tigers, etc.) do this more slowly because of their larger tongues. - Cats cannot taste sweets.
Most of you know this, but you may wonder why we still enjoy things like whipped cream, or one of my favorite foods, cantaloupe. Just because we can’t taste sweets, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t other aspects of sweet foods that we find attractive. Like, say, the creaminess of whipped cream, or the non-sweet elements of a fruit (taste is more complex than just sweet). - On the other hand, research has indicated that we have a taste receptor that humans do not have!
This is called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. ATP functions at the cellular level as a source of energy utilization and storage. And apparently it tastes good. - You can check your cat’s health by examining their tongue.
A healthy cat has a pink tongue. But if it’s coated, pale, bluish or yellow, or if the cat is drooling or has a tongue ulcer, take them to the vet right away. A blue or yellowish tongue may be a medical emergency, indicating cardiac or respiratory distress (blue) or a liver problem (yellow). A pale tongue can mean anything from anemia to kidney failure. - Finally, we can touch our noses with our tongue.
That’s something you can’t do, if you’re human!
Did you enjoy these cat tongue facts? Which one did you find the most attractive? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
Here are more amazing facts about us kitties:
