What does it mean when a cat sticks out its tongue?

Sometimes cat owners will find that cats stick out their tongues, and even pant with their tongues out like dogs, which looks very cute. However, cute as it is, cat owners still need to understand the reasons why cats stick out their tongues, because there are several reasons for this behavior, and not all of them are normal, so cat owners should not take it lightly.

The cat’s thoughts are suddenly interrupted while eating or licking its fur.

When cats are concentrating on licking their fur or eating, and are suddenly interrupted by some sound, they will immediately shift their attention to those things that arouse interest, and temporarily forget to retract their tongues.

Small chin/long tongue

Cats with small jaws are more likely to stick out their tongues when their muscles are relaxed. This is because their front teeth are relatively short, and the front teeth are used to hold down the tongue. Some cats have longer tongues, and the tip of their tongues will be exposed when they close their mouths or sleep.

After strenuous exercise/when the weather is too hot

Sometimes cats will stick out their tongues to dissipate heat like dogs because they are too hot. Some cats will stick out their tongues to pant after strenuous exercise.

Frequently sticking out your tongue may be a disease

Tongue sticking out due to the above reasons is very accidental and rare. If you find that your cat sticks out its tongue not occasionally, but often, you need to be vigilant. This may be due to oral diseases such as stomatitis and periodontal disease.

The action of a kitten sticking out its tongue can instantly melt everyone’s heart. In addition to being cute, a cat’s tongue also has many functions. It can taste food through its developed sense of taste, instantly turn into a comb to clean its hair, and even change various forms when drinking water to drink more water. Let’s take a good look at these tongue functions.

How fast can a cat stick out its tongue?

Now you can completely stick out your tongue and then retract it. Try to stretch and retract your tongue many times in one second? It’s already amazing if you can do it twice, and a cat can do it 4 to 6 times (okay, don’t try sticking out your tongue anymore~). This speed helps cats drink water quickly. If the tongue is rolled up, a lot of water can be quickly brought up.
Generally, there are two ways for cats to drink water, one is to roll the tongue, and the other is to stick out the flat tongue. So how do you distinguish which way your cat drinks water? It’s very simple. If you usually drink water and sprinkle it all around, it’s a rolled tongue. If it’s very quiet, it’s mostly licking water with a flat tongue.

Cat’s Super Taste

How powerful is a cat’s taste? For example, if there are five cups of water, cats can quickly distinguish which cup of water has been there for a few days, which cup of water is tap water, which cup of water is fresh, and which cup of water has less impurities. Cats have a strong sense of taste for liquids. When you feed cats tap water at home, they will refuse to drink water because there is a small amount of chlorine in it.
Interestingly, cats have a sensitive sense of taste, but the texture of their tongues is still very textured. The thorns on the tongue are like a small comb. When cats lick themselves, they use their tongues as a comb to clean themselves. When eating fish, they can also easily separate the meat and bones, and will not let the fish bones get stuck in the throat.

Eating meat may be sweet

It is well known that cats have a low sense of sweetness. Some people even think that cats can’t taste sweetness at all. However, some zoologists point out that mammals will feel sweet for foods that can supplement their important elements, such as sugars. Humans think it is sweet because carbohydrates are important to humans, and protein is also very important to cats, so when cats eat meat, they may also taste sweet.

Do cats like fish or meat?

This seems to be a rather strange question. Isn’t fish meat? Doesn’t liking fish mean liking meat? There is actually an essential difference, because we always think that cats only like to eat fish among meats, but is this really the case?
In fact, the saying that cats like to eat fish meat was first spread from Japan. Japan has a culture of raising cats for a long time, and it is highly respected. Interestingly, the Japanese themselves like to eat fish very much, so they will feed cats to eat fish. Over time, a stereotype has been formed that cats only like to eat fish meat.
In fact, cats are interested in all kinds of meat, such as chicken breast, beef, duck meat, etc., not just fish meat. This is why there are many kinds of cat food, some like duck meat and some like meat, but not all like fish meat.

Conclusion

Humans have learned a lot about cats’ taste, but many basic cognitions are not yet understood. I hope that after reading this article, you can better help understand your cat and make you a person who raises and understands cats.