If you cut one side of a cat's whiskers off would he lose his balance?

Answer 1

no, he wouldnt. whiskers tell a cat wether or not they can fit through a certain space, because they are as long as their body is wide.
please don't. that would be mean.

Answer 2

no, but they would be disoriented going through doors. A cat uses whiskers to determine if it can fit through an opening and if you cut one side off that cat will be very nervous about going though thin openings until they grow the whiskers back.

Don't try that one. it stresses the Cat, and cats have long memories. spilling a cup of coffee will get you 2 years of the cold shoulder.... my dad did that and the cat would run away from him for about 6 months, stay away for the next year, and simply not come close for another 6 months....

Answer 3

Oh, that's funny because I had a young niece that did this. The cat walked into the room and there was something not quite right. It took my late wife and I some time to realize that her whiskers were gone! Our cat apparently sat quietly while a 4-year-old girl trimmed her whiskers off! It bothered us more than it did the cat. The niece was given cruel and unusual punishment (wife came up with the idea): she wasn't allowed to be around the cat until the whiskers grew back. Oh, she was grief stricken! It was the neatest cat I ever knew, intelligent and interactive. I know she sat quietly to have her whiskers snipped because if she didn't like it, she'd have walked away. Didn't bother her a bit.

Answer 4

Cats, like humans maintain balance through the level of fluid properly called endolymph in the labyrinth - a complex set of tubing in the inner ear.

Whiskers on a Cat:

Vibrissae aid with navigation and sensation. The upper two rows of whiskers can move independently from the lower two rows for even more precise measuring. Whiskers are more than twice as thick as ordinary hairs, and their roots are set three times deeper than hairs in a cat's tissue. Richly supplied with nerve endings, whiskers give cats extraordinarily detailed information about air movements, air pressure and anything they touch. Vibrissae possess exquisite sensitivity to vibrations in air currents. As air swirls and eddies around objects, whiskers vibrate too. Whiskers may detect very small shifts in air currents, enabling a cat to know it is near obstructions without actually seeing them. Cats use messages in these vibrations to sense the presence, size, and shape of obstacles without seeing or touching them.

Whiskers are also good hunting tools. The structure of the brain region which receives information from the vibrissae is similar to that found in the visual cortex, suggesting that the nature of the cat's perception through its whiskers is similar to that via its vision. Stop motion photography reveals that at the moment a cat's prey is so close to its mouth to be too near for accurate vision, its whiskers move so as to form a basket shape around its muzzle in order to precisely detect the prey's location. A cat whose whiskers have been damaged may bite the wrong part of a mouse it's attacking, indicating that signals from these delicate structures provide cats with vital information about the shape and activity of its prey — interestingly, whiskers also help cats detect scents.

It is thought that a cat may choose to rely on the whiskers in dim light where fully dilating the pupils would reduce its ability to focus on close objects. The whiskers also spread out roughly as wide as the cat's body making it able to judge if it can fit through an opening.

Whiskers are also an indication of the cat's attitude. Whiskers point forward when the cat is inquisitive and friendly, and lie flat on the face when the cat is being defensive or aggressive.

Whiskers can also be a bother to a cat, especially when the cat tries to eat food out of a bowl. The end of the whiskers touching the side of the bowl transfer irritating sensations to its brain, making it hard for it to continue eating.

When a kitten is cleaned by its mother, she may chew off some or all of the whiskers.

Answer 5

Yes, cause it happened to my cat. I told my husband that if you cut one side of a cat's whiskers they lose their balance and he didn't believe me. Little did I know, he snuck behind my back and really did cut my cat's whiskers. For a whole year, I thought my cat was weak and lacked nutrition cause she couldn't hold her balance. I found out later that my husband really did cut my cat's whiskers cause he wanted to see if I was lying or not. Proved him wrong! Poor Kitty!

Answer 6

no a cat's balance has nothing to do with it's whiskers the tail helps the cat in that area. besides why would some one do that?

Answer 7

My cat cut all of her whiskers off once rubbing upagainst a fan (little weirdo) and it didn't affect her at all. She still climbed, jumped, ran, and walked completely normal.Whiskers are for feeling mainly, the tail is for balance. Cats who lose their tail can become temporarily unbalanced until they get used to it.

Answer 8

Why would you cut your cat's whiskers off? Yeah he'd lose his balance, he needs his whiskers their like "sensors" for cats. They can't go without them

Answer 9

no, but the whiskers are there so they know if they will fit into places. the whiskers on a cat are the same width of the cats body. it is so they won't get stuck....like behind the fridge.....

Answer 10

Turns out I cut Poppy's half off on one side when I was giving her a trim. I felt AWFUL! But it hasn't affected her that I can see.

Obviously I don't recommend doing this, but in my case it hasn't been a problem.