We have two, and the others' bum is sometimes of great interest.
They're both indoors-only, eating the same food,* so they can't be sniffing to see who went where and ate what, I wouldn't _think_...
* Mostly. One likes the odd small treat of people food; she slupps spaghetti with butter and cheese, and eats, of all things, eggplant and Cheerios. The other is apparently a refugee from a dairy farm; he'll down any cheese, cream, milk, butter, ice cream, etc, left unattended for more than sixty seconds. But that's not frequent enough, I'd think, to make things that interesting.
2007-01-22 22:53:48 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Cats
Okay. So why don't they sniff their peoples' bums...?
2007-01-23 00:21:28 · update #1
Hi there...cats don't recognize one another visually rather by scent so they sniff each others bums as a way of knowing who it is.
2007-01-22 23:14:30 · answer #1 · answered by ♪ Seattle ♫ 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
That is an excellent question. I subscribe to a publication from Cornell University and someone asked the same thing. The answer is that they identify each other by scent not sight. That's why they get so distraught when one of the others goes to the veterinarians because they smell different than their usual scent. My cats do this to each other at least once a day. Now that I know the reason, it doesn't gross me out like it used to. They are just 'MAKING SURE' that they have the 'RIGHT CAT' and not someone else. Also, they can sometimes detect illness in the other ones by scent in their anal region.
2007-01-23 08:33:28 · answer #2 · answered by mychemicalromancelover 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They're still getting each other's smell off of the other,testing the smell to see if that one belongs to anyone they know, and one eats different from the other, the scent emmited from one will be diffferent from the other. So, therefore, they will sniff. Because, each eats differently, and therefore give off a different scent.
2007-01-22 23:18:57 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's an act of submission. The cat that let's the other cat sniff it's bum is the submissive one. The one that that sniffs is just practicing his territorial rights.
2007-01-22 23:00:53 · answer #4 · answered by lanisoderberg69 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The same reason dogs sniff dog bums. It's probably because they can't sniff their own.
2007-01-22 22:57:07 · answer #5 · answered by Carey 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry, just about fell asleep reading your Q. I was gonna say: to see what the other had for their last meal, but you cleared that up for me. Hope you discover the answer.
2007-01-22 22:58:45 · answer #6 · answered by jammer 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had a cat once that ate fruit cocktail, and she loved green olives. Strange ???
2007-01-22 22:57:02 · answer #7 · answered by Bobbi 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋