Short note. Sometimes, for example, you want to know whether your cat has an appetite to eat the meal that you want to give them. It can be difficult to get a clear answer from them and so you putdown nice food which they barely eat. Bearing in mind that cat food is expensive this is disappointing.
There are some signals that you can rely on to tell you if your cat is happy to eat the food you are about to give them. A moment before writing this, I offered my cat some high-quality wet food. He knows the look of the small sachets and can predict, I would say, what he is about to be given. On this occasion the skin on his left flank rippled or twitched slightly.
That, was a clear statement of NO. He didn’t want to eat the food. The skin ripple can be due to hyperaesthesia but if a cat is healthy, it can be a clear communication through body language. A positive response might be a gentle head butt on the hand holding the sachet.
The skin twitch can also be seen when a cat, for example, has eaten some food and then stops because they are unhappy with it. It’s a sign of displeasure as well as a “No”. I think cat caregivers should look out for it. It’s a fleeting moment of feline body language which can be hard to spot.
On this occasion I didn’t give him the food and he jumped off the counter (because I feed him on the kitchen counter). The point is that he didn’t want it and he actually wanted something else: fresh prawns. But I haven’t got them and he’s quite happy to wait until he’s hungry enough to accept good quality wet cat food.
Associated post: ‘Cat Whisperers’ don’t just read cats’ facial expressions but body language too (plus a quiz)
I think that I have to add the further note that this type of body language may be particular to an individual cat’s personality. What I’m saying is you might not see it across all domestic cats. But I do believe it’s quite common albeit subtle and employed infrequently.
