Why Do Cats Knead Blankets Before Lying Down

They spend a lot of time preparing their bed before snuggling in for the night.

Why do cats knead blankets before lying down. Some but not all adult cats still do this behavior. Cats unlike humans rarely just plop down in bed. As humans we cannot smell cat pad odors but other felines definitely can. Even though kneading a soft surface doesn t yield milk adult cats forever associate the motion of kneading with the rewarding comfort of.

Cats start to knead as kittens while nursing from their mother. When cats are baby kittens they knead their mothers like that to get the milk flowing. This bedtime ritual is a bit compulsive and sleep evades them until they complete their nightly dance routine. The most oft repeated explanation states that kneading is a leftover behavior from kittenhood.

It s what a kitten does to release milk while nursing. Kneading is sometimes colloquially referred to as making biscuits because the motion resembles a baker kneading dough. There s also a more practical aspect to answering the question why does my cat knead blankets cats have scent glands in the soft pads on the bottoms of their paws. Cats do after all tend to knead before sleeping.

When your cat kneads you the motion is called milk treading. The most common cause of this is being taken away from the mother too soon. Another hypothesis mentioned on petmd is that cats wild ancestors would knead grass to create a soft place to sleep. Why do cats turn around before lying down.

Sleepy cats turn around in circles and do a kind of a dance before going to sleep. Mother cats may knead on blankets to form them into a nest for their kittens. Before we answer why do cats knead let s look at how they knead. While kittens knead to make nursing from their mother more productive adult cats do so for a variety of reasons on soft surfaces.

During nursing a kitten will knead the area around its mother s teat to promote the flow of milk. Cats may knead on a blanket before settling down to sleep to make themselves more comfortable and to unwind. But why do they continue to knead past nursing age. You might find your cat kneading blankets stuffed animals or other soft objects around the house.

A nursing kitten instinctually kneads to help stimulate the mother s milk production. Through the ages the behavior continues to a natural part of cat instinct before settling down for a comfortable catnap. When they knead they release some of their unique scent onto the kneaded surface. When your cat kneads the bed s he is making a soft cozy area for lying down.

That scent serves as a kind of territorial marker for any unfamiliar cats that might come along and try to stake a. Why cats knead blankets and other soft objects. This is also a form of nesting instinct for a female cat. This by the way is similar to the theory that dogs turn around in circles before lying down because their wolf ancestors would do so to flatten grass in their resting places.

An unspayed female cat will knead a blanket when she is coming into heat.