Cat body language

Reading the tail, ears, eyes and posture together

Blue Cross says a tail position “needs to be taken in context to the situation and what the rest of their body is doing”. Cats Protection’s guide to purring shows why. A purring cat with relaxed ears and whiskers, small pupils and its tail up or curled around it is most likely happy; one purring with its ears flat or turned to the side, wide pupils and its whiskers pointing forwards or down is likely stressed. Its Behaviour Guide adds that a purr of contentment and a purr of pain sound extremely similar, so the rest of the cat’s body language, its behaviour and the situation are what tell them apart.

The pupils change what the ears mean. International Cat Care reads ears that are erect and rotated outwards, with narrow pupils, as frustration, and ears held flat against the head, with dilated pupils, as fear. Cornell’s list of the signs of fear takes in the whole body: dilated pupils, ears flattened and held outward, whiskers pressed down onto the face, and the tail wrapped closely round the body or tucked under it. A cat that is open to company, in International Cat Care’s description, comes up to a person and rubs against them with its cheeks, head or body, holds itself without tension, and may purr, dribble or knead.

Tail and ear positions at a glance

The tail and ear pages each have a full chart. These are seven of the positions on them.

Kneading, purring, headbutting and the loaf

“Making biscuits” is kneading, named by Blue Cross for a motion like kneading dough. Kittens tread on their mother’s belly to make her milk flow, and Cats Protection calls kneading in an adult cat a retained juvenile behaviour, often a sign of contentment. Purring also starts in kittenhood, and cats purr in more moods than one: Cats Protection says they can purr at the vet or when in pain, and a 2009 study led by Karen McComb at the University of Sussex found a cry embedded in the purr cats use when they want food.

A headbutt is called bunting. International Cat Care says it seems to go with comfort, reassurance and friendly social interactions, and that a cat rubbing round a person’s legs is greeting them as it would greet another cat. The skin under the chin, on the cheeks and on the sides of the forehead has many scent glands. The cat loaf is a cat sitting with its paws and tail tucked right under its body. Cats Protection calls it a normal way to sit, commonly seen when cats are relaxed and comfortable, since legs tucked away are no use for a quick getaway.

Eyes, stares and slow blinks

In general cats find eye contact threatening, Blue Cross says, so a cat that looks a person in the eye with a soft, relaxed gaze has accepted them as non-threatening. A hard stare is another matter: Cats Protection’s Behaviour Guide says that holding eye contact, between cats or between a cat and a person, is considered confrontational. The slow blink is the friendly signal. In a 2020 study at the University of Sussex, with 21 cats from 14 households, cats half-blinked and narrowed their eyes more often when their owners slow-blinked at them, and were more likely to approach an experimenter after a slow blink. The authors suggest slow-blinking may have begun as a way to interrupt an unbroken stare.

Licks, bites and meows

Blue Cross says a cat that licks a person is usually showing affection, since cats that get on well groom each other. It adds that cats also lick when they are held or stroked and don’t want to be, and that a cat not left alone may then bite or scratch. Biting during stroking is what the ASPCA and Cornell call petting-induced aggression, and Cornell says that in many cases dilated pupils, tail lashing and ears moved backward come first. The ASPCA says adult cats don’t meow at each other, only at people; the meows page sets the chirp, trill, hiss, yowl and chatter beside the meow.

When a signal is new

The RSPCA says any change in a cat’s behaviour could be a sign that it is upset, bored, sick or injured, stressed or frightened. Cats Protection says the same of posture: there is no single sick cat sleeping position, and a change from a cat’s normal position is usually more important than the position itself. Two of the signals on these pages appear in a pain scale. The Feline Grimace Scale, developed at the Université de Montréal, scores five action units, among them the ear tips pulled apart and rotated outwards and orbital tightening, eyes squinted or tightly closed. If this is new or comes with other changes, check with your vet.