Cat slow blink

How to read it

Tasmin Humphrey and colleagues at the University of Sussex, who ran the first experiments on it, describe the slow blink sequence as a series of half-blinks, in which the eyelids move towards each other without fully closing, followed by a long narrowing of the eyes or a full eye closure. International Cat Care says cats aim it at people they feel comfortable and relaxed around, as a friendly greeting and to acknowledge them. Its opposite is the hard, wide-eyed stare with little blinking that International Cat Care describes in cats that are squaring up to each other.

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What the 2020 study found

The study, published in Scientific Reports in 2020, ran two experiments. In the first, with 21 cats from 14 households, the cats made more half-blinks and narrowed their eyes more when their owners slow-blinked at them than when the owner was in the room but not interacting. In the second, a researcher the cats had not met gave either a slow blink or a neutral expression, and the cats were more likely to approach the researcher after the slow blink. The authors conclude that the slow blink may work as a form of positive emotional communication between cats and people. They compare the narrowed eyes to the Duchenne smile, the genuine human smile, and suggest the slow blink may have begun as a way to break an unbroken stare, which cats can find threatening.

A follow-up study by the same team, at Cats Protection’s National Cat Adoption Centre in Sussex, filmed 18 shelter cats. Cats that answered a person’s slow blink with eye closures of their own were rehomed quicker than cats that closed their eyes less.

Slow blinking back

The 2022 AAFP and ISFM guidelines for vets include blinking slowly in the direction of the cat, noting that many cats respond with less body tension and are more likely to approach, even with people they don’t know. Cats Protection describes the same exchange for owners: a slow blink with the head turned slightly to the side, which a cat may return.

When half-closed eyes mean something else

International Cat Care says slow blinking can also come from cats that feel vulnerable, possibly to show friendly intent and avoid conflict, and that it is not necessarily an invitation to stroke them. Blinking fast is different: cats that feel threatened may look away or blink rapidly. The AAFP and ISFM guidelines picture an “inhibited” cat, one that is passively gathering information, with its eyes half-shut and its ears turned to the sides.

Narrowed eyes are also one of the five signs of pain in the Feline Grimace Scale, published in 2019. Its “orbital tightening” is eyes squinted so that the gap between the eyelids is less than half the width of the eye, or eyelids held tightly shut. If this is new or comes with other changes, check with your vet.