You’ve seen your cat licking her lips numerous occasions. Cats are identified for his or her fastidious grooming habits so it’s completely logical to imagine frequent lip licking is only a regular a part of feline hygiene, proper? Is there ever a cause to be involved about this habits? Lip licking is regular typically however there are some cases the place the habits may point out one thing extra critical is occurring. What’s regular lip licking and when must you be involved?
Listed here are some explanation why cats lick their lips, together with when you could must pay nearer consideration and seek the advice of your veterinarian in regards to the habits.
1. Grooming
The most typical cause cats lick their lips is for post-meal grooming. The habits is predicated on a cat’s intuition to take away scent traces after devouring prey. Leftover scents could possibly be detected by different prey and alert them that the feline predator is within the space. Since cats are additionally prey themselves due to their small dimension, it’s essential to take away scent traces after consuming in order that they don’t put themselves in peril by alerting bigger potential predators.
Photograph: Laura Chouette for Unsplash
2. Oral Ache
Lip licking can point out oral illness or mouth ache. You might also discover drooling. This drooling is totally different from the drooling displayed when a cat is completely happy (often whereas kneading). Together with frequent lip licking and drooling, the cat could paw at her mouth, present a decline in urge for food, and you could discover a foul mouth odor.
Photograph: Tetiana Hromiak for Pexels
3. Concern
Cats who lick their lips when there’s no meals current could also be experiencing nervousness or worry. To extra precisely decide that is the trigger, observe the quick circumstances and take note of different physique language alerts as nicely.
