“You can stroke me here, but not there”

Scientific study investigating where and by whom cats like to be stroked reveals interesting findings…

How true are cartoons like the one below? Do they actually reflect a cat’s preferences?

cat body
Image modified from: www.pet-happy.com

While most owners will agree that cats like to be stroked around the face area, there’s less agreement over other areas. For instance some owners report their cat loves being stroked on their back just in front of the base of the tail while others report it as a ‘danger zone’.

To try and get some scientific evidence behind this great debate, a group of scientists led by International Cat Care’s very own behaviour expert ‘Dr Sarah Ellis’ conducted a study which was recently published in a Special Issue on cats in the ‘Applied Animal Behaviour Science’ Journal.

What were the aims of the study?

In the study they investigated the behavioural responses of cats, when they were stroked on different parts of their body and by different people. They aimed to find out where cats enjoyed being stroked (or not) and whether the person doing the stroking had any influence on the cats’ response (study 1). They were also interested in investigating whether the base of tail area is a “yes stroke me” or a “no way” zone and if the answer depended on what areas were stroked before it. For instance do cats need to be stroked on the head and down the back before touching the base of tail, in order to find it pleasurable? (study 2)

Study 1: Influence of handler familiarity and body region stroked

Thirty-four cats were stroked on eight different areas on their body, both by their owners and by someone unfamiliar to them (an experimenter). Some of these areas contain specialised scent glands that cats use in communication with one another:

  • Peri-oral gland site (area around the lips, chin and cheeks)
  • Temporal gland site (areas between the eyes and ears)Cat Handling.docx
  • Caudal gland site (area around the base of the tail)Cat Handling.docx

The remaining five areas did not contain any specialised gland sites:

  • Top of the head
  • Back of the neck
  • Chest and throat
  • Top of the back
  • Middle of the back

Study 2: Influence of order of body areas stroked

Twenty cats had three different body areas stroked in two different orders; one involved stroking the head, then the neck to the middle of the back and finishing with the base of tail. The other order was the reverse.

What did the studies measure?

A coding system was used to identify behaviours and body language that would be considered indicative of whether a cat disliked the stroking (negative behaviours; such as biting, flattening ears and tail swishing) or a cat enjoyed the stroking (positive behaviours; such as facial rubbing the handler, kneading with paws and slow blinking).

The cats were videoed while being stroked and any negative or positive behaviours were identified and recorded. Each cat was given a positive response score and a negative response score.

What were the results?

  • The greatest negative responses occurred when cats were stroked at the base of their tails.
  • Being stroked by the owner (when considering all the scores for all the body regions together) led to more negative responses than being stroked by an unfamiliar person
  • The order of areas being stroked (from head to base of tail or from base of tail to head) had no influence over the negative responses shown.

So the jury is out! Stroking cats at the base of the tail appears to not be warmly received by all cats.

What do the results mean?

It was a big surprise that cats in the study actually seemed to prefer being stroked by a stranger rather than their own owners, as cats tend to reserve close physical interactions for those they view as friendly and familiar.

Before jumping to any big conclusions however, here are some possible explanations for why the cats in the study seem to have preferred being stroked by a stranger:

  • Cats may have expectations of how stroking is normally performed by their owners. In this standardised set-up, those expectations may not have been met – this could have led to cats feeling frustrated and thus exhibiting negative behaviours.
  • Cats may have previous negative associations about touch from their owners. For example, previously, it may have involved not-so-nice interactions, such as giving medication.
  • The variability in negative scores was also much greater when cats were stroked by their owner, suggesting that owners are likely to interact with their cats in very different ways, some leading to negative results and some leading to positive results.

Moral of the story: learn what kind of stroking your cat likes (if any) and stick to it. If you are interacting with an unknown cat, best to avoid the base of its tail… just in case…

We are interested to know, how and where does your cat like to be stroked?

Reference for the study:

Ellis SLH, Thompson H, Guijaro C, Zulch HE. (2015) The influence of body region, handler familiarity and order of region handled on the domestic cat’s response to being stroked. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 173, 60-67.

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6 thoughts on ““You can stroke me here, but not there”

    • crystaleagle24 says:

      Kara was a cuddly cat and you could stroke her anywhere. MM was feisty and could not be picked up but she loved her head, face and neck being stroked and also the base of her tail – her tail would go up and wriggle. ?

  1. simon7banks says:

    I’m sure you’re right that cats have expectations of how their owners will stroke them and thus any unexpected behaviour causes negative reactions. Cats are also pretty good at reading human emotions, especially in people they know well, and the emotions of someone taking part in an experiment will differ from those of someone who just thinks, “I’d like to stroke the cat”.

    I find cat Suzy quite predictable, except obviously if she doesn’t want to be stroked at all, she’ll let me know. Her favourite places to be stroked are the back of the neck and just below and behind an ear: in fact, it’s more like scratching or tickling than stroking. Sometimes she’ll get me to give attention to the behind-and-below the ear area when she’s on the bed and then lie down on my hand, but not so hard I can’t continue tickling. She also likes under the chin, but only briefly. Back or flank don’t interest her. Top of the head is OK, but she’ll try to manoevre me towards her favourite places. Although like other cats she’s nervous of her rear legs being touched, she will use rear paws as well as front ones to make contact with me. She’s not into tummy tickles, but regards any attempt by me to touch that area as a wild game. That meant I got scratched a few times, but she’s learnt from my reaction: now she half rolls over, invites an approach, sticks her paws out to stop me – claws retracted – and stares at me. She’s not bothered by any touch on the tail: in fact, me trying to bat her tail as she shoots up the stairs, she regards as a good game. I’ve never tried the caudal area just at the base of the tail.

    Cat Emma is nothing like as tactile, though much more into catnip; but she does love a good tummy tickle. Also if she comes in wet and I dry her with a towel, she’s quite OK with me gripping her tail gently to dry it!

  2. Rohvannyn says:

    It’s interesting to see something like this being studied objectively. I’ve found that the cats I’ve had are quite predictable but they also have moods, yet they are predictable then too because I know them and their behavior.

    Most cats I have known liked petting around the head, and sometime rubbing behind the ears and under the jaw. All of them liked to be petted down the back, ending at the base of tail area. That often causes “elevator butt” where the rump rises to meet the hand.

    Nezumi liked belly rubs, but only when she was in the mood for it, Shinji doesn’t seem to prefer them. Both liked to be petted along their sides.

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