There are few greater honours than receiving a lick from a cat. Felines dispense their attention discerningly, so when they deem you worthy of a lick, it’s a big deal. Even so, those who count themselves among the lucky may have noticed something: cat tongues feel a bit like sandpaper. After your first, second, or third lick, you may have asked yourself: “Why do cats have coarse tongues?” As it so happens, there’s a reason for this.
In this article, we answer the question “Why do cats have coarse tongues?” once and for all.
Grooming: Cats use their tongues as cleaning implements
As any cat lover will know, kitties maintain the highest grooming standards. For this reason, their tongues function like a mixture between a mop and a broom. While the moisture from their saliva cleans their fur and nullifies bad odours, their tongue barbs (or “papillae”) latch onto dirt, detached fur, and any other errant mess.
Beyond rinsing and cleaning, their papillae also act as brushes, straightening out fur knots and clumps. Of course, all of that loose hair needs to go somewhere – which is why cats often cough up fur balls.
If you need to reduce their self-grooming a little, consider some of the cat grooming products from our friends at Pet Chemist. Simply order online and all your cat’s essentials will be delivered direct to your door within days!
Eating: They don’t speak with forked tongues, but their tongue is their fork
Similar to the way in which pooches eat their dog dinner, cats use their tongues to scoop up food. In the wild, the papillae on cats’ tongues can shear the meat off the bone of any prey they’ve claimed. While this purpose may seem pointless for lap cats, it serves as a reminder that our fluffballs are still predators.
Hydration: A cat’s coarse tongue makes drinking water easier
When drinking, the structure of the papillae aids in lapping up liquids more effectively, as they can bring water into the mouth more efficiently than a smooth tongue would.
A final interesting fact about the anatomy of a cat…
Cat tongues and fingernails have more in common that you might think.
So, these papillae we’ve been talking about? The clusters of tiny barbs that make our cats’ tongues rough? They use keratin as their building blocks. As a type of protein, keratin is a key ingredient in human hair and fingernails. In other words, keratin could be the common denominator that makes both fingernails and cat tongues “scratchy”.
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