Feline Communication 35
the underside of the neck and the side of the head (Crowell-Davis et al., 2004).
Except when performed by a mother cat to her kittens, allogrooming has a social
rather than a cleaning function, although it is possible that the behaviour might
have evolved from the mother–kitten relationship into a social affiliation behaviour.
Allogrooming may also be another way of exchanging scents between individuals
and maintaining a cohesive group scent. However, grooming of each other is not
always an affiliative behaviour. The cat being groomed does not always appear to
enjoy it and aggressive behaviour sometimes occurs during or after grooming with
the groomer being the one more likely to act offensively (van den Bos, 1998).
Pet cats also learn various ways of soliciting grooming (stroking) from human
owners including purring, head-butting, and tapping or pawing with a forefoot. Also,
as when being groomed by another cat, most cats prefer to be stroked on or around
the head, rather than on other parts of the body (Ellis et al., 2015b). Pet cats will also
occasionally lick people that they consider to be friendly or that they have a close
attachment to, which might also be an attempt at mutual grooming.
Kneading
Purring and kneading, i.e. rhythmically pushing against an object with the front feet
whilst extending and retracting the claws, is a behaviour of kittens that stimulates mater-
nal milk flow. In adult cats it may be performed on soft material, e.g. bedding, other cats
they are socially bonded with and towards human caregivers. Unlike rubbing, it does not
seem to occur towards people so much when the cat is expecting food so, although it is
a form of food soliciting in kittens, the purpose of the behaviour in adult cats is unclear.
It may simply be a neotenic behaviour associated with pleasurable situations.
Olfactory Communication
Definitions
● Semiochemical (from the Greek semeion): a chemical substance used by plants
and/or animals to communicate with or influence the physiology or behaviour of
others.
● Alleochemical: the term used when the intended recipient or recipients of the
semiochemical are members of a different species.
● Pheromone: the term used to define semiochemicals used in intraspecific commu-
nication, i.e between members of the same species, from the Greek pherin (to
carry) and hormon (to stimulate) (Pageat and Gaultier, 2003). It can be argued,
however, that not all intraspecific semiochemicals carry specific ‘messages’. For
example, the ‘colony odour’ achieved by feline allorubbing might be a socially
cohesive scent rather than one conveying particular signals. Therefore, some
authors prefer to refer to these as ‘social odours’.
Many mammals, including the cat, use pheromones that can be ‘read’ by another
individual of the same species via both normal olfaction (sense of smell) and the vomero-
nasal (Jacobson’s) organ (Tirindelli et al., 2009) (see Chapter 2). Pheromones are used in