When your hands are licked by a kitten, you can say that it feels painful and happy at the same time - even though I am happy to be "favoured" by my master, it really hurts!

Does the cat have thorns on its tongue?

What are the "thorns" on a cat's tongue?

These "barbs" are not only used as straws. "The scientific name is papillae, and its composition is keratin (the same composition as fingernails).

It seems a bit trypophobic, but it is very useful!

Assistant eating:

In the wild, these barbs can pick the meat from the bones, making the most of the prey that was finally caught.

In addition, barbs can also transport food to the back of the mouth.

ps. The characteristics of cat tongues make it easy for them to hook on thread-like objects and difficult to spit them out. If a linear foreign body enters the gastrointestinal tract and forms a linear foreign body, it is a very urgent situation!

Natural "comb":

The fine papillae can effectively clean the body surface, remove dust, dander, and fallen hair, and can also improve subcutaneous blood circulation and make the skin more comfortable. Grease is evenly distributed.

However, the combed hair is often swallowed by cats, and cats may vomit hair balls or suffer from "hair ball syndrome".

Parents must comb their hair frequently~

Effective cooling:

The backward curved shape of the barbs allows them to absorb water using surface tension. The spines can only bring out about 4.1 microliters of saliva, but in a day, the cat's tongue transfers an average of 48 milliliters of saliva to the coat, which is one of the main ways to dissipate heat.

Feel the taste:

The sense of taste in dogs and cats is not as sensitive as humans. In terms of the number of taste buds, humans have about 9,000, dogs have about 1,700, and cats have 473.

Sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami.

They are much less sensitive to sweetness than humans and dogs. Some cats seem to like sweets, which may be attracted by the aroma of fat rather than sugar.

Cats hate sour and bitter tastes and like umami, which is one of the reasons why they love meat.

Helping drinking water:

Instead of saying "drinking water" or "licking water", it is better to say "containing water".

The cat curls the tip of its tongue back, and the flat surface formed at the bottom briefly touches the water, and then quickly retracts it, driving the water to form an "anti-gravity column", and closes its mouth to hold the water before it falls.

Because of this, if the water level is too shallow, the area is too small, and the height of the water bowl is too low or too high, it will affect the cat's ability to drink water. The purpose of this evolution is presumably to avoid drinking contaminated water.

The mechanism for dogs and cats to drink water is similar, but the dog's tongue extends deeper and the splash produced is larger.

Health and Wellness:

You can also learn about the health of the hairball by observing your cat’s tongue.

Under normal circumstances, a cat’s tongue is pink, dry, and has no excess saliva.