Whiskers

I was petting Jake the other day and I noticed that most of his whiskers are no more than stubs. He has only three long ones on one side and a few more on the other. Is this natural for a cat to lose his whiskers? Neither I nor my children have pulled them off and it seems really weird. Or is it part of his growing.

I would watch them and see if they grow back okay. One of my cats, when I first got him, had only a few whiskers. They grew back fine but the vet said it was caused by a vitamin deficiency. I would check his food and if he is not on a premium food or at least Purina Cat Chow then I would swap. He may just need a little more nurtition than he is getting.

Nena....I hope you don't mind...I also moved this thread to the health and Nutrition forums, I thought it belonged here, and you might get more responses to it here!

You don't say what breed Jake is but there are some breeds prone to brittle whiskers, too. The Sphynx is one which comes quickly to mind.
Pete

Whiskers do fall out. I have found them in the house, and know that my cats loose and grow whiskers just like our own hair. There was one time when my older cat only had 1 whisker above his right eye. Eventually, others joined them and he looked balanced again. When we got out kitten last year, my daughter thought she needed a "hair cut" and trimmed her eye whiskers, only one eye. For months, she looked really weird. After explaining what the whiskers are for, my daughter will never do that again.

Jake is a domestic shorthair. And I have him on a mixture of Iams and Eukanuba. But the whiskers are growing back. So I guess, its like losing a tooth or a nail or hair. Thanks for the suggestions.

Originally posted by nena10
Jake is a domestic shorthair. And I have him on a mixture of Iams and Eukanuba. But the whiskers are growing back. So I guess, its like losing a tooth or a nail or hair. Thanks for the suggestions.

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Not really. Considering how important whiskers are to a cat it is rare for them to lose them all at once (certain breeds excepted). The important thing is they are growing back; as long as they don't all fall out again he should be fine. Sure would be nice to know why it happened in the first place.

Pete

Yea, they do grow back! This is horrible, but when I first got my cat as a kitten, I was completely clueless-I wasn't paying attention to a candle I had burning and he stuck his face a little too close and burned one side of his eye whiskers. LUckily he wasn't hurt otherwise. I've also found them in the house before, so I guess they fall out too.

We have found that with extreme malnutrition in some cats we rescue, their whiskers will fall out or become so brittle that they break when they even bump into something. My Ivan was the one we rescued from the pound that was about to be put down. He was so sad and malnurished that all of his had fallen out. Luckily, I have him here and upon beefing him up a bit, his whiskers are just fine now.