Face rubbing

Our little girl (kitten) Sassy seems to have an obsession with rubbing the sides of her face on just about anything she can: cabinet doors, door frames, coffee table, end tables, an idle hand...

Its certainly not a problem, as a matter of fact, I think its pretty cute seeing the expression on her face when she does it. I don't recall seeing other cats behave quite this way, and I'm just curious about how common it is.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Bill

She is marking her territory - cats have scent glands in various locations, including the pads of their paws and on either side of their faces. When they rub their faces on things like you have described, they are leaving their scent for all others to know "This is MY place!". It is cute, I agree.

Gaye

When your kitty rubs up against you, or rubs up against your furniture he/she is actually leaving a little trace of pheromones that say, 'this is mine', in a friendly way.

My mom's girl Piper is the face rubbing queen - she rubs herself against anything if just given the chance. My Loki is also pretty good at it, but she is definately the master.

Our Aja does the majority of face-rubbing around here. She gets everything, nailed down or not: table legs, chair legs, tv stand, my legs, couch, corners of my laptop, my water bottle, etc. and she loves to get me fresh out of the shower! I just laugh. I know what it is and why she does it, but I still think she is funny because she takes it to the extreme. The rest are very ho-hum about it and don't have much interest in that.

Trent is our rubber. Every time he rubs me I tell him "Yes, Baby, I'm yours. I'm all yours." I think it's sweet that he wants to "claim" me.

This post made me think of my two fur babies. .. one is more cat-oriented and one is a mommy's baby. The cat-oriented one rubs all over objects, makes circles around us, but never rubs us nose to nose or head bonks. The mommy's baby is the head bonker, rubs nose to nose, but she rarely rubs on objects. Funny how these creatures are!

I know that it is a way of marking territory-that is, I know that intellectually, but emotionally, I prefer to think they when they do it to me, it means "I love you!" And the cynical side of me says winding around ankles and rubbing against legs means "Feed me! Look how cute I can be!"

Yeh - mine all do that too, and it's so nice to know they want me to smell like them!

It may be worth watching out when your cat gets a little older - sometimes it can be a symptom of toothache - one of my Persians had to have a tooth removed due to advanced plaque attack, and the vet mentioned that the rubbing may be caused by discomfort.

But I don't think that would be a prob with a kitten as young as yours.

Cheers
Yola

Our kitties do this too! I think it is so cute when they do!

Ivo is not much of a rubber-the only thing she likes to rub on are my pillows! But, she does love for me to scratch around her mouth and chin. So, to other cats, I must stink to high heaven!

Well, Christy, we weren't going to say anything but now that you've brought it up.....:

Oh, man! That weird guy on the corner PROMISED me that this new deodorant would work.....

You guys are too funny

Sassy and my cat, Dani Night Stalker, seem to be 2 peas in a pod. Dani rubs against my legs, arms, hands, and any and everything else, including window sills and cardboard boxes. We got a puppy about 4 months ago and I believe that Dani's trying to mark her territory. However, the puppy (Kashi) is oblivious to the markings and still gets into everything.

I've noted some slight jealousy between the two as they both strive to be attended to first when I come home from work. So far, I've always made Kashi wait until I've finished greeting Dani before giving him attention.

JoJo

When we had two cats they both used to spend a lot of time rubbing their faces against various objects. If anything new was brought into our home it had to be rubbed against immediately. The older cat went to Rainbow Bridge about 10 months ago, and now Snowball doesn't rub against things as often as he used to.