Why Do Cats Make a Funny Face After They Sniff Your Fingers
My childhood Ragdoll cat, Rags used to leave his mouth open after he would smell things quite frequently, and I came to hate it because it was often after smelling urine or another cat's butt. But, when I found out what he was doing, I thought it was pretty rad.
You know what I am talking about - where they leave their mouth slightly open and then sort of daze off for a second and then lick their nose and close their mouth again? Last week, I ran across the street to a neighbor's house to grab their recycle bin that had been at the curb for a few days - I figured they were out of town, so I put the bin behind their house and came back home. When I came back home, Charlie would not stop smelling me, he had that cat stinky face and I
couldn't figure out why until later when I had stopped by my parents house and Caymus couldn't leave me alone either - Caymus never shows attention like that, so I knew I had something on me. Came to find out that the recycle bin had been sprayed by a male cat and I had the smell of urine on my pants - LOVELY. So when I came home, I immediately changed out of my pants and had Charlie and Trigg give them a good whiff, so that I could get a photo for this post!
There's a fantastic website called, Pet Tails that lays this out more in detail and that's where I got this information.
Flehmen Response Cat:
Cats hold their mouth open after smelling something because of their Jacobson's organ, a special sensory organ called the vomeronasal organ or Jacobson's organ that allows a cat to have 14 times the sense of smell of a human. The act of opening the mouth and drawing up the air to the Jacobson's organ is called the "flehmen reaction".
So, why do cats open their mouth when they smell?
Essentially, the cat is opening her mouth to suck in the air into the Jacobson's organ and take a really deep sniff of the odor.
This special sensory organ called the vomeronasal organ or Jacobson's organ allows a cat to have 14 times the sense of smell of a human. The Jacobson's organ which consists of two fluid-filled sacs that connect to the cat's nasal cavity is located on the roof of their mouth behind their teeth.
The reason they look dazed for a second or two is because they can learn a lot of information about their surroundings through their sense of smell. They mark territory using the scent glands on their cheeks and paws. The glands secrete pheromones, which are chemical substances that stimulate a behavioral response, such as an avoidance or aggressive reaction. Pheromones are also found in saliva, feces, and urine. When cats "spray" it's another way they are marking territory.
More About the Flehmen Response
It is a well-known fact that cats have a much keener sense of smell than us humans do, but how they manage to out-sniff us is not common knowledge. Nor is the fact that they have more developed sensory organs than we do. One of these sensory organs is Jacobson's organ or the vomeronasal organ, which provides them with very detailed information about a certain smell.
To use this organ, they must keep their mouths open and breathe through their mouths because its openings are located on the roof of their mouths, just behind their incisors. As they breathe in the smell, the roof of their mouths must be wet with saliva. It is also very important they only breathe in through their mouths. In fact, this is one of the reasons why they make that odd face.
They pull up their upper lip to permit as much of the smell to enter their mouths. Scientists have described the sensory information moving through the vomeronasal organ as being something between smell and taste. This should give you an idea of the complexity of the information provided by this organ. This suggests that cats use their Jacobson's organ when they want to go into particular detail about a certain smell.
What is the purpose of the flehmen response?
The flehmen response is heavily tied to identifying pheromones, which is extremely important for cats. As such, it plays a huge role in interspecies communication. The vomeronasal organ is olfactory-chemosensory organ which can help animals gather chemical messages from their peers. This is precisely why Caymus and Charlie were so interested in sniffing out the urine on the pants. They were taking in the pheromones in the male cat's urine.
The flehmen response is much stronger in males, which have to be particularly perceptive of the pheromones of females in heat, but also to those of other males. This plays a very important role in the mating process. This explains why in most cases, cats are using their flehmen's response to track down smells coming from other cats, and checking out if another cats butt smells. In households with more than one cat, they can be seen displaying the grimace more often. Moreover, keep in mind that you bring in new smells in the house from outside every single day. Your cat doesn't need to go out to sniff the smells of other cats because you are bringing them in for them. Aside from this, cats will use their vomeronasal organs to analyze very intense smells. For instance, you may find them with their mouths open analyzing your dirty laundry, which is heavily soaked in your scent.
Where is the vomeronasal organ located?
In cats, the vomeronasal organ is located inside the roof of their mouths. It has ducts leading to the mouth and the nose called the nasopalatine canals. On the roof of the cat's mouth, just behind its incisors, you can see two openings. These are the openings to the nasopalatine canals, which are filled with fluid. This makes it impossible for the smell to go up passively from the mouth to the nose.
For smell to travel through the canals, it has to be soaked in saliva and pushed up until they come into contact with the organ's sensory cells. This is where the intense mouth-breathing comes into place. By pulling up the upper lip, the openings of the nasopalatine ducts are also more exposed and the motion propels the saliva-soaked smell up the ducts.
What is flehmen's grimace?
This is the name for the silly face that cats make when they use their vomeronasal organ. The term flehman's grimace refers to the moment when they pull back their upper lip, expose their teeth, and breathe into their mouths with their eyes fixed in one point. "Grimace" is used precisely to suggest the exaggerated features they display in that moment.
What are other reasons why cats would keep their mouths open?
The flehmen response is a very complex process during which cats get extensive olfactory information, more than we humans will ever know, but it happens very quickly. It only takes a matter of seconds for cats to complete the process, after which they snap out of it. The flehmen grimace disappears and they close their mouths.
If you notice that your cat is keeping its mouth open for longer than a minute or two, the reason is not flehmen response. In fact, if your cat is keeping its mouth open for a long time, you should take a closer look to see what happened because it's not normal. Here are a few things to consider:
Has the cat been running or playing? Sometimes, after intense physical activity, cats might keep their mouths open to take in larger quantities of oxygen. That shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but definitely longer than the flehmen response. You will also notice your cat breathing heavily, which should also stop in a couple of minutes. If it takes longer than that, or if your cat hasn't been running or playing, then you should call the vet because your cat might be having difficulty breathing, which is a medical emergency. That is the worst-case scenario.
Cats might keep their mouths open because it is uncomfortable for them to close them or because they can't close them at all. This happens when cats have oral lesions or other issues of the oral cavity.
Gingivitis, for instance, might cause them significant discomfort, and keeping their mouths open might be a more comfortable position. This usually happens when cats have large amounts of tartar, which leads to the infection of the gums. If the infection extends further than the gums, then it is stomatitis.
Over time, tartar buildup causes periodontal disease. In time, this affects the ligament of the teeth, causing the teeth to fall out. This or other issues with their teeth such as fractured teeth can also cause cats pain and they keep their mouths open to avoid making the pain even worse by applying pressure to the affected area.
Other issues that might be making them keep their mouths open are tongue lesions or lesions located on the roof of the mouth and/or the inside of the cheeks - ranging from cuts and scratches to malignant or benign tumors. Another reason why cats would keep their mouths open is a broken mandible. In this case, they would not be able to close their mouths at all.
If you notice that your cat has been keeping its mouth open for a long period of time, then try to open its mouth, if you can, and check for gingivitis, scratches, cuts, or other issues. Take your cat to the vet and the doctor will do a thorough examination of the oral cavity to determine the reason why your cat is keeping its mouth open.
How do cats react when they smell something bad?
First off, we should make it clear that what we humans regard as "something bad" might smell very inviting to your cat. Raw fish, for instance, might make us turn away, but will surely spark the interest of cats. The opposite is also true - what smells great to us might smell very bad for cats.
So, when cats smell something that they regard as bad, they tend to shrug and crinkle their noses, and then do their best to get away from the smell as quickly as they can. If you want to see it in action, just give your cat a slice of lemon to smell. She'll vacate the premises in no time.
In this regard, the bad smells, not necessarily the lemon, cats are somewhat similar to us humans - they shrug and they try to get away from the source of the smell. Their reaction is more intense, though, because their sense of smell is also much more powerful than ours.
Flehmen Response FAQ
Clearing the Air About Flehmen's Response
Is your cat disgusted with you when it has its mouth open?
It is a common misconception among cat owners that cats make the flehmen grimace - yes, it actually has a name - because they are disgusted with a certain smell. There are plenty of jokes about how cats smell their owner's feet or shoes and then make the surprised face with their mouths open because they simply cannot stand the smell. As you can see, that is certainly not the case. Not only are they nor disgusted, but when cats use their vomeronasal organ, it means that they are trying to get more information about a certain smell. They are essentially scanning for pheromones. If anything, it should be taken as a compliment. So, the next time you see your kitty with its mouth open and incisors exposed, know that it is processing a very important smell. Have you caught your kitty with his or her mouth open? What were they smelling when you did? Or did you know what they were smelling? Tell us all about your flehmen response stories in the comments section below.
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Source: https://www.floppycats.com/how-come-cats-leave-their-mouths-open-after-the-smell-something.html
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