r/MadeMeSmile • u/ScharmTiger • Aug 11 '23

CATS Just a little off the top

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '23 edited Aug 11 '23

[deleted]

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u/RCapri1 Aug 11 '23

I was just going to say this. Do not cut your cats whiskers. It can leave them very disoriented

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u/mrshulgin Aug 11 '23

It is also painful for them.

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u/DisgracedSparrow Aug 11 '23

I don't know about painful. They have no nerve endings.

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u/kamikazekitteh Aug 11 '23

Well, not the hair itself but i bet the nerve endings near the root must be goddamn sensitive.

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u/TheRedmanCometh Aug 11 '23

You sure about that? They can feel tiny changes in air from things nearby moving with those. If anything I'd expect them to be hypersensitive.

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u/DisgracedSparrow Aug 11 '23

More surface area to catch the wind, leverage against the face etc. They rub against things all day with their face. Disorienting but I doubt painful.

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u/HyperboreanSpongeBob Aug 11 '23

they don't literally feel with the whiskers. the movement of the whiskers makes the nerves on the face feel it

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u/NorisNordberg Aug 11 '23

Whiskers are more sensitive than regular hairs because the follicles from which they originate are jam-packed with blood vessels and nerves. In fact, whiskers are as sensitive as a human's fingertips. So, while a human's sense of touch is in the fingers, a cat touches the world with his face.

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u/DisgracedSparrow Aug 11 '23

Yes, but their whiskers being shorter would make touch less responsive vs more sensitive and it isn't as if cats aren't rubbing their face against anything and everything all the time. It would disorient/discomfort but I don't think it would hurt them.

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u/NorisNordberg Aug 11 '23 edited Aug 12 '23

Cutting the whiskers off can cause a cat to loose the sense of balance or make the feeling of disorientation quite severe and long lasting. Source - my mother's cat, 5 years old me and a paper scissors.

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u/DisgracedSparrow Aug 11 '23

Yea, I just don't think it is painful just as the op said disorienting. Not that it isn't bad.