Dogs typically love belly rubs and will roll on their backs to get more. With cats, it's a different story: Most are visibly uncomfortable when someone touches their belly, and the same applies to their feet and tail.
When a cat is petted in these areas, its body language often changes. "They might do a quick head turn, looking at your hand, or they might start moving away from you or wiggling around a lot, basically trying to get away from the petting," Mikel Delgado, a cat behaviorist and senior research scientist at Purdue University, told Live Science in an email. "If these early warning signs are ignored, they might escalate to biting, hissing or scratching."
But why do cats dislike it so much when humans touch these specific areas?
Although there has been little formal research into this question, animal behavior experts proposed a few ideas for why cats don't like to be touched in certain areas.
Off-limits petting zones
"Cats are prey animals as well as predators and so they can be very protective of areas that are particularly vulne...
English (US)