Kneading?

Do your cats knead? Sometimes, always, or never? Certain times or places? Why do you think they knead?

Dusty will sometimes knead but never for more than a few minutes, and when I say sometimes I mean he might do it once or twice a month. Sassy kneads a few times a day. The other day she was kneading the chair arm where I was sitting and I noticed something dripping off her, and I thought it was drool. I looked closer and her nose was dripping! I wiped her nose with a nearby tissue and she snapped out of it but she had been kneading for a while. My sister says she kneads one of the pillows in my sisters bed for well over 10 minutes. It doesn't hurt anything but she becomes entranced while doing it.
My mom thinks the kneading has to do with how kittens feed off their own mothers and they knead their moms to stimulate more milk, something to that effect. I think maybe Sassy still does it because she wasn't properly weaned but my mom had a cat that was properly weaned and still kneaded all of her life (20 years). Maybe it's comforting to them? When I was growing up I thought my mom's cat did it to soften up the bedding, but Sassy doesn't always lay in the places she kneads. Dusty always lays in the places he kneads even though he doesn't do it often.

What do you guys think? Have you observed your cat kneading and noticed anything to figure out this mystery?

 

They absolutely do.

I remember that my older cat especially loved doing it when she would go through belly-sleeping phases. As in, she wanted to go to bed by sleeping on someone's belly. So she would wait for you to lay down, hop up on the belly, and then just knead away. It tickles so much, lol.

 

Ohmygod, Dorian would do it almost constantly! He was the worst about doing it to people's bellies when he was trying to sleep on it. I've yet to catch Alice doing it, but Sibyl does every once in a great while. It's cute when they do! I don't see an issue with it, I just think it depends on the cat in question.

 

That's adorable!! It hurts, but it's cute. Sassy knicked my leg while kneading a few weeks ago, so those claws can hurt.

Another belly cat! And tummies are pretty sensitive so that could be a ticklish spot. A long as they're not hurting anything, let them have their fun! I think it's a fun little quirk that cats have. A quirk we don't understand, but a fun one none the less!

 

I have had a cat that would knead on people and then I had other cats that would only knead on certain blankets or certain pillows ... so no mystery solved on my end. All i know is it always leads to lots of purring.