Cats can be selfish jerks, but the fact that they’re willing to groom each other shows they have a selfless side too.
Doesn’t it?
Not so fast, say two scientists from Belgium’s Ghent University.
While allogrooming — animals socially grooming each other — is a sign of community, alliance and social bonds in other species, apparently cats have found a way to weaponize it.
By analyzing footage of cats grooming each other, the Belgian team confirmed cats groom the way other animals do, signaling closeness, trust and all that good stuff…most of the time.
But they also use it to seriously piss each other off, usually to take possession of territory they covet.
“I saw these weird grooming patterns in my own cats where I thought, ‘This is not super friendly at all,’” Morgane Van Belle, a cat behaviorist and co-author of the new study, told the New York Times. “Sometimes one cat would lay on the blanket near the window and the other cat would come up and start licking it — but in an annoying way.”
The aggressor cat is hoping the other feline will get so annoyed with the invasive grooming that they’ll abandon their prize spot, whether it’s a sun puddle or a particularly comfortable spot on the couch.
The study’s authors believe there’s more to learn about this behavior, and understanding it can help people mitigate conflict among their feline overlords.
For readers who have multiple cats, have you witnessed this behavior?
For what it’s worth, allogrooming between cats and humans is a thing too. For example, I brush the Budster, and he grooms my hair when I’m in bed.
Some people find that gross, but I try to take it was the compliment it is. Thankfully I have not been subject to weaponized hair grooming, but I’ve seen examples of the behavior the Belgian researchers have identified, and once you realize what you’re looking at, it makes perfect sense. Taking a normal behavior and turning it into an instrument of annoyance is also a very feline thing to do.
Cats show great ingenuity, so we’re fortunate they’re extremely lazy. If sufficiently motivated, they could undoubtedly rule the world.
Pain In The Bud 
Hmm. Interesting. I have witnessed grooming from Cosmo and Luna grooming each other in cat bed when Cosmo weighed more. No room i guess. 😂Was Luna trying to thow him out of cat bed? He lost lot of weight because of his feline leukemia. But great news! He is on some sort of meds and doing well. When Cosmo was at his sickest they wanted nothing to do with each other. Now they are sleeping together again.
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I probably should have included this in the post, but the study says one way you can tell, besides the cat getting groomed looking uncomfortable, is by seeing if the cats’ body language mirrors each other.
Glad to hear Cosmo is doing better!
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Ramses grooms The Kid as a show of dominance.
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As someone who lives in a multi-cat household, I have seen this in action.
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It definitely seems to be common even among cats who get along. There are only so many sun puddles and prime spots available.
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Bella definitely likes to “bite” our hair if we are sitting on the couch and she is behind us, we see it as attention seeking, ie look at me and get me snacks.. She primarily has worked out that noise is the best way to get what she wants and is very very vocal – we call it “shouting” – she is olympic standard at it and it always works.
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We both have screechers. “Obey me, human, or face my wrath!”
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I will keep an eye on these two. Will be interesting to see if Luna grooms him out of bed when he puts on bit more weight. 😂But Cosmo loves my lap.
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The two cats I inherited from my daughter when she moved out were so stressed that there is no grooming between them. Not long after Sgt Stripes moved in, he tried to play pounce with my cat Kommando Kitty. He had her cornered. Snoops had raised Kommando from a kitten after we adopted them. Snoops did not take kindly to Sarge’s behavior, jumped on his back to let Kommando get away. We think she still holds the grudge.
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Most of the times I’ve witnessed this behavior, it’s been in a positive way. But I remember one time when my cat Lucy started licking my other cat, Moneda, and then out of nowhere bit her, so I pulled them apart, and it seemed like very strange behavior to me. I guess grooming wasn’t enough, so she decided to bite her… Luckily, it was a one-time thing, but when they’re together, I try to keep an eye on them. Just in case…
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Venus and Luna would not really groom each other, only a rare few times. They didn’t cuddle much either, but still liked to lay near each other. Their most common interaction was butt sniffing, which I’ll never understand.
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In my experience cats can be calculating and manipulative, so it would be no surprise at all if they sometimes weaponize their grooming behaviour. In fact, knowing Caramel as I do, I’d expect nothing less!
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