You know, how housecats knead with their paws when they’re happy. I’ve been told it’s one of those neoteny things and that kittens do that to get their mothers to let the milk down. Is that true, or do grown-up tigers make huge tiger paw biscuits when they’re in a good mood?
I don’t know about wild tigers, but I’ve watched captive mountain lions do this.
A video of just that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W461djpQl2s
Oh who’s a good carnivore! Oo is! Oo is!
Only, that doesn’t look like a real adult animal to me.
Is it really a sign of happiness? That is news to me. I know that when we got a new puppy our cat was mad as hell about this uncouth beast invading her domain, and went on an orgy of kneading.
Only when they knead to.
Sometimes cats will purr and knead as a way to comfort themselves when something’s unpleasant to them.
My ex-feral sometimes puts himself in a biscuit-trance. He’ll hunch over a blanket or something and knead furiously, purring. We think his mom wasn’t around for much of his childhood (he was born under my boyfriend’s porch at the time and we think the mother might have gotten hit by a car or something when the kittens were still fairly young - didn’t see her after a certain point.)
That’s a cub.
Yes, they do. I have photos of cheetahs that I took on safari in Africa doing just that.
My cat also does this, but he also grabs the blanket (or whatever) in his mouth. It’s nursing behavior. If I try to stop him – as I often do, since he usually has my bathrobe or some other object I don’t need covered with cat drool - he gets very upset and cries loudly and angrily.
It’s occasionally hilarious when he catches my pug sleeping, pins the disoriented (and sleepy) boy down, and nurses on his neck skin.