# Do cats have the same amount of whiskers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 1, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-have-the-same-amount-of-whiskers/226992 "2004-02-01T03:47:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paraphanelia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e79b87/32.png) [@Paraphanelia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paraphanelia)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-have-the-same-amount-of-whiskers/226992/1 "2004-02-01T03:47:27Z")
Does every cat have the same number of whiskers? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-have-the-same-amount-of-whiskers/226992/2 "2004-02-01T04:36:58Z")
Each of my three cats has exactly 24 snout whiskers. Ain’t that something? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-have-the-same-amount-of-whiskers/226992/3 "2004-02-01T04:39:59Z")
In support of my cat whisker count, I’ve found a few Internet mentions of cat whiskers that claim that cats in fact have 24 whiskers. None had supporting cites, but it seems like a heckuva coincidence. This one does mention Desmond Morris, and Morris knows his stuff: [http://www.catwhisker.net/faq.htm](http://www.catwhisker.net/faq.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-have-the-same-amount-of-whiskers/226992/4 "2004-02-04T16:32:06Z")
[pedant]My cat doesn’t have whiskers but she does have vibrissae. [/pedant] They’re kinda cute, because they’re white and her face is black. Are we counting the eyebrow ones too? ---
**Author:** ![Bob55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-have-the-same-amount-of-whiskers/226992/5 "2004-02-05T03:52:28Z")
I would have to say no - one of my cats has about 15 whiskers on one side. I also remember watching Discovery a few years back when they said that lions were identified by the number of whiskers. [This site](http://www.african-hunter.com/ultimate_field_guide.htm) has some pictures halfway down of lion whiskers and says: > [@](#): > > Like human fingerprints and irises, the pattern of spots at the roots of the whiskers is unique to each individual ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-have-the-same-amount-of-whiskers/226992/6 "2004-02-05T04:46:50Z")
> [@Bob55](#): > > I would have to say no - one of my cats has about 15 whiskers on one side. Older cats tend to loose whiskers; my cat just before she died only had 3-4 whiskers total left… I dunno maybe it’s the feline equivilent of balding. Perhaps 24 whiskers is the normal _original_ number cats _should_ have… sort of like humans _should_ have 32 teeth. Lots of people have fewer than that, some have more - but they all started with that many; barring exceptions for wisdom teeth (of which I would have had 5 if I didn’t have them pulled out). So I have 28 teeth and **Bob55** ’s cat has 15 whiskers even though I should naturally have 32 and the cat 24 whiskers. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-have-the-same-amount-of-whiskers/226992/7 "2004-02-05T04:52:51Z")
In the “Cat Who…” series by Lillian Jackson Braun, she makes quite a point of the cat Koko having 26 whiskers, which supposedly makes him more intuitive than the average cat. ---
**Author:** ![Bob55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-cats-have-the-same-amount-of-whiskers/226992/8 "2004-02-05T05:54:17Z")
> [@mmmiiikkkeee](#): > > Older cats tend to loose whiskers; my cat just before she died only had 3-4 whiskers total left… I dunno maybe it’s the feline equivilent of balding. Perhaps 24 whiskers is the normal _original_ number cats _should_ have… sort of like humans _should_ have 32 teeth. Lots of people have fewer than that, some have more - but they all started with that many; barring exceptions for wisdom teeth (of which I would have had 5 if I didn’t have them pulled out). So I have 28 teeth and **Bob55** ’s cat has 15 whiskers even though I should naturally have 32 and the cat 24 whiskers. Hmm, I just recounted both of my cats - each has about 14-15 whiskers on each side of their face, but my problem is defining what a “whisker” is. They’ve both got lots of little sprouting hairs which may be new whiskers coming in since they lose them all the time. But as hairs longer than about an inch it’s ~15. The cats are 4 and 5 years old. On a side note, I might be one of the few people around who actually USES my cats whiskers on a daily basis - I crush up protein crystals and use the whisker to grab some of the microscopic “seeds” and streak them into a new drop to grow more crystals. The seeds get caught in the barbs in a cat’s whisker and are easily transferred. [Here’s a picture](http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/protein/mirror/stura/cryst/streak.gif).