Why do cats knead?

[Tibby]

@madsircool

Cats do it to mark their territory. They have scent glands in their paws.

YES! I forgot about that one. I do the exact same kneading when I want pests and people (redundant) to stay away from my rhododendrons!

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

@Francis_Vaughan

It seems that a cat that kneads a lot was taken from its mother early. Cats that are weaned properly tend not to have kneading behaviour - or it is much reduced. As MichaelEmouse writes, kittens do this to stimulate the flow of milk. Seems the behaviours get welded into a confused mess in some domesticated cats. Something that matches the idea that domesticated cats are never fully adult - and are slightly confused about their relationship to their owners (partly you are their mother, partly you are their kitten, and all of the time their subject.)

I believe this. I got a Maine Coon cat from a breeder who was quite adamant about not letting the kittens go until they were at least 10 weeks old. (So my cat was born mid-August, I got her on Halloween. Best trick-or-treat ever.) She did not have kneading behavior and she was my only cat for a number of years, so the behavior quite surprised me when the next cat did it…and the next one…and so on.

[Little_Nemo]

@Tibby or Not Tibby

demonstrating their undying affection toward you;

I think you mean “demonstrating that they see you as a means of getting fed”.

[SimonMoon5]

One of my cats has decided that she wants to knead a particular blanket. She never kneads anything else; just that blanket. And she doesn’t really have any other interest in that blanket: she never sits on it or anything (unless I’m under it and she wants to sit on me).

But that point about cats thinking you’re both their mother and their kitten hits home with this cat too. She will often grab my wrist with her paw (sometimes with both her front paws) and if I try to escape, she’ll dig in with her claws. Then, she licks my hand/wrist area repeatedly (with wet sloppy licks, not the dry sandpaper licks I’m used to from other cats), which has always made me think that she’s treating me like a kitten that she needs to take care of.