Do cats know when you give them kisses?

Most will feel loved, but a few will feel offended because…

Cats understand kissing equals friendship.

A 2023 Slovak study on cat-cat relationships noted that close cats frequently rub their faces and foreheads.

This is because cats’ faces have specific friendly pheromones, F3 (which expresses trust) and F4 (which promotes friendship). When cats rub their faces and foreheads, they’re exchanging friendly pheromones.

Therefore, cats will also use the action of rubbing their foreheads and faces to express friendliness, even when they are across species and cannot exchange pheromones:

Therefore, even though we can’t release cat pheromones F3 and F4, cats see these scent exchanges as a way to express friendliness.

When you kiss (and massage/rub) a cat’s forehead, they can sense your affection.

Some cats may find kissing offensive.

Some cats also dislike human kisses. This may be due to subtle details in our actions that cause them to misinterpret the situation:

If we approach a cat face-to-face, this direct gaze and approaching gesture can be perceived as provocative.

If your mouth/body odor is strong and the kiss covers the cat’s scent, it will be considered impolite to the cat, like “the boss forcing the younger brother to lick his fur”, and the cat will dislike it.

Use the correct kissing posture to show affection.

If you’re going to try kissing, avoid the two impolite behaviors listed above.

First, avoid strong oral odor. Second, it’s best to kiss the cat’s forehead gently, applying a gentle, watery kiss.

Don’t approach slowly, don’t look directly into the cat’s eyes, and don’t try to kiss a cat with a strong odor in your mouth.

While we’ve avoided behaviors that could mislead your cat, understanding your friendliness is one thing; whether your cat actually likes it is another.

How to tell if your cat likes kisses

When a cat likes a kiss, they’ll:

· Purring
· Licking you back
· Rubbing their cheek or forehead against your face
· Turning over on their belly
· Slowly blinking at you
· Kneeling, especially on you
· Standing still (this subtle expression is also acceptable).

When a cat doesn’t like a kiss, it may:

· Hiss or hiss
· Turn its head away from you
· Pull its ears back, resembling airplane ears
· Slap your face with its paws
· Rapidly and irritably flick its tail, or tense its back or leg muscles