# Eating whisker



## lilmssmc (Mar 10, 2009)

Just a couple of seconds ago, I found one of my cat's whiskers that had fallen out on her body. She had just woken up so she had her eyes half shut, but when I presented the whisker to her nose, she immediately woke up and showed great interest in eating it. She won't even take treats from my hand because she doesn't want to bite me (she just opens her mouth and barely brushes the end of the treat), but with her whisker, she didn't have much interest in keeping her teeth off of me. Not aggressively, just interested in the whisker.

I've never seen this before, do most cats show this much interest in their own whiskers?


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## WhiteKitties (Dec 22, 2008)

I got the exact same response from Fern when I showed her a whisker that had fallen out of her or her sister's nose - she immediately snatched it out of my hand and swallowed it. I'm not sure if that's weird or not, hopefully someone else can shed some more whiskers (err, light!) on the subject.


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## lilmssmc (Mar 10, 2009)

I know, it was quite different than anything I'd seen her do. I googled it and didn't get any helpful information.

I thought Heidi would have already responded to this subject! haha


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

I didn't respond, because...  ...I have a tendency to pick up whiskers and *poke* them at the cats to watch their reaction.  :lol: 
_*I was afraid it may have been seen as 'cruel' until I had time to explain...*_

I hold the whisker at either end, noting the differences of how it 'feels' in my fingers when I 'poke' them, how the whisker bends and what reaction I get out of the cat. When I hold the root-end I can stroke very delicately, with the tapered end of the whisker gently stroking over the cat, and they think that tickles. Then I'll hold the whisker by the middle so the root-end is a sort of 'poke-y' stick and poke at them. They don't care for that and will try to bite it/me. 
However, *I* notice the difference in the "feel" of the whisker between my fingers depending on how I hold it. Holding it in the middle and poking the root-end, I feel *more* than when I hold the root-end at a diagonal and touch things with the fine/tapered end of the whisker. This allows me to understand exactly how sensitive a cats' whiskers are: _if they don't react to the fine end touching something, the closer the whisker gets to an object, the more the whisker will react/bend and that resistance will transfer down the whisker, the thicker it gets, until it reaches their muzzle where all the nerve endings are that pick up signals..._ I find it a different way to think/understand/learn how my cats interpret their world around them...


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## gunterkat (Aug 19, 2006)

I have found a couple of Arianwen's whiskers that fell out. I never thought of showing a shed whisker to her, though.

I read somewhere that one thing cats' whiskers do is help them sense tiny air movements associated with prey moving near them in the dark.


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## s_mitters (Feb 16, 2006)

Smitt has shed many a whisker. When I run accross one, I save it for a Smitt Scrapbook one day. Yes, he has seen one of his own whiskers & was very interested in it. He bit at it, but not so sure he would have eaten it. lilmssmc was probably just groggy & chomped down without thinking :?: 
I've collected enough whiskers to make a cat!!


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## lilmssmc (Mar 10, 2009)

Thanks for the responses. Heidi, no wonder you understand cats so well, you seem very interested in how they see their world! It helps the rest of us out a lot.

Smitters, it seemed more as if my cat (her name is actually Cricket, sorry for any confusion :lol: ) liked the taste, and acted more interested in eating the whisker than her actual treats! I only got a tiny bit of help from using google (which is VERY surprising!) and someone said that the cat won't be interested in eating the whisker unless it has just recently fallen out. I guess if it's fairly old, the cat doesn't care.

I'm just extremely curious as to what's on their little whiskers that is so tasty, or if it has something to do with instinct. haha.


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