# Open Mouth Cat



## ladymeowface (Jul 11, 2012)

My cat will be licking and cleaning himself, and then look up (either he gets distracted, sees me, etc) and his mouth will be WIDE open. He just looks around with his mouth open like he doesn't even know it's open. Is this common with cats? It makes me laugh because he looks ridiculous, but I was wondering why this happens.


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## Galathiel (Feb 6, 2012)

Mine doesn't do that so much as look up with her bright pink tongue sticking out. VERY noticeable against her dark fur.... so cute.


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## corinthia (Jan 25, 2009)

My cats do this when they are smelling the air. Cats have an organ on the upper roof of their mouths called a Jacobson's Organ or a Vomeronasal organ... Here is the wiki link so you can read more about it... Vomeronasal organ - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## ladymeowface (Jul 11, 2012)

corinthia said:


> My cats do this when they are smelling the air. Cats have an organ on the upper roof of their mouths called a Jacobson's Organ or a Vomeronasal organ... Here is the wiki link so you can read more about it... Vomeronasal organ - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Oh wow, I didn't know that.


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## corinthia (Jan 25, 2009)

Very cool. I learned about the Jacobson's organ in a comparative anatomy class. I think it was the only question I got right on the lab exam, because I refused to touch the dead cats.


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## cinderflower (Apr 22, 2012)

sometimes it's that (vomeronasal), like when they would smell my socks or something and then their mouth would freeze open in disgust lol. i didn't know about the organ.

then there's the other one that's just totally slack-jawed or when they forget to put their tongue back in their mouth. (my black one does that and it _is_ cute--she doesn't usually hang her mouth open) i've wondered about that too, because one of my cats never does it, and another does it a lot.


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## Kitty-The-Cat (Apr 8, 2012)

My cat does this often after she's smelled something interesting in the carpet.


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