Expert: Tina - 10/9/2006

Question
Hi,
 Just got an 4 m/o kitten from the pound.  My 2 y/o cat has taken to licking the new kittens bum, I mean feasting down on it.  He suprise attacks the kitten while he is drinking and starts to lick his bum.  Gross and interesting all at the same time.  What on earth does this mean, if anything.  (both male cats)  Thanks

brian

Answer
HI Brian,

Usually butt-sniffing, as unattractive as it is to us, is the cats' way of finding out what the other cat is eating. Observations of feral cats show that when some are fed tuna for example, the other cats who sniff them will come to the same food dish as that cat next time. So if you are feeding the kitten a different food your older cat might be interested in that.

The other possibilities are that the older cat thinks the kitten's hygiene is lacking and is trying to teach him to keep clean, and also it's possible that this is a dominance behavior of a kind.

It's probably nothing to worry about unless the kitten is getting sore or stressed from the constant annoyance.