Why Do Cats Open Their Mouth When They Smell Something
Camila Farah
Cats already have an excellent sense of smell.
Why do cats make that open mouth face. Why do cats open their mouths when they smell something bad. The jacobsen s organ is located at the roof of the mouth and when a cat smells something interesting either a good smell or a bad smell he she will open the mouth a bit to allow the scent. Scientists think the sensory information moving through the vomeronasal organ falls somewhere between the.
This is called the vomeronasal organ or more commonly the jacobson s organ. The reason your cat is making that strange face is that during the flehmen response your cat is using their tongue to flick the scent and molecules towards the ducts. Cats tend to do this alot around things that might have other cat scents on them. But the cat is not the only animal that has this incredible organ.
The jacobsen s organ as it is. A cat s nose is four times more potent than that of a human. The cats slightly raise the upper lip to create a pumping mechanism that allows odors reach the vomeronasal organ. So cats are thought to smell their owner s mouths as they comforted by the unique smell of their owner s breath.
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I brought a rug home from my mother s house awhile ago and my cats all sat around it with their mouths open trying to get all the info they could about my mother s 3 cats. There are plenty of jokes about how cats smell their owner s feet or shoes and then make the surprised face with their mouths open because they simply cannot stand the smell. But whenever the cat feels that there is an interesting scent present in the atmosphere it tries to suck the air so that it can try to recognise or identify the smell with the help of the vomeronasal organ. It enables their jacobsen s organ located in the roof of their mouths to investigate the scent.
Cats most often make the face after smelling where another cat has sprayed. According to studies cats have a habit of breathing with the help of their nose. It s thought that by using the flehmen response cats can identify certain information like the cat s identity if it s a stranger if the cat is male or female and if he or she has been spayed or neutered. Flehmen response in a stallion.
It is a common misconception among cat owners that cats make the flehmen grimace yes it actually has a name because they are disgusted with a certain smell.
Source : pinterest.com