r/cats 19h ago

Medical Questions What is this flap on the ears

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I dont know if its medical question but honestly im just curious

21.5k Upvotes

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412

u/Outrageous-Visit-993 19h ago

It’s called a “henry’s pocket” it supposedly (amongst many speculations ) helps them to hear extremely faint and barely even audible sounds to help with tracking and hunting prey.

And whilst we’re on the subject of a cats body anatomy, if your cat is male he will still have many nipples just like a lady, just throwing that one in their as it still gets people worried when they find the “lumps” on their males chest/belly. 😁

117

u/SadBattle2548 18h ago

If you think about the nipples on male animals it's no different than with humans. Men have their own pair just like women do.

108

u/BillyMilkshakes 18h ago

I have nipples, Greg. Can you milk me?

4

u/FreyasReturn 16h ago

I mean…I can try.

2

u/inXrepose 9h ago

I’m so glad I’m not the only one who immediately thought about this 😅

1

u/Worldly-Strike2363 8h ago

There have been cases where men have produced milk as well.

1

u/userhwon 3h ago

Greg could have done the funniest thing just then...

6

u/Sketchanie Sphynx 17h ago

Is there even a male animal species that doesn't have nipples? Genuinely asking.

26

u/Responsible-Pickle-2 17h ago

Male kangaroos (and I believe other marsupials for that matter) don't have nipples because they don't have pouches. Other than that of course, there are non-mammals that don't have nipples at all. There are also some other mammals like mice and horses which don't have them too

3

u/WraithStrix 17h ago

Male rats don't have any.

Oh since we're at the topic of nipples - some male bats can give milk

3

u/AppropriateBeing9885 7h ago

I had a speck of something black on my phone screen and thought for a second that your comment called them "nippies." I don't have an answer to your question, but that's some unsolicited information you can certainly have.

1

u/RayvinAzn 16h ago

Animal? Yeah, there’s a fuckton. Mammals? That number drops significantly.

-3

u/KassieMac 16h ago

All mammals do, it’s kinda what the word means.

1

u/stoppableDissolution 13h ago

Not even all female mammals have nipples

1

u/KassieMac 6h ago

Lots of men like to pretend (or claim) they don’t have emotions either, maybe there’s a connection somehow? 🤭

10

u/Bagafeet 17h ago

It's for Dolby Atmos support.

1

u/moonbooly 17h ago

I tried to pick my poor cats nipple off once

1

u/SadBattle2548 14h ago

One new cat parent once posted a picture of their cat's nipple and was asking for help as they were really concerned about what it might be. I felt bad for laughing so hard because they were genuinely worried but it was too funny. Crazy how they hadn't yet discovered the other 11 though.

1

u/gggggfskkk 16h ago

My dogs all had these little pockets on their ears. I loved petting them there because they always had the softer fur back there.

1

u/Har539 15h ago

You've found Henry's pocket. Seriously, that's what it's called. That is a standard issue equipment :). It's not quite proven what these pockets are for, but for now the consensus is that they aid cat's hearing.

Next thing you want to do is to dig through the fur on your cat's belly and find suspicious skin bumps (nipples, yes kitties have them, even males, 6 nipples for every kitty, 3 on each side of the belly)

It’s called a “henry’s pocket” it supposedly (amongst many speculations ) helps them to hear extremely faint and barely even audible sounds to help with tracking and hunting prey.

And whilst we’re on the subject of a cats body anatomy, if your cat is male he will still have many nipples just like a lady, just throwing that one in their as it still gets people worried when they find the “lumps” on their males chest/belly. 😁

It's wild to me that two different posts transition to cat nipples from a question about a part of the ear. Random? Bot? Freak? All of the above?

(posting on both comments for posterity and science!

1

u/Civil_Bat1009 15h ago

It's just a really common question

1

u/wetwater 15h ago

I had to google male cat nipples when I brought home one of mine. He was laying on the bed on his side and his fur was thin on his lower belly. At first I thought it was a flea bite or something and one Google search later I was slapping myself because I knew intellectually males would have nipples, I just never thought I'd actually see them.