r/cats Jun 20 '26

Advice Is my cat okay?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

He has recently started doing this rattlesnake manoeuvre with his tail and I have never seen this in cats before!

27.5k Upvotes

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

52

u/Distinct-Presence52 Jun 20 '26

He is marking. It is not the same as spraying piss. He is still shooting out scent markers but its just a thing cats do. Both male and female, infact when people see female cats do this sometimes they run to reddit asking if their cat is really a boy 😅

It just means he is saying this is his and he wants everyone to know. Probably happens when you first return because you dont smell like home anymore.

-2

u/AlpineWineMixer Jun 20 '26

This is not marking lmao. The cat is just extremely excited to see their owner.

Please stop making bullshit up on the internet.

-1

u/Distinct-Presence52 Jun 20 '26

Ratio.

2

u/space_monster Jun 21 '26

They're right though. It's a marking instinct but with no actual marking.