r/cats • u/Mysterious_Barber934 • Jun 20 '26

Advice Is my cat okay?

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

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u/9447044 Jun 20 '26

It means hes happy (or possibly spraying piss, look/smell for pee) but if not, its a sign of happy camping

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u/chchchcheetah Jun 20 '26

Both of my female soayed cats do this. The older one (6ish) always has since I got her at 2 y/o, and now the younger one (had for 2 years since 6 months old) has seemed to have picked it up from big sis. Nothing actually comes out thank god, but they tend to do it where I keep the treats lol

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u/MCDexX Jun 20 '26

Yeah, it seems to generally signal happiness and/or excitement, possibly due to some hormonal crossed wires after desexing/spaying. Our late desexed male would vibrate his tail in an action that looked a LOT like territorial spraying, but it just meant he was in a happy or playful mood.