by Margaret Karlan (Lake Forest, Ca)
Agitated Trance-like kneading in male neutered cat. My two year old male Ragdoll cat is a great cat but occasionally he jumps onto my husband’s lap and starts kneading with his front paws and slightly arches his back. He is not himself and is agitated during this time. My husband puts him down when he starts this. He is normally a loving social cat. I looked up seizures and he doesn’t have any of those symptoms. We mentioned it to the vet who didn’t seem to be familiar with these traits.Voted Best Comment: Accupunture vs. Catupunctureby: WallyOkay, so we have a pile of comments proving it’s a common concern about weird male cats with aggressive kneading habits, but no “expert” explanation. I figured I just have a kinky cat. However, I have this shoulder injury that pains me when I perform any form of heavy lifting or working over my head for extended periods. I came home one night and flopped down in a chair to relax and unwind. My cat always greets me at the door. He always stretches and holds out his left forepaw, with toes splayed, as if waiting for a hand shake or a high five. LOL He does this for no one else in the house. Anyway, once I sat down, he jumped on my lap and started purring loudly. Instead of staying on my lap, he walked up my chest and stood on my right shoulder. Keep in mind this is a 19 pound Tom cat. He began to massage my shoulder and worked the muscles deeply. Then came the claws. It felt painfully good on my tired old muscles and now I have become a part of his ritual kneading. He seems to know when I am sore. I have dubbed his kneading with claws “Catupuncture”. I agree with some here who portray the aggressive kneading as sexual in nature. I would be really interested in hearing from the cat psychologists and psychiatrists experts. I also welcome other opinions from people with a different take on the root cause of the behavior.
Comments for Kneading Male Neutered Cat
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New all 4’s kneading by: Anonymous I adopted a 10 yr old neutered cat in April. He occasionally kneaded me. Recently we were gone for a week. Since I’ve been back, he’s started doing what you all are talking about here…all 4, twitching and such. So, how do we make it stop? I didn’t mind the 2 paw, but after reading this, I’m a bit creep out.
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This is not kneading-for-milk by: Anonymous Those of you that think this is similar to kneading their mother for milk do not know what they are talking about and should maybe try reading the page before offering up their sagacity.
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that “weird” kneading by: Alexandra I am so glad, that I came across all these stories because I,too , have a neutered male cat who started one day, after I had gotten him a year earlier from a shelter, to hump my down-comforter. He covered the whole king size bed a few times in one session, which lasts about 20 minutes. When I took the down comforter away there was a short break, but then he discovered the pillows on the couch where he does his strange thing in a trance like state to this day. I would love to know where that behavior comes from. But right now I am just happy to know that he is not the only weird cat on earth. When he comes to sleep with me now, I followed the advice of a friend and let him have one pillow which he uses instead of the down comforter. Like one of you guys said: I don’t want to add another trauma to an already traumatized cat.
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Kneading by: AnonymousVeeNJ All cats do this from birth. Consider yourself loved big time. I know claws hurt so just let them do it for a min. They love the cheap soft blankets. They will knead it. Peace from NJ
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Sexual Kneading by: Anonymous Was searching to see if anyone elses cat did the same as ours. I’ve had several cats and the ragdoll is the only one who’s kneading seems to be a total body experience – muscle spasms through sides, using all four paws, in a trance and goes from standing to lying back to standing. Definitely seems sexual. He didn’t like touching at first and would move away, but now will let us stroke him a little. Doesn’t get aggressive and does it next to us not on us. He likes the doona and my youngest sons blanket. He will lie down and knead our legs during that part but usually prefers standing. Does it for 10-20 mins then either settles down to sleep or goes off somewhere. No aggression. He was neutered at 11 days old according to his papers.
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Normal? by: Brooke I adopted my cat about two months ago, he is now 8 months old. While the humane society says he is neutered, he still has his junk. Weird. He kneads me and my boyfriend quite frequently. Tonight, while kneading on a blanket I was covered up with, I noticed a weird smell. My cat also had an erection. I have never realized this before. I have no clue what was going on but it was WEIRD!!!Is this normal behavior?
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NOT normal kneading by: Anonymous To everyone saying “all cats knead” and “this is normal behavior”- you clearly don’t understand the kneading we are talking about. I have had cats all my life and I know what regular kneading looks like. My male, neutered cat of 1.5+ years has just started this aggressive kneading on me. When he is kneading in a relaxed way he will stay in one place and knead with his front two paws. Lately he has begun kneading with all fours, hunching his back and thrusting his pelvis forward while he does it. He keeps this position and moves all over the bed- but only on me, never my partner. He was doing it for around 20 minuets last night non stop. And it is very irritating when you are trying to sleep so I sat up and tried to move him and he turned around and tried to bite me (extremely unusual behavior for him- since we have had him he never bites or scratches and we have never even heard him hiss- he is very sweet).This kneading does feel VERY aggressive and territorial, as it is only ever on me and never on my partner. He will move all over my side of the bed, if he moves off me as he is doing it- he will get straight back onto me and continue the kneading. It’s REALLY weird out of character.
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male cat kneading seems sexual by: manda Oh thank god I found this page! My four year old male is doing this kneading dance on my legs at night in my bed. I move my legs and he follows them. Gets on with all fours and looks like he’s going to poop on me. He gets mad when I try to pet him and one day when done doing this he “screamed” at me. It was so out of character and scary. I knew it wasn’t the usual kneading of a cat. Right away I thought it was a sexual thing. Glad I’m not alone in experiencing this odd cat behavior. Thought I was going nuts.
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Kneanding and humping by: B-1961 My 10 year old neutered male started doing this 2 months ago and it is a form of masturbation, I have no idea why he would just start this late in his life? He has had a UTI for a few months so that maybe a link? When I touch him he seems to not like it and backs off but still kneads and bucks his hind end. It’s disturbing, but I’m not going to stop him and cause some other trauma for him.
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Cat behaviour by: Anonymous I have already commented on my she-cat Cucumella who kneads me very gently before going to sleep. There is nothing sexual about it. It seems to me that those cases where kneading becomes sexual it involves cats which have not been neutered correctly or completely. I remember that many years ago when a she-cat, I had neutered, continued to escape on the roof of the house looking for males. The veterinarian I questioned about it told me: “I only prevented her from having little ones not from falling in love”
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Not normal keading by: Anonymous I have seen kneading as well. What Carlos does and others that have commented here…its not normal. He only does it on a very soft blanket. I once read it was because he was taken from his mother too early. He was a stray found at approx. three months old. Christmas of 2015 I got him a new bed. Very soft like the blanket, which I took away from him because the kneading got weird and completely changed his personality. Really didn’t think that would happen with a bed. Well it did. His sweet personality got so aggressive that I gave the bed away and have my sweet Carlos back. He is neutered, but this was definitely sexual with the vibrating back legs and all. It’s like he turned into a jock dude who thought he was all that and a bag of chips! No more blanket. No more cushy bed. Plain bed and sweet Carlos.
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Unusual kneading by: Anonymous I have five cats. I have had many in my life. I have never seen this before. Cat becomes obsessed with hands, mounts shoulder or leg, fluffs with front paws, shakes back legs, becomes trance like. He is fixed, but this is definitely sexual. I find it creepy. I wish he’d stop. There’s no doubt this is not only different from normal kneading, as well as obviously sexual. There’s even wetness after. Creepy. I love him. But yuck!
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Kneading by: Anonymous My female cat Cucumella kneads on my lap, but it’s not aggressive. She likes doing this often in the evening when I’m sitting on the couch and then she moves away and goes to sleep.
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Cat Kneads With Toy In His Mouth by: Anonymous My 10 year old neutered cat will put his favorite toy in his mouth and will knead standing up while meowing. He only kneads when the toy is in his mouth, and as soon as you take it out of his mouth he stops and is normal again. However, when I reach out to him to take the toy, he meows and backs away, like he doesn’t want me to take it. He’s almost trance-like, and will knead in place for 10-20 min. He usually does this if I leave the room, maybe he gets lonely? I find it very strange.
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Strange Kneading Ritual by: Jenn I have a four year-old neutered male cat who has a very bizarre kneading ritual. My 13 year-old son is this cat’s favorite person, hands down. Marshmallow follows him everywhere, he jogs after my son wherever he goes and clearly adores him.About a year ago, Marshmallow developed this strange ritual where he climbs into bed with my son and straddles one of his legs. He gently kneads my son’s leg with his front paws while taking his back legs and alternately putting one back paw up on my son’s leg and then letting the back paw slide off to the side. He often kicks his back leg backwards when he puts it up on my son’s leg before letting it slide off. He purrs while doing this.He doesn’t seem aggressive or anything when he’s doing it, I would say he seems really mellow. It has never struck me as being sexual in any way either. Marshmallow will continue this for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. He primarily does this with my son. The only time he will do it to me is if my son has been gone for more than a couple of days visiting grandparents or other relatives. Then I guess Marshmallow misses doing his kneading thing on my son so he resorts to doing it to my leg.I figured Marshy was the only cat who did this, I was stunned to read this thread and find a few other owners with male cats who do the same thing. Would love to know what the reason behind this ritual is!
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display of dominance by: Anonymous We have a 15 year old cat that grabs his toy and holds its while kneading and bellowing. I asked the vet about it and he said it was a display of dominance. He started doing it when our puppy got bigger than him and our younger cat began asserting a little more. On a side note our cat does have some anxiety issues from time to time and the vet said it could be a stress reliever too. But he said it wasn’t necessarily sexual.
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Male Kneading Cat Gone Bonkers by: Anonymous My 2 year old male cat lays next to me on the couch every night when I’m watching TV. Just recently he has started grabbing the sleeve of my heavy robe in his mouth and kneading on my arm. He eventually gets very aggressive and stands up hunching his back while doing this. I’ve also noticed a strange odor coming from him. This must be a sexual thing, right?
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Male neutered cat kneading aggressively too! by: Anonymous For those saying it is just normal kneading, then you haven’t seen what many of us others are seeing! Which I’m glad to see I’m not alone! My male neutered cat also kneads very different from any other cat I’ve seen knead, and I’m pretty sure it’s…well, sexual! He will start off gentle with his front two paws on my legs or stomach, then starts getting the back paws involved as well. He gets more and more aggressive and hunched over with his back end pushing and then go into convolutions. Then, when he is “done”, he stops on his own, and he’ll let me pet him for just a minute before he turns all aggressive on me. He has even bit me before! Now I know the signs, so as soon as he stops purring (1 minute after hes “done”) I’ll shoo him off and he jumps down acting all “Kat King Kole”! That’s not your typical “knead mommas stomach for love and comfort” kind of knead!
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cat kneading and thrusting by: Anonymous I have read that cats kneading comes from an instinct, to try and get more milk from mom cat. Also a kitten purrs to mother to let her know the kitten wants her to stay and give more milk. It’s a reassurance between mother and kitten. Cats view their people “owners” as just a bigger version of mother cat, ie: because we feed them, take care of them. So these cat behaviors are just a cats way of trying to communicate with us. I have a 4 year old, neutered Maine coon/ tabby mix who likes to knead my chest while I pet him ( which he enjoys tremendously, more so than any cat I’ve had) He also thrusts his hips downward intermittently while kneading. I always thought he was just excited from petting, but it could be another instinctive signal, or mating behavior, habit.
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Neutered Male Cat Mating by: Sue My formerly stray cat, Smoky, (he’s about 1.5 years old) was adopted in April. I don’t think he ever had a home…..5 weeks later I adopted 2 male (neutered)kittens. They all get along. The babies adore the older kitty and they play, wrestle, sleep and chase each other daily. My cat Smoky will straddle the kittens while kneading on either side and will go thru the motions of mating as he has the baby lightly by the neck in his mouth/teeth and then thrust his back end a few times over the baby….sometimes there’s a few drops of moisture on the kitten. The kittens don’t mind a bit and if I push Smoky away, the kitten will usually follow him for more. They will turn over on their back or side while he’s in this ‘spell’. Both kittens are also males & neutered at 9 weeks before I brought them home. Strange and a bit disturbing as I’ve never had a male cat do this to me OR another cat but apparently per this site, it’s not that abnormal. I just thought it was because Smoky went over a year without being neutered until he was finally turned in to the shelter. I assume he has been prolific and is just doing this out of habit. He isn’t hurting the babies and they do get up & leave if he grabs them too tightly by the neck or they just don’t want that, but for the most part, they love their big brother and are okay with it! Still a bit creepy, but I guess it’s normal!
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My cat Cucumella by: Anonymous My female cat Cucumella, about 8 years old, only kneads me although she spends a lot of time with my husband, be it next to him or on his lap. It is me who feeds her and I had gathered that this was the reason why she only kneads me. There is nothing aggressive about it.Can anybody tell me if it is normal for a cat to lick you, sometimes hands or arms or even ankles?Many thanks.
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Weird kneading by Male neutered cat by: Anonymous I too have a cat that does a weird kneading thing. He is about 7 years old and has been doing this for years now: he gets on my lap or stomach and starts kneading with his front paws (like normal cats), while trying to put both his back legs on my leg and get them both to stay there while they slip off to the sides, they are very twitchy and he does NOT want me to pet him. He seems to be in a very trance-like state with his back arched and his whole behind seems to be twitching down. I have had lots of cats throughout my entire life (50 years) and have never experienced this with a cat before. He is one of the best all-around cats I’ve ever had, but I have to admit, this kind of freaks me out – I often wonder if it’s sexual in nature even though he’s fixed.
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kneading me only by: Anonymous Why does my female cat only kneads ME, never my husband although he does sit on his lap for long periods?
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Kneading cat by: Robin I looked up this page because my male, neutered cat is also doing the aggressive kneading while arching his back. Sometimes he tries straddling my leg while he does this. It isn’t the innocent kneading while being pet that I’m used to seeing cats doing. It seems much more domineering, compulsive and aggressive. I was worried my cat might have some time of urinary tract infection or something. I asked the vet about it a while back and they seemed mystified by the behavior. Even if I don’t have an answer, I’m glad to see my cat isn’t alone in this strange behavior, which leads me to believe it is natural and not caused by an illness.
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Cat Kneads my stomach every morninng by: Anonymous I came here because I have the same issue with my male neutered 3 year old Weegie. He always jumps in my lap every morning and begins to knead my stomach. He also slobbers LOL. This morning, he latched onto my arm and began suckling! It shocked me because he looked exactly like a baby. I got him when he was only 4 weeks old.
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Cat kneading with arched back by: Catopia The male cat is doing the same thing that you see male dogs do… Sort of. I have a male cat that has been neutered since the age of 12 weeks and he does the same thing. This strange behavior that seems aggressive, is pseudo mating. Basically, the cat is attempting to hump the person/ object that he is kneading “aggressively”.
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thank god for Cat kneading by: rhonda My doc say she gets more patients that need to have breast examines because of the kneading the cat do on woman’s chests……..it helps find possible cancerous lumps.
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weird kneading by my cat! by: Anonymous Hi, i no all cats knead and its quite normal but my two year old male cat sometimes acts very weird when kneading me. He begins to become obsessed with my hands and try to put all four paws on my hand and knead with all paws. He also gets aggressive and meows a lot. If i move at all He will bite also! it looks like he is trying to mate but he has been neutered! i have had other cats and they never act this way! they would knead me when being stroked but nothing like this!
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Kneading cat by: Eric This sounds exactly like what my newest cat is doing. It is a very strange looking dance. With the arched back, it almost looks like he is constipated when he does this. He does this every night he does this and will sometimes walk back and forth on me as I am trying to sleep. He will step on my face and head, and the claws in his back feet come out. Sometimes, he will do this for several minutes and then show some aggressive behavior towards one of my other cats, usually biting them on the back of the neck.
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neutered cat trying to “mate” by: susan My 4 yr old neutered male cat does this also. It’s not your typical kneading, he also arches his back and starts moving his back legs so that he is straddling the blanket, pillow, leg..whatever. He’s neutered but appears to be trying to mate with whatever it is he’s kneading. After he is done with this he rolls over and licks his “privates”. Needless to say, we’re pretty put off by this behavior…not sure what to do!
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Kneading in cats by: Madeleine Weymouth Hi, I find your topic interesting, kneading is something that kittens do to their mother when suckling, they often purr when they are doing this as my kittens are doing now. The mother also purrs and it seems that this is affectionate behavior between cats. It may be that your cat was taken away from its mother a little bit early and does this as a son would do to its mother as a kitten. I know that the cats claws come out and go back in during this so it can be uncomfortable.Your cat is probably just wanting a stroke and affection but doesn’t know how to get it. I had a cat that used to jump on my chest and knead my chest in the morning and even sometimes nibble my nose until I woke up. I figured that he wanted breakfast, lol. It is strange but not to the cat who see’s you as its parents and wants affection or in my cats case food. 🙂
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KNEADING MALE NEUTURED CAT by: Roz from Driffield, England Hi All cats knead, its something to do with pleasure, my female cat does it and purrs at same time. My old cat, male, did it. In fact every cat iv had has done it, so nothing to worry about.