[liloddball]

Georgia is a rescue. I trapped her in a live trap when I was working with the tnr program here and turns out she was so tame and friendly. I kept her. Anyways I'm always unsure because she such a moody cat even though she's very loving and sweet.

She does this thing with her tail. Like a dog wags his tail and it's usually the end of her tail not the full tail that flicks and wags. She will do it whenever I say her name literally every time. But I've noticed it she does it when she's irritated or happy... But what if she's not really happy and just irritated and the tail flicking is my sign? Haha I don't know because she does it all the time. She's a very hard cat to read.

Anyone have any tips or knowledge on tail wagging in cats?


Sent from Petguide.com Free App

 

[Mochas Mommy]

Usually it is mild irritation and a warning that kitty is slightly more than unhappy about something and about to attack if it continues.

Maybe she doesn't like her name?

 

[cat face]

Like Mochas Mommy said, half the tail, flicking, is a slight irritation. In most cases it's about equal to a middle finger gesture, especially if the flick is curled up and over the back. :yikes LOL

The speed of the flick is important, the faster, the more irritated, BUT a slow flick is more inquisitive and decisive.

When the whole tale is waving about and flicking, then you are getting a big, "I'm ticked!" signal.

Cats have practically whole conversations with their bodies and no sound. In fact, usually by the time a cat is meowing to you, it is thinking SHEESH, how many times have I told you already, NOW I have to YELL!

Their eyes, ears, tails, positions of the body, the location of their body in reference to the area it is located, their posture, etc. All these things and more are busily talking way and other cats and unfortunately, to you! lol Don't worry as much as you are trying to communicate to your kitties, they want to communicate back to you.

 

[liloddball]

When I say all the time I mean always. Her tail never stops moving and it's always the very end flicking back and forth. She doesn't seem irritated half the time lol cause her tail is going like that even as she's rubbing her scent all over me and giving me little kitty kisses. It seriously reminds me of how a dogs tail wags when it's happy.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App

 

[tweeters]

My Jack does that end of the tail flip/wag thing too. It reminds me of someone drumming their fingernails on a hard surface. He mostly does it when he wants me to notice him or if he's bored. I take it as, "I'm annoyed you're ignoring me; why can't you pay attention to me!?" because he seems to do it to engage me.

 

[cat face]

When I say all the time I mean always. Her tail never stops moving, and it's always the very end flicking back and forth. She doesn't seem irritated half the time lol cause her tail is going like that even as she's rubbing her scent all over me and giving me little kitty kisses. It seriously reminds me of how a dogs tail wags when it's happy.

<shrugs> I don't know, never heard of a tail with chronic tail movement. Perhaps you might mention it to your vet on your kitty's next visit.

I can tell you that dog and cat tail movements are not saying the same things. It's kind of like Japanese and French making a similar sound for a word, in a sentence. Not the same.

 

[Marcia]

She's saying in her best whiney teenager girl voice "STOP SAYING MY NAME!!!" or "STOP LOOKING AT ME" or "STOP LIVING IN MY SPACE" or "STOP BREATING MY AIR".

 

[marie73]

Or "STOP LOOKING AT MY POOP!!" or "STOP TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH I PEE!!!"

:grin:

 

[NebraskaCat]

Nala flicks the end of her tail against me as a term of affection ... it's not always a negative.

There have been several other threads on this. I just did a search for the word "flicks" and came up with a bunch - not just tail flicking but a lot of the other tail language too.

 

[CatMonkeys]

That sounds just like one of my cats, even down to the tail twitching when I say her name! She was a semi-feral kitten and I've assumed that the non-stop tail movement was maybe her way of calming herself. In her case, tail movements have nothing to do with her mood; she can be sitting in my lap purring and kneading and the tip of her tail will still be swishing back and forth.

Her brother (litter mate) has always been more social and has "normal" tail movements. I've wondered if it has to do with her maybe having anxiety, as she had more feral behavior than her brother when the shelter caught them as kittens, and maybe the constant tail movement is her way of self-soothing? But her tail is always going, even when she seems perfectly happy.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App

 

[liloddball]

This sounds just like her. She was a street cat and caught in a trap and turned out to be so friendly and loving. Having anxiety and it being a self soothing thing would explain a lot. Her tail is just always in constant moving except for when she's asleep..I would never have thought that she may do it as a self soothing thing.





Sent from Petguide.com Free App

 

[cat face]

Yay! gotta love this forum There always seems to be SOMEBODY who has heard of whatever it is you're enquiring about!

Glad there was another twitchy tailed cat out there!
Learn something new all the time

 

[CatMonkeys]

Kelly's tail twitching has always reminded me of a nervous person tapping their foot or biting their nails- like a physical reaction to anxiety. She is definitely not stressed like she was as a kitten (she's about 1.5 years old now and generally pretty relaxed/calm, no more feral behavior), but her tail is always moving just the same. My theory is that she started as a self-soothing type of thing and now just has a habit of doing it, even though she's not scared anymore.

 

[bluemilk]

A little swish of the tail is inquisitive.

 

[snowy]

A little swishing is probably fine. ET does it whenever he is relax. The only time I see vigorously swishing of his tail is during play and grooming. I used to get bitten real badly during grooming sessions but that has stopped more than 1 year ago, but his tail is still swishing vigorously during grooming sessions. I have to keep grooming session swift and short. It used to be rather nervy for me whenever his tail swishes vigorously during grooming sessions, but I have gotton used to it now.

He is now tolerating grooming merely for the greenies treats which he ONLY get during grooming session. I have recently stopped feeding Greenies though I still have 3bags of it and I was wondering if he will still stay still when I stopped Greenies and switched to baked chicken and Evo treats. Oh well, everything turned out well.