The answer is no!
Fluffy crawls up on your lap and begins to do a “cat dance.” Why?
A cat dance, otherwise known as kneading (or paddling) is a cats’ way to either express emotion (showing the person how much they love them) or to mark “their” territory. Cats will also do this in memory of when they suckled their mother.
How do cats knead? – When cats knead, they push one paw down and then the other, spreading their toes and ending in a fist like motion. They alternate their paws in this motion until they have made their “nest.” Kneading seems to be a comforting motion since most of the time it happens when they are content or happy. Have you ever seen an angry cat stop to knead its’ paws?
Being weaned from their mother too early is another well known theory. This more than likely isn’t true. Think about it, every cat I have ever known kneaded their paws one time or another. So does that mean every one of them was weaned from their mother to early? Not likely.
Cats also knead to mark their territory. Each cat has its’ own unique scent. Humans can’t smell this scent, but other animals can. Your feline simply uses its scent to “mark” its territory.
How do they do this? They have scent glands on the pads of their feet close to their claws. When fluffy scratches your lap, chair, carpet or any other spot in the house, it is leaving its’ scent to let everyone know this is where I have been and this is “my territory.”
Can you teach a cat not to use its claws while kneading? Yes you can. When a cat uses its claws to scratch the furniture or pull at people, you need to remove them immediately from that spot. A light tap on the cat’s nose with a firm “No” seems to work. Or lightly spraying them with a water bottle with a firm “No” also works well.
You can also remove the cat from the scratching/kneading position, than reward it for stopping. One example of this would be to place your hand on the cats back, tell it “no” as you gently push down until the cat is a laying position. When the cat stops kneading you reward it by saying “good kitty” or by giving it a treat.
So in conclusion, “fluffy” is not trying to upset you with its kneading, but simply trying to show you love and also to warn others “I have been here, this is my territory.”
