Weird Mouth Thing When Playing.

biscuity

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This has just started. Coojee is 5½ months old, strong & fit. She has many cat toys & is very happy. Her favourite toy at the moment is a sheet of white paper screwed into a ball.

Two days ago, I was throwing the "ball" for her as she was running after it & playing. After playing up & down the stairs, I noticed at one point that she had her mouth open for a short period after running to the top of the stairs for the ball. I stopped playing as I thought she was panting (or mouth breathing) from over-heating.

Yesterday it happened again. But I don't think it's her panting, but to be fair, I've never seen her panting. It's definitely not the chatter noise if she sees a bird at the window, but the mouth movements could be a silent chatter, although her mouth is open a little wider than a chatter. I'm wondering if it could be some sort of excited hissing or growling action - but silent. Maybe it's her out of breath?

When she does it, she has caught the ball, played & but not yet ready & positioned for it to be thrown for her again. She is not doing it facing towards me. It's not a silent meow.

Her other big favourite is a laser toy. I'm dreadfully careful playing with her with that & never take any risks with it near her eyes, but she does love it. I use it for fairly short periods so that it doesn't frustrate her too much. She does do the "bird in the window" chatter with the laser toy, but not the "panting" thing.

As I've never seen a cat do this before, I stop the game when I see this. Any idea what is happening?
 

mightyboosh

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I won't cheat and Google this, I'll give a couple of examples of Oliver doing this and in his case it's nothing due to exertion.
He was ten yrs when I was lucky enough for him to adopt me and on the way home in the carrier, his mouth was open all the way so I put that down to anxiety and some fear.
If he's in super cuddle mode he will sometimes have his mouth open whilst I'm stroking him. He also dribbles a bit sometimes when he's doing this. I put this down to 'can't get enough of these cuddles.'
 

MarcEwing

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Talk to your vet if you notice that your cat constantly her mouth open for a some time, but i dont think its a problem. Maybe just Flehmen reaction.
 
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biscuity

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Thanks for your reply.

I will be seeing the vet soon to discuss the neutering operation. I don't think it's Flehmen reaction as she has sniffed many weird things around the house & never displayed any reaction as yet.

I'm thinking that it may be a version of hunting chattering, or maybe a silent hiss or silent growling. I will keep a careful watch.
 

Wile

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Hard to tell without an image, but it sounds like panting to me. Or an excited chatter/pant hybrid?
 

Noirele

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I think she is panting. My cat does the same, actually he has two "panting mode", the first one is when he opens his mouth for a couple of seconds while playing and excited, the second one is full panting with tongue outside, for 10-30 seconds. It's not a big deal if she plays a lot, especially is she recovers quickly.
 

jen

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5.5 months? She is probably teething so maybe she has a loose tooth that hasn't come out yet?
 

CatCrazy777

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I think its panting as well, probably because of over excitement. Antonio does it too - what my partner calls his crazy moments :lol: Sometimes he gets really excited when playing that he really bounces off the walls and then lays down on the bed with his mouth open and a crazy look in his eye. First time he did it I was a bit alarmed too, but we both came to the conclusion he's just panting. Like Noirele Noirele said, as long as its over quickly I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.
 

Megsnan

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Is your kitty a british Shorthair? I have a British Shorthair and he does the same thing when he’s been playing, he pants. Breeder told me that these cats pant because of their dense coat but that didn’t sound right to me. I took him to the vet and turns out he has heart disease. If it is panting, then that’s not normal for a cat and you might want to have it checked out.
 
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