If you are a pet parent, you already know that your feline friend has some adorable personality traits. Whether you love your cat to purr or rub against you, they adopt different behaviors to communicate with you. Blinking is one of their nonverbal communication through which they convey messages to you constantly. When a cat blinks, the essential sentiments they try to tell you are pretty subtle, and their blink is an important message that no cat owner should ever miss.
Did you ever wonder why your cat blinks? And what message does she try to convey with her slow blink? If not, then in this post, you will learn the reasons behind this behavior. It will help you better understand and communicate with your feline companion so that the next time your cat gives you a blink, you will know how to respond.
Reasons Behind Cats’ Blinking
Cats sleep a lot, they spend their entire day sleeping, and naturally, they close their eyes completely during that time. But what about when they are not napping?
● To Clean Their Eyes
Like humans, cats blink through their eyelid movements, but they are different in many ways. Cats protect their eyes with both upper and lower eyelids. Usually, when cats blink them both eyelids move together; however, they don’t shut their eyes completely as we do. Instead, your cat may look like she is squinting.
Cats have a nictitating membrane, which is their third eyelid. In this membrane, some special glands help in tear production. The nictitating eyelid is very thin and pink in color, situated in the inside corner of the cat’s eye, under the upper and lower eyelids. This membrane moves very quickly.
When cats blink, they partially close both upper and lower eyelids, causing the nictitating membrane to start moving diagonally around the eyes very quickly. In this scenario, you will not see the moving membrane; instead, it may look like your cat is squinting.
Cats protect their eyes with the help of these three membranes, but remember, a cat’s blinking is not always indicating the same purpose as it does in humans. We protect our eyes by blinking, which leads our eyelids to spread tears; tears then help keep the eye surface moist by removing debris. On the other hand, cats don’t blink to spread tears; instead, their tears vanish after their eyes remove particles from the eyes. This allows cats to have the advantage of partially closing their eyes.
● To Protect Their Eyes
A cat’s third eyelid can also extend upward to protect its eyeball from trauma. For example, when a cat moves through tall grass or captures prey, its third eyelid elevates to avoid scratching its cornea.
Interesting Fact: One school of thought is that the membrane of this eyelid is thin enough for cats to see through it, which gives them an advantage when hunting prey.
Cats extend their third eyelids upward to protect the eyeball from trauma. For example, if a cat moves through tall grass or catches prey, the third eyelid will rise not to damage the cornea. Moreover, the membrane of this eyelid is so thin that the cat can see through it, which is an advantage for cats when hunting for prey.
Why Do Cats Slow Blink or Wink at You?
Cats use their mesmerizing eyes to convey several messages such as affection or aggression. When a cat softly closes their eyes, this behavior is associated with its owner’s positive message or emotional communication. In the cat world, they blink when they almost close their eyelids or perform one eye or both eyes wink. It naturally functions as a series of eyelid narrowing and half-blinks.
According to studies, cats slow-blink more frequently in response to human’s slow blinking stimuli. If you provide a slow-blink stimulation to your feline friend when she has a neutral expression on her face, then she is more likely to approach you.
If your cat shows the sign of a slow blink or she winks at you, then you should feel lucky because when a cat shows this behavior, it means she trusts you and shows her affection towards you. Your presence makes your pet cat feel safe and secure. Try an experiment of slowly winking at your cat. When they look at you, you will notice they will copy this behavior.
In addition, when a cat feels threatened or wants to assert dominance over another animal, it will often stare them down. This scary action may induce more submissive cats to turn around and flee the area, allowing the dominant cat to take control of the territory.
Why Do Cats Squint their Eyes?
If you observe your cat blinking or squinting excessively, she might have some inflammation around her eyes that leads to pain or discomfort. You will see an increased tear or discharge production from the cat’s affected eye.
You will note the elevation of the third eyelid due to pain in the eye, chronic dry eye, or growth of viruses on the third eyelid. If you see your cat with the following behavior, then she is more likely suffering from eye pain:
She can blink her one or both eyes.
You see excessive tear production on the cat’s fur.
A yellow or green discharge from your cat’s eyes.
Pawing at the eyes more than usual.
Following are some disorders that cause increased blinking and squinting in cats.
Glaucoma
Corneal ulceration
Foreign objects in the eye
Uveitis
Lacerations
Abnormal growth of eyelashes
Facial nerve paralysis
If you have observed any of the above signs, it is highly recommended to contact your vet immediately for inspection, diagnostic tests, and treatment.
Final Verdict
Before reading the above article, did you ever imagine that simple eyelid movement tells us so much about cats? As pet owners, we should be aware that not all cat blinking is related to positive signs. Sometimes they express their feelings of love with one wink, and the other time she is fearful or pays to be threatened by your presence. Understand their behavior; this will help you create a strong bond with your feline friend.
