Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

What are these buttons on my cat? Pic

24 replies

MrsBooBeep · 23/10/2020 09:17

The cat is male 'fixed'. These parts are permanently hairless. What are they?
I had a google and they might be nipples but he is a male cat and there are 4 of them from what I can see. We had him a few years and there is never any hair there. We adopted him as an adult cat so don't know much about his history.

What are these buttons on my cat? Pic
OP posts:
Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 23/10/2020 09:19

They are nipples - I'm a male human and I have them tooGrin

Bwlch · 23/10/2020 09:19

Male cats have nipples.

dementedpixie · 23/10/2020 09:19

Boys have nipples too

Scweltish · 23/10/2020 09:21

You do know men have nipples too?? 👀😂

MrsBooBeep · 23/10/2020 09:37

😂 but why are they hairless?! I thought he had surgery or is actually a female.
Halloween Blush

OP posts:
bloodywhitecat · 23/10/2020 09:41

Looks like a perfectly normal male or female cat belly to me, all cats have nipples regardless of whether they are male or female and that area is usually pretty much hairless.

BettaSplenden · 23/10/2020 09:44

Lol he is still a he. Nipples are on both. He could be hairless there due to overgrooming from stress or skin problems (mine get this when on cheap food)
Or maybe he just likes showing off his nipples. Mine like to lick their arses in the window when people wall past. Each to thier own ;)

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 23/10/2020 09:45

Some cats do groom more near their nipples which might explain the hairlessness.

If you go looking you'll probably find another pair (or possibly even two pairs) further up his tum as well.

dementedpixie · 23/10/2020 09:46

Neither of my cats are bare in that area. Have you seen him grooming that area a lot?

MrsBooBeep · 23/10/2020 10:18

I catch him licking his tummy area maybe 3 or 5 times a day. He would suddenly wake up from a nap and start grooming. We have feliway plugged, no other pets but are moving furniture around and decorating so he would wake up to a different room lay out or new pieces of furniture. I don't know if that might be stressing him? He eats a vet approved diet (needs to lose weight) but used to be on whiskas. Yes he has a couple up hidden away.

I suppose since he regularly goes to the vet all is fine with his hairless decorative studs.

I doubted because my DC said that the vet kept referring to him as 'she' but the cat has a unisex or maybe alightly feminine name given by previous family 😂

OP posts:
Kenworthington · 23/10/2020 10:29

Haha I posted almost exactly the same a couple years ago! Mines also a black male cat. I have no idea why nipples didn’t occur to me either!

Lonecatwithkitten · 23/10/2020 13:20

They are nipples. We now recognise that this pattern of over grooming cats can be related to bladder problems particular in male middle aged neutered cats. So it is worth seeing a vet.

Fluffycloudland77 · 23/10/2020 13:52

I’d ask about the overgrooming, he must have something wrong to do that.

Dh thought our cat had a skin tumour when he saw ours had nipples.

Bargebill19 · 23/10/2020 18:32

Is he a bit plump? Do you have a cat flap?
If yes, to both of these, then he’s rubbing the hair off as he squeezes through the cat flap.
Had several cats do this when I was a child.

Bwlch · 23/10/2020 19:11

I want to know why they don't have tummy buttons.

RuleOfCat · 23/10/2020 19:18

@Lonecatwithkitten

They are nipples. We now recognise that this pattern of over grooming cats can be related to bladder problems particular in male middle aged neutered cats. So it is worth seeing a vet.
That's really interesting LoneCat - luckily our middle-aged lad (ooh, he'd hate to be described like that) just has a tiny bare circle round each niople, but I'll now keep an eye out for overgrooming there.
MikeUniformMike · 23/10/2020 19:37

It heals up.

Butterer · 23/10/2020 19:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsBooBeep · 23/10/2020 20:04

Interesting about the bladder issues, oh God hopefully not! But will look into it. Thank you for mentioning it.
Thank you all about your nipples confusion stories.. i feel less silly for asking now! 😂
Bargebill We don't have a cat flap.
Another photo capturing him grooming.. it took him a few good few seconds in that position.Sad

What are these buttons on my cat? Pic
OP posts:
fucknuckle · 23/10/2020 20:11

my cat over-grooms after an allergy to fleas, and flaunts his nipples like a floozy. they surprise me every time i see one.

(he’s an indoor cat, the flea story is long and involves someone with 6 cats and no flea treatment gifting me some furniture that turned out to be a flea hotel. it’s been quite the summer, most of it involving flea spray and a lot of hoovering/laundering).

when his belly is in full floof they disappear.

and that’s a story about my cat’s nipples that i spent time on a Friday night writing on the internet. i hope it helps. also, i need to get out more.

FrustratoPotato · 28/10/2020 14:38

My boy cat recently had surgery and at first I thought he had a warty tum. I don't know why I was shockedHalloween Shock.

MashedSweetSpud · 28/10/2020 14:42

His belly looks like Momo.

QueenPaws · 28/10/2020 14:44

Mine overgrooms that bit. He's fuming as it was shaved for a scan and now he can't pull his fur out Grin

justanotherneighinparadise · 28/10/2020 14:45

Males have nipples as they are female until the boost of hormones during the very early stages of pregnancy that determine they are Male.

www.sciencealert.com/watch-we-were-once-all-female

New posts on this thread. Refresh page