What are these buttons on my cat? Pic

[MrsBooBeep]

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.

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

Male cats have nipples.

Boys have nipples too

You do know men have nipples too?? 👀😂

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

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.

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 ;)

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.

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

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 😂

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

@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.

It heals up.

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.

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.

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

His belly looks like Momo.

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

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