Hi everyone and welcome to a video that's going to make yours and your cat's life
way better how to give your cat a back massage
yes mr pirate the very famous and very notable and very shoulder caddy senior citizen will help me
in this making this video because of course he's the main beneficiary of my cat massaging skills
but before we go on please remember to squish that subscribe button and pet that bell notification
icon so that you can see more of these helpful videos oh and please do hit like and share this
video with anyone who you think may benefit from the knowledge of how to give their cat a
back massage so obviously a massage is different from petting and right now i'm petting mr pirate
and i could give him a massage right here but i'm going to demonstrate how to do it with him
sitting down in front of me because of course not everybody's cat is a shoulder cat and also because
he's currently sitting on my microphone so i think moving him is going to make it a little
bit easier for you guys to hear what i'm saying so mr pirate let us say hello to the audience
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so a really nice functional automated litter box that is really good at odor control and
really good at limiting the amount of interactions you have with the litter
so highly recommended and thank you very much petsafe for sponsoring this video
now we'll get into the nitty gritty of how to give a cat a back massage so like we talked
before we're gonna start with the general so big strokes with a whole palm along the back
basically just pet him a little bit and then we're going to make big contact with the whole hand
along his lumbar spine a little head on the back of the head to reassure him that nothing terribly
stressful is happening heal a guy hey yes so just moving the whole back of the hand along
his lumbar spine just very lightly massaging all the way down example we're going from the general
to the specific and from light to strong so again i'm making kind of this motion with my whole hand
right along his back and we're going to try the other side as well in a little bit
and you see mr pirate kind of knows something is going on but he's mostly okay with it
and then once his back's warmed up we're gonna get a little bit more specific
see he's giving me little licks telling me that he appreciates my work here
so now i am using kind of my fingers and thumb to put a little bit more pressure
and work a little bit deeper into the muscles running along his lumbar spine
so cats and dogs have seven vertebrae that make up the lumbar spine right along here
and we want to eventually get down to working each little segment now you saw how mr pirate's
skin twitched when i ran my finger along there that's called the peniculus reflex
and it's a normal reflex in all quadrupeds that basically compensates for the fact that they
have a hard time scratching their back with their palm or with their hand it's meant to get rid of
flies and any burrs any other bothersome thing that might touch you on the back so
you elicit it with light feathery touches so if you do a nice firm contact with your cat's back
then they should not have the peniculus reflex triggered
and since it irritates them and the goal here is to relax the cat we probably don't want to do that
so now we're going to really get in there just with the fingertips again keeping pressure
appropriately light for cats and work on every little one of those seven segments oh there's a
good stretch oh pirate's really digging this now so i'm just working into all those little segments
moving the muscles around gently helping them relax getting the blood flowing
you see pirate is highly appreciative of what's happening here
now as i mentioned before on a younger zippier cat there may be a limited amount of time that they
really want this to happen and then they're gonna get over excited and just run off and that's okay
you know we let the cat tell us how long they want their back massage to last
but mr pirate is pretty much into this and i know that from previous experience that i can do this
for quite a long time and he's just going to bliss out and enjoy his back rub so again now i'm using
my fingertips to really get into those thick strips of muscle either side of his spine
i'm making sure i'm not pressing anywhere on the bone and i can feel those little muscles sometimes
i can feel little knots in pirates back and i can feel those muscles relaxing now
and i think this is going to make him a lot more comfortable for the rest of the day we often do
this in the morning while i'm getting ready for work to limber up this little man for his day
that's pretty good isn't it sir and i work my way right down to where his pelvis starts and then we
run out of muscle and now just to finish up i can go back to the general so again use my whole palm
i'm just going to give him a little squishing a little squelching a little back massage and
they're going to shed quick hats will shed quite a bit when you do this so that's usually i have to
brush off all the spare hair after a little back rub and now we're just going to roll part over
this other side roar just like that and just so you guys can see my hand again whole hand motion
just like that and he's licking my arm to let me know that this is pretty awesome
get rid of that spare hair so whole palm contact and then fingers just
the fingers and thumb is still a fairly broad configuration and then
when we really get into it just fingertips fingertips and thumb just like that and we
can really work into those muscles but again only once they're warmed up and once her cat is relaxed
and like i mentioned in the intro this is probably not the right thing for every cat
certainly some cats will take personal offense at you doing this and either give you a whack with
the paw or run off and that's okay they're allowed to not want to have a back massage
but for some cats this is just fantastic isn't mr p yes that is definitely the seal of approval
get right in there there we go let me just give him a few little pats and honestly if i leave
him here he'll probably stay here for the next like eight hours until he gets hungry he gets
him pretty relaxed so with a younger zippy or cat like claudia they may not necessarily want
to stand still for a back massage or that might get over excited and decide to go walk about so
if you really want to give a backup you kind of have to squish them down and convince them
to stay in place the principles are the same but it's definitely not quite as peaceful and claudia
might enjoy it but she doesn't quite know how to stand still for it dini claudia come back
so this is more of a dynamic process but again i'm using the same principles open palm kind of broad
light contact at first and then we can definitely get more specific if she stays here long enough
now cats will some cats will raise their butt up in the air like this this a lot of people think
that this is like a mating or a sexual behavior it really isn't quarter pets do a thing called
lordosis which is when they're on heat they will stand there a female will stand there with their
back arched and their butt up as an indication for a male that they're ready to mate but claudia
is spayed like most house cats are going to be so this behavior isn't actually true lordosis
but certainly uh it's common in both male and female cats to stick their butt up in the air when
it's petted some of them even like being spanked a little bit there claudia doesn't mind it at all
and while it may use the same pathways it definitely doesn't have the same neuroendocrine
background as a sexual behavior so don't feel like you're being a pervert with your cat when they
stick their butt up in the air it is not a sexual behavior it is just a quirk of how they like to be
and not all cats like this like pirates never stuck his butt up in the air when he's been petted
but i've known many cats who do so there we go claudia's just clued in as to what's happening
and then she's settling in and just like with mr pirate now i'm using a slightly broader contact
to give her a little back rub and again with claudia i have to go really slowly because i know
if i go too fast she's going to get overexcited then kind of run off and start doing laps around
the room you notice her tail is kind of waving around in agitation cats do twitch their tail when
they're kind of excited she's pretty excited that something interesting is happening right now but
this is not an aggressive behavior i'm not really worried that she's going to get annoyed with me
but you do have to kind of learn to read your cat so what i would suggest is that when you're doing
this to your cat if the tail starts twitching you might want to stop kind of reassess the situation
and then kind of go slowly along in increments and just see how much they will tolerate from you also
claudia's way of saying i've had enough is to walk off some other cat's way of saying i've had enough
might be to bite you so again you got to know your cat so that is how you give a cat a back massage
and as you can see if you pick the right cat to give a back massage too he really appreciates it
so i hope you found this useful and informative and i do encourage you guys to go out
and try this with your own senior katie taking all do necessary precautions
and me and mr pirate will see you guys another day
you