Well, cats are habitual to sleep more and they love it. On average a cat can take a nap or sleep for a16 hours maximally. While sleeping you also hear your cat is snoring sometimes. The cat owners generally asked can cats snore? Or is it normal to snore?
Before going into detail can cats snore or not, let’s talk about what snoring is? The comparatively loose tissues in upper air passages when to vibrate during sleeping, a sound is generated and called as snoring.
When cats breathe, the upper airways passages including, the mouth, throat, or nose produce audible vibration. This form of vibrations or snoring sound most probably results when upper airway tissues get relaxed while you are taking a deep sleep.
Yes, cats can snore while sleeping. There may be different reasons but it is a normal activity. In rare cases, there can be a medical problem that is indicated by this snoring.
Can Cats Snore? What are the Reasons?
Can cats snore? Yes, they can snore. While sleeping, almost all cats do snore due to different reasons. Following are some main reasons behind this snoring.
1. A Specific Breed
People who ask “can cat snore?”. The snoring also depends on the breed of cats you are owning. The cats belong to the brachycephalic breed more likely to snore. This breed includes Himalayan, Persian, and Burmese cats.
The brachycephalic word originally consists of two meaningful words “brachy” and “cephalic”. Brachy means the shortened, and cephalic means the head. Thus, brachycephalic means “shortened head”.
In these cats, the skull bones have a short length. This shortened length causes the nose and face to look like a pushed face.
The nasal passages of such cats are also shortened. Such passages issues cause a problem in breathing. In this way, a vibrating sound is produced called snoring while cats are sleeping.
2. Overweight
The fatty cats are more like to do snoring than cats having a normal weight. Cats who are overweight also have excessive fat accumulation in the tissues that surround the airways.
You can adopt various strategies to prevent the obese cat from gaining more weight and stimulate to reduce the fats.
Averagely half of the cats at the age between 5 and 11 have weight more than recommended. In North America, every third cat is obese. These cats have 20% more weight than a normal range they should have.
As humans get obese so their necks get fat. In the same way, fats get deposited around the neck of your cat. This extra fat makes the cat breathe hard and activates the snoring as well.
In addition, obesity not only makes your cat snore, but it also has other serious health effects. Therefore, it is important to speak with your vet for advice on how to reduce your cat’s weight as it is the best way to help your cat’s well-being.
Have you ever tried giving your cats some marshmallows, Asparagus, Mint, Green Beans, or pancakes to eat?
3. Sleeping Behavior
your cats’ snoring also depends on the way of your cat sleep or the position they take while sleeping. Cats have extremely flexible bodies so they can sleep in various unbelievable positions. Sometimes they start snoring when sleeping in a very weird position.
During this period, they also take pause and stop snoring if they change their sleeping position. The sound of snoring is however for a brief time.
4) Respiratory Reason
In addition to all the above, respiratory problems can also be the reason behind the cat’s snoring. Your cat may have a bacterial infection or a fungal disease which is why it is snoring while taking a nap.
If your cat has respiratory issues, figure out if your cat is suffering from coughing, sneezing, or any nose or eye discharge. Is your cat behaving normally like a routine and eating the meal properly? Notice all these to know what is going wrong with your cat.
Asthma problem is a leading cause of snoring. This asthma occurs due to the allergies developed in cats against airborne particles. This can lead to chronic inflammation in the airways and lungs as well. In this way, mucus builds up to cause trouble in breathing thus snoring.
Heartworms can also be an indirect cause of snoring associated with breathing problems. Fluid gets accumulated in the lungs due to heart disease in cats. This makes breathing problematic.
Moreover, cats suffering from another lung disease that is pneumonia can also e a leading cause of snoring.
Sometimes your cat may smell like poop but you can avoid it by using the technique we discussed in the previous article with you.
5. Foreign Stuff & Others
Foreign objects can also cause problem that leads to snoring in cats. If your cat got any grass blade in the nose or the backside of the mouth accidentally, then a breathing problem will be generated. This also triggers agitation, coughing, and snoring.
Whatever the size of the foreign particle is if it sticks in the throat or the nostrils, airways can be obstructed and make breathing difficult. Symptoms include coughing, inflammation in nostrils, and loud breathing.
Various other factors impact the snoring in cats. These include trauma, tumors or nasal polyps, allergies, or any inflammation.
In case your cat starts snoring all of a sudden and does not snore before, you must contact a professional vet to diagnose the reason for the snoring. Treat your cat well if any serious reason behind it.
Can Cats Snore? When It is Not Normal?
Yes, cats can snore, it is not an unusual activity. But you must know that when this snoring needs to be concerned. If your cat does not snore in routine and you have just noticed that it is snoring. It is necessary to identify the cause as it is abnormal snoring.
In this case, your cat might snore louder than before and they also have some suffering along with it such as coughing, sneezing, changing behavior, or loss of appetite.
Therefore, you must bring your cat to the veterinarian. If your cat caught severe symptoms like difficulty in breathing, wheezing, and panting immediately visit the vet for treatment.
Can Cats Snore? – Ways to Prevent Them
Although snoring is normal among cats, some breeds do snore more than others. In addition to this, your cat may have other problems that are indulging them in snoring.
For instance, if your cat is obese, snoring will be triggered. Keep visiting the vet at least annually to ensure your pet’s health.
Following are some ways to lose weight to prevent your cat from snoring.
Exercising Practice:
You should create some interactive play by driving the prey and let your cat exercising in this way. This is significant for the cats’ proper development and also an add up to their life quality. One way is to use a stick or a rod toy or a feather.
Another strategy is to bind a toy mouse on a stick and wave it like prey. Move this as it is supposed to be prey. Your cat will keep following until getting that supposed prey.
Just like humans, not all of the cats need to love this. Therefore, your should use different wand toys to find which one is entertaining for your cat. We recommended, you can give them some other toys with which they can play themselves.
These toys can be motorized, pin pong balls, and few kicker toys. Catnip kicker toys are too good to attack by the cats along with snuggling and bunny kicks. The simple and perfect idea is that keep toy rotation on to entice your cat and engaged in playing to avert boredom.
Poles & Space for Cats:
Provide your cat some branches or any other space to climb upon. This climbing activity is good for maintaining the balance of your cat. Your cat will remain agile in this way and get the urge to move around more.
So, the perches will enable the cats to adjust themselves in space however they desire. It is an interesting fact that cats love to climb over vertical areas. They also love to climb over the high vantage nook to look outside.
The perfect idea is to set up some window perches along with some cat trees. Also, add some shelving suitable for cats. In this way, you can vary the environment to engage your cat. Thus, this moving behavior will let the cat lose its weight.
Puzzles for Cats:
The food puzzle is a good idea in this scenario. This puzzle activity will reduce the eating speed of your cat. Not only this, but your cat will also get some entertainment and lose some weight as well. Your cat will be busy foraging and hunting its food and eat happily after finding it.
You can also purchase some colorful toys for cats to dispense food for food puzzles. You can create such toys by yourself too.
It has been recommended that always start with the easiest puzzle and then complicate it gradually to engage your cat. Also, keep an eye if your cat is enjoying it or not. This looks like a perfect way to make your cat lose some weight.
Annual Visits:
Can cats snore? Yes, they can but if suddenly start snoring then it is unusual. To keep your cat hale and hearty, the annual examination must be done by an experienced vet. Cats are very skillful to hide their ache or any pain.
Therefore, being a cat owner, it is your foremost duty to bring them to a vet for an annual checkup. Make sure that your cat is neither overweight nor any medical issue due to which they are snoring. Follow all preventive measures because care is better than a cure.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, cats are less likely to snore than dogs. In most cases, this is considered a normal habit while sleeping. But if other symptoms are also present along with snoring, then visit the vet for consultation and treatment if required.
On other hand, if your feline friend always snores without any serious symptoms or behavioral changes, then they are just taking a deep nap.