If my face were dirty, and I licked my arm, then rubbed my arm on my face, it might move the dirt around, and transfer some to my arm. I guess if I then licked my arm, I might remove dirt by swallowing it. But unless I wiped my arm off on another surface or something, I don’t see how this could remove dirt.
I know there are other reasons why cats groom themselves, e.g. to spread oils around their coat. But, in terms of actually removing dirt … does it help?
In: Biology
A cats tongue is specially made to remove dirt, debris and other junk from their fur.
They have tongues that are rough not only for licking meat off a bone or drinking water but for cleaning themselves.
When they lick their paws, they get saliva on it and then when they rub their faces, either the dirt comes off or it sticks to the wet part of their paw, then they licked the paw again which removes any dirt from the paw.
Certain things like grease if the cat was under a car or brushed against something greasy won’t come off right away, but will eventually wear off with the daily baths.
This is a good example of the benefits of cats living in colonies, not only for protection, hunting, safety of kittens, but also because grooming is easier too. For example; feral cats will end up in a colony. In the wild, a lot of different species of cats live together. While books and websites might not come right out and say it. It is a big benefit of living together.
Fellow cats will lick the hard to get spots, another cats face, forehead, between the ears (sometimes the ears themselves, between the shoulder blades, under the chin and throat. What does not come off during a self given bath will come off when another cat grooms it.
Well, if your hair was dirty, brushing it with a light oil would actually help remove some of the dirt. If you had some greasy grimy patch that didn’t smell great, some oil would definitely help. Plus, a little bit of oil can actually keep a coat from picking up dirt and grime and getting tangled.
But what you see a cat doing when it licks its paws and rubs its face is a little more complicated. It’s usually not cleaning its face. Most of a cat’s oil/scent glands are on its face. When a cat rubs its forepaws around its ears or face, it’s transferring those oils to its forepaws. Sometimes you’ll then see the cat lick its forepaws — I think cats find pleasure in tasting it when they’re grooming themselves or another cat — and then groom some other part of its body. That’s one way to spread their scent all over their body and maintain their coat. If they have a gnarly tangle you might see them try to detangle it with their teeth, then take a break while they rub their face and lick their paws, then go back to working on it with their teeth. Sometimes instead of getting oil from their face, they’ll really go to town chchchchewing around the supracaudal glands at the base of their tail, then resume grooming some trouble spot. People think they must be going after a flea or something g but if it’s the base of the tail it’s almost always the supracaudal gland.
I don’t know for certain that they’re oiling up their teeth to make it easier to tease out tangles and burrs, but I’ve seen cats do it so many times that it’s hard not to imagine it is so.
If you had thick fur covering your face and paws, yes it would work. It sort of works like a washing cloth would, giving you more grip instead of just mushing the dirt around. Also a cat’s tongue is different from other animals’ in ways that make it better at grooming so that helps a lot too.
I think the answer other people aren’t quite answering is that, yes, cats are often licking up dirt from their own paws and fur. They have particularly better ways of sorting out dirt and things than humans do. A lot of it is caught in hairballs, for instance.
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