How do you pet a cat without making them mad?
First-time owners often cannot tell if a cat enjoys being petted or if they are accidentally hurting and overstimulating them. This uncertainty makes it difficult to read a cat's body language or know how to touch them safely without causing distress.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Trying gentle under the chin rubbing, rubbing cheeks, and around the back side of her eyes
- 2Relying on the cat to react and teach you what they like
- 3Checking out related online communities like r/catbongos
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
r/cats2 people · September 2026
“As you can probably tell, idk how to pet a kitty. Never had one before!”source ↗
you_no_know_me · r/cats · 36 upvotes