Pet Expert Explains Why Cats Love Concrete Slabs

You might have seen the viral videos on social media recently; a cat owner brings a concrete slab into their home, leaves it in easy access of their cat, and films.

The resulting sniffs, pats, and almost inevitable rolling and nuzzling is pretty adorable to watch.

But why do they feel that way about what is, after all, a block? Is it that, as one TikTok poster suggested, they’re “remembering their days as a street cat”?

Here’s what the pros say:

The “rough texture” allows them to get to parts of their bodies they couldn’t usually reach while rolling on it, which Professor Losos thinks is both a satisfying feeling and a potentially great way to mark their scent and territory.

On TikTok, pet behaviourist Dr Annie said there’s a novelty element too.

Concrete blocks are “new and kind of out of place,” she said.

Lastly, the beloved block “warms up really nicely when it’s in a sunny spot,” which cats like because they “have a higher body temperature than humans do and… evolved from a species adapted to a warm environment.”

Their “thermal neutral zone,” or the temperature by which their bodies neither have to spend energy cooling or warming them, is “believed to be between 30°C- 38°C,” after all.

Professor Losos shared that this reminded him of a former trend, which involved placing a square with tape on the floor and watching as your cat more than likely went to sit in it.

Not only was a whole paper written about this phenomenon, but the professor shared: “This seems to be related to cats’ love of being in boxes.”

For the sake of science, he says, we should consider bringing in other concrete shapes too to see whether your furry friend has a similar reaction.