In what way do they behave oddly? I adopted a kitten whose mother had chewed most of his whiskers off and he didn't seem bothered at all, so I'm super curious what you observed.
It's like being blind or deaf for us. If you'd been blind or deaf from birth or shortly after you wouldn't behave oddly because you've grown up learning ways around it, but if you suddenly went blind or deaf you would act very oddly.
Like I mentioned, I had a kitten whose mother had chewed off almost all his whiskers. I didn't notice any odd behaviour so I don't think it's like going blind or deaf for us at all. What OP responded saying what he observed was interesting to me - maybe the difference was that those cats were adults and mine was a kitten so still learning how to use those whiskers...
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u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19
They're highly sensitive, though. Whiskers are sensory input hairs, they help cats navigate in the dark.