Cats are known for their fastidious cleanliness, spending many hours licking their coats. The cat's tongue has backwards-facing spines about 500 micrometres long, which are called papillae. These are quite rigid as they contain keratin. These spines allow cats to groom themselves by licking their fur, with the rows of papillae acting like a hairbrush. Some cats, particularly longhaired cats, occasionally regurgitate hairballs of fur that has collected in their stomachs from grooming. These clumps of fur are usually sausage-shaped and about two to three centimeters long. Hairballs can be prevented with remedies that ease elimination of the hair through the gut, as well as regular grooming of the coat with a comb or stiff brush.
The hooked papillae on a cat tongue act like a hairbrush to help clean and detangle fur.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
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