Cat Facts

From "The Encyclopedia Britannica". All cats are members of the family Felidea. Interestingly enough, the cat family split from the other mammals at least 40,000,000 years ago, making them one of the oldest mammalian families. All cats share certain characteristics that are unique to the cat family. Cats are pure carnivores. They need a high level of protein in their diets - around 30% - and lack the digestive equipment to do well on a diet of grains, fruits or vegetables. In fact, if you were to design a creature to live from hunting mammals you would have trouble doing better than the design of the cat. If you know cats at all, you know that they have powerful jaws, long, sharp teeth, and claws that draw back into their paws when not in use. Cats hear extremely well. Their eyes are adapted for vision in dim light for hunting just before dawn and just after dusk, the prime hunting periods.


Don't be alarmed when your cats bring you gifts of birds, mice or other wild critters. This is a natural part of their gift ritual, and they do it to please you.


Cats purr to communicate.


Cats have five toes on each front paw, but only four toes on each back paw.


Cats have true fur, in that they have both an undercoat and an outer coat.


Contrary to popular belief, the cat is a social animal. A pet cat will respond and answer to speech, and seems to enjoy human companionship.


If left to her own devices, a female cat may have three to seven kittens every four months. This is why population control using neutering and spaying is so important.


Kittens are born with both eyes and ears closed. When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change color over a period of months to the final eye color.


When well treated, a cat can live twenty or more years.


Cats live 14 to 20 years, some 30.


Cats beat dogs for the #1 spot as the most popular pet in the United States.


Dogs and cats are color-blind.


If you sneeze whenever you're around cats, chances are it's not the cat hair that sets you off, but the saliva that remains on their fur.


Aspirin is poisonous to cats.


A smooth, shiny coat is the sign of a healthy cat.


Cat saliva contains a detergent that keeps their fur clean.


Dogs and cats that are not around people before they reach the age of three months seldom turn out to be good pets.

Are Cats Trainable?

Apparently so. Watch this video to see how to train a cat to work a light switch.

Weird Cat Facts

WEIRD CAT FACTS (Various Sources)

• Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
• The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th century England when it is believed that many cats and dogs drowned during heavy periods of rain.
• Cat urine glows under a black-light.
• Cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?
• Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the deaths of their cats.
• Catgut comes from sheep, not cats.
• Cats have five toes on each front paw and four on the back.
  
• Kittens are born with both eyes and ears closed. When the eyes open, they are always blue at first. They change color over a period of months to the final eye color.
• If a male cat is both orange and black it is ( besides being extremely rare ) sterile. To have both the orange and the black coat colors, the male cat must have all or part of both female X chromosomes. This unusual sex chromosome combination will render the male cat sterile.
• Many cats cannot properly digest cow's milk. Milk and milk products give them diarrhea.
• Unlike humans and dogs, cats do not suffer a lot from loneliness. It is a mistake to project our social feelings onto our cats. Cats are social to a degree, but they are far more concerned with territorial issues than we can even imagine.
• A cat is pregnant for about 58-65 days. This is roughly two months.
• The oldest age that a house cat has attained and has been reliably documented is the case of a female tabby named "Ma." She lived to the ripe old age of 34!
• When cats are "de-clawed" they are actually having their 3rd phalanx removed. It is the equivalent of you having your fingers cut off at the 3rd knuckle.
• Tylenol and chocolate are poisonous to cats.
• The first cat show was in 1871 at the Crystal Palace in London.
• Today there are about 100 distinct breeds of the domestic cat.
• Genetic mutation created the domestic cat which is tame from birth.
• Like birds, cats have a homing ability that uses its biological clock, the angle of the sun, and the Earth's magnetic field. A cat taken far from its home can return to it. But if a cat's owners move far from its home, the cat can't find them.
• Hunting is not instinctive for cats. Kittens born to non-hunting mothers may never learn to hunt.
• Cats bury their feces to cover their trails from predators.
• Mother cats teach their kittens to use the litter box.
• Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day.