Cats like to eat food at body temperature – this is the temperature of a prey that has just been killed. In addition, cats prefer their food to be cut into pieces with a size of 1/4 inch. You may be surprised to find out that 60% of cats like cold tomato juice. Actually, cats with kidney failure are tricked to drink tomato juice in order to get more liquids.
Cats may be right or left handed and they have a clear preference for one of their paws over the other.
The speed a healthy domestic cat may reach is up to 31 miles per hours. However, the cat is not able to maintain such speed for more than a minute.
In hot weather cats keep themselves cool by licking their fur. Cats sweat only through their feet pads, just like dogs.
Cats use their whiskers as antennae and are used for navigation, detection of movements, and assessment of spaces. In addition, the whiskers are a perfect indication about the cat’s mood – if they are back, it means that the feline is angry. It is believed that finding a whisker is a sign of good luck.
32 muscles control each ear of a cat and feline ears can turn 180 degrees. In comparison, humans have just 6 ear muscles. If your cat’s ears are facing backwards or are folded down, the cat is really angry.
It is estimated that the feline fur has 60 000 hairs per square inch on the back. On the underside there are 120 000 hairs per square inch. Shedding is a natural process that is controlled by hormones, temperature and light. Actually, nervous cats are known to shed more, especially if they are placed into a carrier.
Cats are very conscious about their territory. Commonly, the territory of a domestic cat is about 150 acres. Probably the territories of different cats intermingle because we have often seen many cats on the same place.
Ability to jump: if humans were able to jump as cats, they would be able to jump the width of a swimming pool.
Smell: to compare human and feline sense of smell, humans have about 5 million odor-sensitive smells in their nose, while cats have about 200 million. Naturally, your cat will smell the odor of a litter box that hasn’t been cleaned.
Feline sleeping habits: a mature cat can spend 15% of its life sleeping deeply, 50% sleeping lightly and 30% in an awaken state. Commonly, the cat is awake then humans sleep and this is very annoying for the feline. Also, cat is the creature that is able to attain full alertness most quickly.
Milk: if you have to give your cat some milk, remember to give it just a couple of teaspoons because felines don’t have enzymes to digest milk. If the cat drinks too much milk, it may have diarrhea.
Feline diet: cats that are neutered or spayed should consume fewer calories than other cats. The recommended daily intake is about 1/2 – 3/4 cups a cat per day for food of lower quality, and 1/3 cup for food higher quality. Don’t starve your cat because this may kills it, as the liver fat breaks down very quickly and this results in a condition known as ketosis.
Cats and diseases: usually cats with skin disease prefer fish flavours, while cats with liver and kidney disease like chicken or food that contain liver and kidney. Thus, cats with heart diseases prefer food with heart. After the successful treatment of the condition, the cat stop eating these preferred foods.
Hearing abilities: humans are able to hear sound up to 20 000 Hertz and dogs – up to 40 000 Hertz. Cats, on the other hand, can hear sounds up to 100 000 Hertz. It is amazing that cat’s are able to hear even electrical currents in cords.
Psychic: In China, cats have been used successfully as earthquake predictors for years.
Colours and vision: felines are colour-blind but they need just 1/6 of the light humans need in order to see.
Digits: felines have five toes on the front paws and four on the back ones. There are polydactyl cats that have more toes than usual. Such cats are also called “mitten cats”, “thumb cats”, “six-finger cats” and “Hemingway cats”. The latter are called this way because of the writer Ernest Hemingway, who lived with 50 cats, among which was a 6-toed cat. As the cats bred, the polydactyl felines became more and the ratio of polydactyl and normal cats was 50/50. The number of such cats is big in Boston and Portland.
Why cat owners should spay their pet? It is estimated that a pair of cats and their offspring can produce 420 000 cats for a period of seven years.
Felines like whispering.
Cats have 26 face expressions. The brain parts responsible for emotions are the same for humans and felines.
If a cat is stressed, the following sings are present: too much grooming or lack of grooming, self-mutilation, vocalization, aggression, depression, loss of appetite, listlessness. There are special products that reduce feline stress caused by new environment or living with numerous cats.
Feliway is product used to control urine marking. It is a synthetic feline pheromone and is also used to calm the cat in new or strange environment.
Felines and communication: for cats a smile that shows teeth is a sign of aggression. This explains why cats often go to the people who don’t like cats, as these people don’t smile at them and don’t look the cats in the eyes.
