If you intend your feline to be an outdoor cat, think about how it is going to gain access to the great outdoors.
With your special skill as a door-opener, are you prepared to be miaowed at every time, day or night that your cat wants to be let in or out? If not, and you don’t want to restrict your cat’s movements, fitting a cat flap into a wall or door (for which some DIY expertise will be required) is probably the answer. (more…)
The first thing to note is that a cat’s nutritional requirements will change throughout the course of its life. Their mother’s milk contains all of the nutrients that kittens need for the first month or two of their lives, after which, in the wild, they would be weaned on mice and other sources of fresh flesh. Your kitten should have been weaned before it moves in with you, but because its nose and stomach will probably have become accustomed to a particular diet, you will probably have to wean it off this gradually before switching to your preferred alternative full-time. (more…)
The feline senses are generally far more sensitive than those of humans, but there is one that compares relatively badly to ours: the cat’s sense of taste. Although some cats are said to be fussy eaters, this has less to do with their ability to distinguish subtle nuances of flavour and is more concerned with the freshness of the food offered to them: they distrust the smell of stale, or even rotting, food, having the instinctive knowledge that it could make them ill. (more…)
Although how its food smells determines whether or not a cat will eat it, the feline nose is a for more versatile organ of smell than simply o food-identifier. Indeed, it plays a crucial role in feline relationships - both sexual and social - and if a cat’s sense of smell is impaired for any reason, it may start to behave in a most unfeline way. (more…)
A successful hunter needs to be fit, and cats keep themselves trim by strolling the perimeters of their territory on their regular inspection tours, climbing trees or other lofty vantage points from which cats can monitor any interesting goings-on and, of course, pouncing at potential prey. (The reason why many indoor cats occasionally career around the house at top speed is both to let off steam and to indulge in the type of hunting exercise that outdoor cats more regularly enjoy.) (more…)
Indeed, you can tell a lot by looking at a cat’s tail and ears: if its tail is vertical and its ears are pricked, the cat is feeling confident, and if the tip of its erect tail is kinked, it’s offering you a tentative greeting. When a cat turns its back on you and quivers its tail, it’s sending an unreserved, ‘Please acknowledge me’ plea that may well hark back to a kittenhood invitation to its mother to clean its nether regions. If a cat is becoming annoyed, however, it often indicates its frustration by swishing its tail from side to side and drawing back its ears, and if it becomes really irate, it will lash its tail as fast as it can and flatten its ears completely. (more…)
As well as transmitting and receiving scent messages, cats communicate volumes by means of their body language and vocalization.
The feline body - particularly the ears and tail - is a highly expressive instrument that instantly communicates how a cat is feeling within its skin if only you know how to interpret the key notes. The emotional signal that is perhaps the easiest for humans to recognize is fear. When threatened by a more dominant cat with hostile intent which it has no desire to fight, the undercat will nevertheless stand its ground, albeit flattening its body, fur and ears in an attempt to make itself look as small and inoffensive as it can, shortly thereafter beginning to creep slowly backwards as it tries to remove itself from danger. (more…)
As well as controlling the essential functions of eating, drinking and breeding, in many respects the feline sense of smell can be said to be the engine that keeps cat society running smoothly, defining as it does the individual cat’s place within its feline (or feline—human) community, its relationship with other cats (or, in the case of a human household, surrogate cats) and the boundaries of its personal territory. (more…)
Its hearing is the first sense that alerts the cat to potential prey when it is out hunting and, due to its genetic inheritance, the sounds that are most likely to signal the proximity of rodents, its favourite meal, are the ones to which it is the most attuned. And because rodents utter high- pitched squeaks, the upper frequencies of the sound range are those that the cat’s ears are especially adept at detecting, exceeding both dogs and humans in their sensitivity. Indeed, when you think that our detection of acoustic vibrations rises to around 20,000 hertz, and a cat’s to 50,000, we must be deaf to a cacophony of interesting sounds. (more…)
Appearances can be deceptive: however innocent and harmless your cat may appear, its genetic software has programmed it to be a hunter of the kind who shows no mercy and takes no prisoners. Its ancestors may have found it convenient to trade their wild existence for the relative ease of a domesticated lifestyle, but make no mistake: your cat will revert to its roots in an instant if its hunting instinct is aroused or its home conditions no longer suit it. Even the most indolent of house cats remains essentially wild, with a body and mentality that evolution has honed to focus above all on the pursuit and capture of prey. (more…)
