Cat Facts

Above: Bengal cat KOPA dancing balletically while being photographed. Photograph Helmi Flick

Please note: this page is more than about plain facts. There is plenty of opinion. This page has a narrative that includes links and there are just free-standing links. The truth is that the whole site is choc-a-bloc full of facts so this page is just a reservoir for some more.

Introductory note: It is a long page. It has been divided up into smaller pages to ensure that it loads quickly.

As a result, the contents links no longer work but I have left because they provide information on how the page has been organised. At the base of each page there is pagination – links to the other pages.

Cat Facts – Contents

• Are facts about cats, really facts?
• Some real cat facts – probably!
• Have A Say Page – exclusively your views (340+ posts) 
• Established pages****
• Human Behavior/Cat Behavior – what we do affects cats a lot. In fact it is at the center of a cat’s life. For that reason these articles have been categorised by reference to our behaviour. The articles are quickly prepared discussion pieces mainly:
  • Introduction
  • Exclusively human behavior in relation to cats
  • Direct human behavior beneficial to cats
  • Direct human behavior detrimental to cats
  • Indirect human behavior beneficial to cats
  • Indirect human behavior detrimental to cats
  • Neutral human behavior affecting cats
  • Comment on human behavior affecting cat behavior
  • Human Behavior narrative plus links
• Cat Behavior
  • Cat Behavior – a master page, a big & useful page.
  • Cat Behavior narrative on this page – a chatty overview.
  • Cat Behavior list of links – some more links.
• Cat Facts about cat breeds – overview chatty section on cat breeds.
• Cat Health – an overview
  • Dedicated page on cat health – this is a major page and a big page with tons of links.
• Cat appearance
  • Cat Appearance narrative
  • Cat Appearance dedicated page – a list of links pointing to pages on cat appearance, basically slide shows and photos.
• Cat Food – this page
• Best Cat Food – growing page dedicated to this subject
• Declawing Cats – a most important subject. Over 100 articles and 2,000 comments at Sept. 2010!
• How to Do It! –  things we can do for cats to improve their lives and their behavior & other topics
• Why Do Cats…..started 26-8-09. Still being built at 2010.
• Cat Food Coupons…started 5-10-09. Odd subject because you can hardly find the blinking things.
• Something particularly bad (for me) – about declawing on this page.
• Your cat facts – questionnaires answered by visitors
• More cat facts – a spillover from this page
• Link to all the input forms to have your say on almost any subject.
• Cat Media Reviews – books etc.reviewed
• Please tell us about your cat experiences – this link takes you to a list of submissions by visitors and a form to fill in if you would like to say something – please do. We listen.

Click here to see visitors’ submissions

Are Cat Facts, Facts? There is often good reason to avoid so called ‘cat facts’. There are many websites that confidently proclaim a pile of cat facts without source reference but how accurate are they? Here are two examples. The www.xmission.com website says that the Maine Coon is,”America’s only natural breed of domestic feline…” I think this is incorrect.

The Maine Coon was imported into America as a long-haired Angora type cat with the pilgrims and developed from that start (MC history). The American Shorthair had a similar start being developed from shorthaired cats that came with the pilgrims so it can claim the same distinction (see its history). Although it has to be admitted that even these are not necessarily “fact”. It may be the case that the Vikings brought over the forerunner to the Norwegian Forest cat thousands of years earlier! So fact is more about opinion and conjecture.

The same site says that the Maine Coon cat is, “4 to 5 times larger than the Singapura…” This is also untrue, in my opinion. The Singapura is the world’s smallest cat breed, yes, and the Maine Coon is the largest non-wildcat hybrid cat breed. But the Singapura weights about 6.5 lbs on average and the Maine Coon weighs about 15.5 lbs on average. On that basis the Maine Coon is 2.4 times heavier and therefore almost certainly not 4-5 times larger.

There are no definitive statistics available on purebred cat size. Size is compared through measurement of weight. I could go on and on. For this reason I also express some opinion on this page and in the linked pages. There is another reason to be cautious with cat facts. Quite a lot of information is in a state of flux. Examples of topics in the cat world that are unsettled and evolving are:

• cat genetics
• wildcat classification
• wildcat distribution
• wildcat conservation
• number of cat breeds
• breed standards – e.g. Manx breed standard
• number of feral cats
• how to deal with feral cats (shoot them, “euthanise” them, TNR them)
• animal welfare legislation on an international level
• genetic illnesses in cats and how to deal with them (e.g. HCM)

Facts about cats that are consensually agreed as true (except for some!)