Do cats shiver when they are cold?

Stray ginger tabby survives Quebec winter and comes in from the cold

The question seems simplistic and the answer obvious but I have never seen my cat shiver even when outside in very cold temperatures. Perhaps the fact that the domestic cat is well protected against the cold with their fur coat is a reason why they shiver infrequently. For the true feral cat matters will …

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Cats would be better pets if they weren’t great predators

The domestic cat is a top predator. Should we live with them?

Many cat owners might say that their domestic cat companion is an excellent pet. I’m going to say something which is almost heretical and something which sounds anti-cat as if said by a cat hater. But I’m not; I am a cat lover and a realist. And with that character trait, I have to …

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Australians are ‘nativists’ who want to destroy feral cats and restrict cat ownership

Nativism and speciesism is behind the mass killing of Australia's feral cats

I had never heard of the word ‘nativist’ until Nathan Winograd used it. It is good one when used to describe the Aussie attitude to feral and stray cats. Nativists believe in nativism which means, “the political policy of promoting or protecting the interests of ‘native-born’ or established inhabitants over those of immigrants, including …

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Living with companion animals has not worked out and it needs to be re-evaluated

Cat and dog domestication has not worked out as planned

Some people think that it is time to give up our cats and dogs as it is unethical and their domestication not worked out well. It’s time to end it. This would apply to other animals as well. It’s a whopping suggestion. It’s probably entirely impractical seeing as there are probably up to 500 …

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Are cats pickier with food than dogs and if so, why?

The answer is a confident yes and it is mainly to do with their sweet and bitter taste receptors. Humans have over 9,000 taste receptors, dogs have 1,700, while cats have only 473. Dogs taste sweetness much better than cats. Another difference is that dogs are scavengers and cats are not. In round terms …

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Tasmania’s feral cats are attracted to a feather boa

Tasmania's feral cats are attracted to a feather boa in a study conducted by Alexandra Paton. The photograph is by her using a camera trap.

A study found that feather boas are effective in luring feral cats. The person who carried out the study, Alexandra Paton, a PhD student at Tasmania’s School of Natural Sciences at the University of Tasmania, doesn’t tell us in so many words exactly why she is so excited about feral cats being lured by …

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12 bad things that can happen when your cat brings in a mouse

Cat catches a mouse and brings it into the home and causes negative consequences for the owner

Last night my cat brought in a mouse. And a lot of things happened which were negative to my life and one thing that was negative to his as it happens. I’ll list them here. There you have a dozen negatives impacting my life just because I live with a top line predator who …

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Domestic cats haven’t yet worked out many aspects of human activity

Cats have not yet sussed out human manipulations of human objects

This is an interesting illustration from Dr John Bradshaw’s book Cat Sense (which you can download to Kindle by the way which allows you to search for keywords) on the topic of how well or not so well domestic cats understand what is going on around them in the human world. As cat owners, …

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