Ten General Domestic Cat Questions with Answers

Here’s 10 general cat questions that you might not have seen before – with the answers:

cat questions and answers
Photo by fofurasfelinas on Flickr

Who has the best hearing between cats, dogs and humans?  The answer is cats.  Cats can hear nearly 3 times more frequencies than humans.  A cat’s hearing stops at 80 kHz, dogs at 45 kHz and humans at 20 kHz.  Some cats leave the room when a TV or radio is on too loudly. Cats can hear sounds four to five time further away than humans. Kittens are born blind and deaf.

What’s the most common coat pattern in cats?  The domestic cat’s coat has evolved tremendously both naturally and within the cat fancy over the years but as expected the tabby coat is the most common because it is inherited from the domestic cat’s wild cat ancestor.

Do cat ever really need a bath?  The majority of cats go through their entire life without a bath but there are a few good reasons why you might consider giving your cat a bath and the most obvious is that there is some substance on his coat that is hazardous and which needs washing off.  Some people say you should give a cat a bath if there is a person living in the home who is allergic to cats because bathing the cat gets rid of, for awhile, the allergen that causes the allergic reaction which is in cat dander within the fur. Another reason for giving your cat a bath is to treat an infestation of parasites; in which case it will be a medical bath but this should be done with great care because insecticides are hazardous.  People who show their cats at cat shows, especially the Persian cat, like to give their cat a bath before the show to improve the coat.  In general, however, is not sensible to give your cat a bath as it undermines the natural, healthy state of the coat.

Why do cats consider bedtime as playtime?  Well, our bedtime is often somewhere around dusk or a bit later and this is a time when cats like to hunt because they are crepuscular.

Are crash diets dangerous for fat cats?  I have never heard of anyone giving their cat a crash diet!  The real difficulty is actually putting one’s cat through a diet in the first place.  The common sense answer is the right one which is that cats should lose weight gradually; no more than about 1% of their body weight per week which equates to a 15 pound cat losing 2.4 ounces a week. The excess weight should be lost over a period of about 6 months.

Is it sensible and safe to have a pet bird or some other prey of the domestic cat together with the cat as a pet?  The immediate and common sense answer is possibly the correct one namely that a pet animal which is prey to a domestic cat may well be stressed by the presence of the domestic cat which would be detrimental to the animal’s health and unfair on the animal. The answer therefore is no.

What is it about the way cats walk that makes them look elegant and smooth?  Dogs walk differently the cats.  They step with both left paws and then both right paws. With dogs, the front right paw steps forward at the same time the rear left paw does. Then the front left and rear right paws step out. This is a trot whereas the cat’s gait is what is known as a pace.  The only other animals who walk like this are camels and giraffes. Sometimes racehorses are trained to race using this form of gait.

Do cats really need us; can’t they take care of themselves?  People who abandon their cats sometimes do so by leaving them in woods etc. believing that their cat will survive perfectly adequately by instantly reverting to the wild but this is untrue except for a very small proportion of cats.  Exceptionally, domestic cats do like to revert to the wild and voluntarily leave a life of domestication but the vast majority perish or live short and uncomfortable lives if dumped. That answers the question I believe. Domestic cats are domesticated and in general have lost sharpness in respect of the skills required to live entirely independently of people.

Dogs have cat fleas so do cats have dog fleas?  The answer is no.  Cats have cat fleas. The reason is that the first time a flea was classified by a scientist in 1834 he took the flea from a cat and therefore named the flea after the cat incorporating the word Felis into the classification.  However, this scientist, a Frenchman by the name of Bouche, might just as well have taken the flea from a dog.

Which is the more prolific breeder, cats or rabbits?  The first point I wish to make is that many people, even experts, have overstated the ability of the cat to procreate and misrepresented the numbers. Having got that out of the way, rabbits can produce 6 or more litters a year. Each litter can have 5 or 6 rabbits. This can equate to about 30 to 56 baby bunnies per year whereas a female cat can produce from 50 to 150 kittens in her lifetime.  Cats have fewer litters per year. Rabbits are constantly pregnant throughout the breeding season.  Cats have much longer pregnancies than rabbits at 66 days versus 30 days.

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