Cat Facts

I found out an interesting cat fact today & wanted to share so thought I'd start this thread for all to share any interesting cat facts you come across :)

Interesting cat fact I learned today: I've seen so many photos of kittens with their whiskers chewed off by mumma cat & thought this was odd behaviour, but apparently its quite normal & is mumma cat's attempt to stop the kittens exploring too far - because cats are supposed to be able to measure the size of the spaces they can get though by their whiskers touching the sides. If the whiskers can pass through so can their body, so by chewing the kittens whiskers it's supposed to limit the kitten's activities - how cool is that!

It doesn't always work very well, especially with the Abyssinian kittens that I've seen, lol, but still thought it was interesting :)

Interesting!

Now that is very interesting BUT how would I find out if there is any factual info.? Other than the Net of course :-)

I guess this one's kind of un-provable, how would we ever know what mumacat is thinking as she chews those whiskers? But it came from a breeder I know who has been breeding Abyssinian cats since 1974 so I'd trust her sources :)

>4 Seanie: I do believe that Mommy Cats do chew of their kids whiskers, although I had not heard of that until your OP.

Evolution is very complex and even a tiny advantage (say 1 part in Ten million) does eventually pay of.

Guido.

I understood that the queens chew off the whiskers of their favourite kitten in the litter. But this came from one of Doreen Tovey's books so I can't answer for its veracity.

I had a cat who used to chew off half the other cat's whiskers. They were friends but not relatives. I thought it was misguided social grooming.

Cat Fact of the day today is Fever Coat - this is one I've known about for a while but it still fascinates me :)

Sometimes we come across black kittens in the shelter who develop white tips to their fur, its a really pretty effect but generally grows out. Well this is called Fever Coat & is apparently caused by mumma cat having a high fever when pregnant, the fever causes the fur to modify at the base of the hair shaft and then as the fur grows out it becomes lighter, eventually those hairs will shed and black ones will come in again.

This is the best pic I found on a google search (most of the google images just look like smoke coloured kitties to me which is VERY different to fever coat)


As far as I know this only happens to black cats too, which is interesting in itself :)

Humans experience a similar but less visible phenomenon with finger nails, when ill or stressed it causes issues in the nail bed and 4-6 months later you have weak and splitting/peeling finger nails.

>8 Seanie:
The horizontal striations on a fingernail are called Beau's lines. Something similar can happen to tooth enamel while a child is growing, called enamel hypoplasia, usually due to malnutrition.

Many rodents and possibly other mammals will abort their litters under certain circumstances, for example, when a new male shows up. It's called the Strange Male or Bruce Effect, named after researcher Hilda Bruce.

Getting back to Facts About Cats: the kittens in a litter can have different fathers. This is because the female needs vaginal stimulation in order to ovulate. So if a cat copulates with more than one male during estrus, she will ovulate more than once.

I once had a dream I gave birth to a litter of ginger kittens. I felt very bad because it was obvious my husband was not the father, even though he has red hair.

This is perhaps TMI.

>9 IreneF:

LOL! Perhaps TMI, but humorous!

Cat purrs help you heal.

Robert

>11 Mr.Durick: Cat purrs help you heal.

Science!