Hi, everybody! Now, I'm gonna to tell you about cats. They're my favourite pets. Once I had cat for one week, but I didn't want to have a cat any longer.. ;) We know a lot about cats( we think so), but we don't know not a bit information There are facts...
The cat (Felis catus), also known as the domestic cat or housecat[5] to distinguish it from other felines and felids, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin and household pests. Cats have been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years,[6] and are currently the most popular pet in the world.[7] Due to their close association with humans, cats are now found almost everywhere on Earth. This extreme adaptability and their worrying impacts on native animals has led to them being classed as an invasive species. Most of these problems are caused by the large number of feral cats worldwide, with a population of up to 60 million of these animals in the United States alone.
Cats are similar in size and anatomy to the other felids, with light, flexible bodies and teeth adapted to killing small prey. A skilled predator, the cat hunts using its excellent eyesight and hearing.
Unusually, cats have lost the ability to taste sugar. Some breeds show hereditary deafness.
Despite being solitary hunters, cats are a social species and use a variety of vocalizations, pheromones and types of body language for communication. These include meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting.[8] They are also bred and shown as registered pedigree pets. This hobby is known as cat fancy.
As The New York Times wrote in 2007, "Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal."[9] A study that year found that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run through as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) circa 8000 BC, in the Near East.[4] The earliest direct evidence of cat domestication is a kitten that was buried with its owner 9,500 years ago in Cyprus.
PhysiologyNormal physiological values[79]
Body temperature 38.6°C (101.5°F)
Heart rate 120-140 beats per minute
Breathing rate 16-40 breaths per minute
A cat comfortably sleeping with a high skin temperature.
As a familiar and easily-kept animal, the physiology of cats has been particularly well studied and is generally similar to that of other carnivorous mammals.[27] However, several features of cats' physiology are unusual and are probably due to their descent from desert-dwelling species.[27] For instance, cats are able to tolerate quite high temperatures: humans generally start to feel uncomfortable when their skin temperature passes about 44.5 °C (112 °F); in contrast cats show no discomfort until their skin reaches around 52 °C (126 °F),[80] and can tolerate temperatures of up to 56 °C (133 °F) if they have access to water.[81] Cats conserve heat by reducing the flow of blood to their skin and lose heat by evaporation through their mouth. They do not sweat and pant only at very high temperatures.[82] Unusually, a cat's body temperature does not vary throughout the day; this is part of cats' general lack of circadian rhythms and may reflect their tendency to be active at both day and night.[83] As well as being tolerant of high temperatures, cats' feces are usually dry and their urine is also highly concentrated, both of which are adaptations that allow cats to retain as much fluid as possible.[27] Indeed, their kidneys are so efficient that cats can survive on a diet consisting only of meat, with no additional water,[84] and can even rehydrate by drinking seawater.[85][86]
A cat carrying a house mouse.
Cats are obligate carnivores: their physiology has evolved to efficiently process meat, and they have difficulty digesting plant matter.[27] In contrast to omnivores such as rats, which only require about 4% protein in their diet, about 20% of a cat's diet must be protein.[27] Cats are unusually dependent on a constant supply of the amino acid arginine, and a diet lacking arginine causes marked weight loss and can be rapidly fatal.[87] Another unusual feature is that the cat also cannot produce the amino acid taurine, with taurine deficiency causing macular degeneration, where the cat's retina slowly degenerates, causing irreversible blindness.[27] Since cats tend to eat all of their prey, they obtain minerals by digesting animal bones, and a diet composed only of meat may cause calcium deficiency.[27]
A cat's digestive tract is also adapted to meat eating, being much shorter than that of omnivores and having low levels of several of the digestive enzymes that are needed to digest carbohydrates.[88] These traits severely limits the cat's ability to digest and use plant-derived nutrients, as well as certain fatty acids.[88] Despite the cat's meat-oriented physiology, several vegetarian or vegan cat foods have been marketed that are supplemented with chemically synthesized taurine and other nutrients, in attempts to produce a complete diet. However, some of these products still fail to provide all the nutrients that cats require,[89] and diets containing no animal products pose the risk of causing severe nutritional deficiencies.[90]
Health
Main article: Cat health
In captivity, an average life expectancy for male indoor cats at birth is 12 to 14 years,[91] with females usually living a year or two longer. However, there have been records of cats reaching into their 20s and 30s, with the oldest known cat, Creme Puff, dying at a verified age of 38.[92] Having a cat neutered or spayed confers some health benefits, since castrated males cannot develop testicular cancer, spayed females cannot develop uterine or ovarian cancer, and both have a reduced risk of mammary cancer.[93] The lifespan of feral cats is hard to determine accurately, although one study reported a median age of 4.7 years, with a range between 0 to 10 years.[94]
Diseases
Cats can suffer from a wide range of health problems, including infectious diseases, parasites, injuries and chronic disease. Vaccinations are available for many of these diseases, and domestic cats are regularly given treatments to eliminate parasites such as worms and fleas.
Poisoning
In addition to obvious dangers such as rodenticides, insecticides and weed killers, cats may be poisoned by many chemicals that are usually considered safe.[95] This is because their livers are less effective at some forms of detoxification than those of other animals, including humans and dogs.[27][96] Some of the most common causes of poisoning in cats are antifreeze and rodent baits.[97] It has also been suggested that cats may be particularly sensitive to environmental pollutants.[95][98] When a cat has a sudden or prolonged serious illness without any obvious cause, it is therefore possible that it has been exposed to a toxin.
Human medicines should never be given to cats. For example, the painkiller paracetamol (also called acetaminophen), sold under brand names such as Tylenol and Panadol is extremely toxic to cats: even very small doses can be fatal and need immediate treatment.[99][100] Even aspirin, which is sometimes used to treat arthritis in cats, is much more toxic to them than to humans and must be administered cautiously.[95] Similarly, application of minoxidil (Rogaine) to the skin of cats, either accidentally or by well-meaning owners attempting to counter loss of fur, has sometimes been fatal.[101] Essential oils can be toxic to cats and there have been reported cases of serious illnesses caused by tea tree oil, and tea tree oil-based flea treatments and shampoos.[102]
Other common household substances that should be used with caution around cats include mothballs and other naphthalene products.[95] Phenol-based products are often used for cleaning and disinfecting near cats' feeding areas or litter boxes: such as Pine-Sol, Dettol (Lysol) or hexachlorophene,[95] but these can sometimes be fatal.[103] Ethylene glycol, often used as an automotive antifreeze, is particularly appealing to cats, and as little as a teaspoonful can be fatal.[104] Some human foods are toxic to cats; for example theobromine in chocolate can cause theobromine poisoning, although few cats will eat chocolate.[105] Large amounts of onions or garlic are also poisonous to cats.[95] Many houseplants are also dangerous,[106] such as Philodendron species and the leaves of the Easter Lily, which can cause permanent and life-threatening kidney damage.[107]
Behavior
See also: Cat behavior and cat communication "Cat purring"
A young female cat, purring in front of a warm open fire.
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Free-ranging cats are active both day and night, although they tend to be slightly more active at night.[108][109] The timing of cats' activity is quite flexible and varied, which means that house cats may be more active in the morning and evening (crepuscular behavior), as a response to greater human activity at these times.[110] House cats have territories that vary quite a lot in size, in one study ranging from seven to 28 hectares.[109] Although they spend the majority of their time in the vicinity of their home, they can range many hundreds of meters from this central point.[109]
An adult Singapura sleeping at the void deck.
Cats conserve energy by sleeping more than most animals, especially as they grow older. The daily duration of sleep varies, usually 12–16 hours, with 13–14 being the average. Some cats can sleep as much as 20 hours in a 24-hour period. The term cat nap refers to the cat's ability to fall asleep (lightly) for a brief period and has entered the English lexicon—someone who nods off for a few minutes is said to be "taking a cat nap". During sleep cats experience short periods of rapid eye movement sleep accompanied by muscle twitches, which suggests that they are dreaming.[111]
Sociability
Social grooming in a pair of cats.
Although wildcats are solitary, the social behavior of domestic cats is much more variable and ranges from widely-dispersed individuals to feral cat colonies that form around a food source, based on groups of co-operating females.[112][113] Within such groups one cat is usually dominant over the others.[114] Each cat in a colony holds a distinct territory, with sexually active males having the largest territories, which are about ten times larger than those of female cats and may overlap with several females' territories.[61] These territories are marked by urine spraying, by rubbing objects at head height with secretions from facial glands and by defecation.[61] Between these territories are neutral areas where cats watch and greet one another without territorial conflicts. Outside these neutral areas, territory holders usually chase away stranger cats, at first by staring, hissing, and growling, and if that does not work, by short but noisy and violent attacks. Despite some cats cohabiting in colonies, cats do not have a social survival strategy, or a pack mentality and always hunt alone.[115]
Domestic cats use many vocalizations for communication, including purring, trilling, hissing, growling, snarling and several different forms of meowing.[8] In contrast, feral cats are generally silent.[116] Their types of body language: position of ears and tail, relaxation of whole body, kneading of paws, are all indicators of mood. The tail and ears are particularly important social signal in cats, with a raised tail acting as a friendly greeting.[117][118] Tail raising also indicates the cat's position in the group's social hierarchy, with dominant individuals raising their tails less often than subordinate animals.[118] Nose-touching is also a common greeting and may be followed by social grooming, which is solicited by one of the cats raising and tilting its head.[113] However, some pet cats are poorly socialized. In particular older cats may show aggressiveness towards newly-arrived kittens, which may include biting and scratching; this type of behavior is known as Feline Asocial Aggression.[119]
For cats, life in proximity with humans (and other animals kept by humans) amounts to a "symbiotic social adaptation". They may express great affection towards their human companions, especially if they imprint on them at a very young age and are treated with consistent affection. It has been suggested that, ethologically, the human keeper of a cat functions as a sort of surrogate for the cat's mother, and that adult domestic cats live their lives in a kind of extended kittenhood, a form of behavioral neoteny.[120] Conversely, the high-pitched purrs cats make to solicit food may mimic the cries of a hungry human infant, making them particularly hard for humans to ignore
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