Behavior of Cats

If ever you own a cat or you observe some cats on the streets, you may examine some sort of mannerisms that they tend to portray. At the back of your mind, a certain confusion lingers on as you visualize those acts and you often wonder why cats do these different peculiar things?

Well, Without a clue, we don't really know the reason why they do those things, unless we become one right? But based on thorough researches and extremely keen observations, cat fanatics have established a counterpart explanation and reasoning for every cat action.

Among those actions are:
1. Purring
2. Greeting
3. Kneading
4. Gifts
5. Burying Faeces
6. Wagging tail
7. Eating grass
8. Taking food out of its bowl
9. Becoming wild
10.Scratching furniture
11.Cat grooming

Here are the explanations for every behavior:

PURRING

"Purring" is a term used to define a sound made by species of felines and one example are cats. This serve as their form of communication. It usually varies in detail like loudness and tone.Cats differ in they way they purr. Some purr strongly that their entire body vibrates. Other cats purr quietly that the only indication is the vibration felt when you touch their throats.

Why do cats purr?

Cats purr because it is a signal of their mood to be sociable. They purr because they want to show that they are friendly and approachable. The purring sound is associated for an expression of a positive feeling towards people.

Purring cats may also be coined to be the signaling mechanism between a mother cat and its nursing kittens. Female cats purr when giving birth and kittens purr while nursing, probably an "all's well" signal to their mother.

GREETING

Have you ever experienced that a cat whether your own or stray have rubbed their furry bodies into your legs? Its quite annoying sometimes right? But do you know that this is their way of greeting you? Indeed, these cats are just showing their friendly nature. Some instances like rolling on their backs, stretching their legs as far as possible, yawning and exercising its claws.

But rubbing their body into your legs indicates an active way of greeting a person. Cats have scent glands on their temples, around the mouth and at the base of the tail. So when a cat rubs itself on you, it is one way of signaling to the other cats that "this is mine" and only cats can smell these scent.

KNEADING

Kneading is a term for cats who extends and retracts its claws usually when resting on its owner's lap. Most often than not, when the cat is just resting in some comfortable place and you start caressing its body, the cat tends to knead which is accompanied by spreading open and close of the front paws and fingers or toes.

Why do cats knead?

The reason behind why cats knead is because during their kitten hood, they used to spend a lot of their time kneading and purring around their mother's milk supplying nipples. When you try to observe kittens sucking on their mother's nipples, their paws perform a quick circular motion around the either side of the nipple, stimulating an increased flow of the milk.

GIFTS

Cats are very fond of playing with creatures. Mice and birds are their favorite victim. Playing with these creatures are synonymous to also killing them. When they have killed their favorite victim, this will serve as an offering in a form of a triumphant gift to their owners. It may seem weird but the act is completely normal for cats and they should not be punished for this in any way. Cats only want to show to their owners the victory that they have experienced by means of killing their victim.

BURYING FAECES

The good thing about cats is that they have this very unique characteristic which makes them distinguished from other pets, the burying of their feaces or bowel. The first thing that ever comes to our mind when we witness these act is for the sake of cleanliness and neatness but it is not as we visualize it to be. It is a sign of dominance. Cats feel that their owners are more dominant to them.

WAGGING TAIL

When a dog wags its tail, it only means that the dog is happy and content. But when a cat does the same thing, it does not mean happiness and contentment -completely the opposite.

When a cat does the wagging of its tail, it is a sign of some level of predatory indecision or conflict. While hunting for its prey, a cat may be still but its tail wags it side to side. In this instance, the cat is deciding when to attack its prey.
This may also occur when two dominant male cats play or fight.

Cats also wag their tail when sleeping. This means that while resting contentedly, they still exhibit alertness.

EATING GRASS

Eating grass for cats is some sort of a cleansing diet for them, to get rid of hairballs caused by cat grooming. They normally eat green grass if they want to clean out their stomach by means of vomiting. After eating the grass, vomiting will immediately follow.

TAKING FOOD OUT OF ITS BOWL

No matter how beautiful and expensive the bowl that you bought for your kittie cat, you will just be frustrated because your pet wont use it anyway. No matter what you do, they will take the food out of the bowl and eat it on the floor/ground.

There are two main reasons why they do this:

reason#1:
Cats find the pieces of food too large to they tend to put it outside the bowl where there is more space. In that way, it would be easier for them to chew into smaller pieces.

reason#2:
Cats prevent their whiskers to touch the corners of the bowl because it makes them uncomfortable to eat.That way, they eat the food outside of the bowl.

BECOMING WILD

Most people get scared when a cat acts wild. Usually jumping off furnitures, running back and forth with a wild look in their eyes and in an attack mode looking so aggressive. This behavior happens mostly in indoor cats and occurs during late at night. It is only evident on male cats with ages less than 5 yrs old and also even older cats.

SCRATCHING FURNITURE

Cats may seem to be destructive sometimes. In order for them to sharpen their claws and strip off the old one to reveal the new one, they tend to scratch a furniture usually a sofa or chair with a cotton like covering. It is also one way of exercising their claws and paws and also for scent-marking.

CAT GROOMING

Do you often observe, after touching or carrying a cat, they immediately groom themselves by licking their bodies. This is because the coat has been disturbed, but primarily to strengthen its own odor. Too much human scent is disturbingly destructive to them and it has to be weakened.

The grooming of a cat after being held by the owner also helps a cat to gain information about the person who handled her.

Also after eating their meals, they groom to remove the foreign particles and keep its coat free from dirt and grease.

Facts about cats

The Cat (Felis silvestris catus), also known as the Domestic Cat or House Cat to distinguish it from other felines, is a small carnivorous species of crepuscular mammal that is often valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin. It has been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years.

A skilled predator, the cat is known to hunt over 1,000 species for food. It is intelligent and can be trained to obey simple commands. Individual cats have also been known to learn to manipulate simple mechanisms, such as doorknobs. Cats use a variety of vocalizations and types of body language for communication, including meowing, purring, hissing, growling, squeaking, chirping, clicking, and grunting. Cats are popular pets and are also bred and shown as registered pedigree pets. This hobby is known as the "Cat Fancy".

A study by the National Cancer Institute published in the journal Science says that all house cats are descended from a group of self-domesticating desert wildcats Felis silvestris lybica circa 10,000 years ago, in the Near East. All wildcat subspecies can interbreed, but domestic cats are all genetically contained within F. s. lybica.

Certified cat lover

Cats are the closest pet in my heart. I am a certified, obsessed cat lover For me they are the greatest creature on earth. Perhaps it is because of their face, eyes and over all appearance. They make me smile for no apparent reason. Seeing them certainly takes my stress away.