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Cat Behavior And Our Modern Lifestyle.
Cat behavior can often seem strange to us. We can’t understand why our lovely
pet cat who we feed great food to on a regular basis and provide lovely
fresh water for, still insists on hunting and eating birds and mice and
drinking out of the nearest dirty puddle.
Perhaps we will never fully understand all their quirky and strange
ways, but the more we appreciate their natural instincts, the greater
chance we have of achieving a balance between their lifestyle and ours.
Perhaps also avoiding any behavioral problems.
The Cat Social System
 Many
people believe that cats are aloof and selfish, doing exactly what they
want when they want. However cats in the wild often live in colonies,
similar to a pride of Lions and can display very social cat behavior
to one another. Certainly in the domestic sense cats seem to crave the
attention and affection of their human friends.
Of course cats can fend for themselves quite well and even though they
live in a comfortable home they never lose that ability to find their
own food and shelter, just in case. Many cats have had to fall back
on these instincts when they find themselves abandoned by their owners.
The cat vocabulary
Cats have not lost their communication skills, which were developed
in the wild and are much more than just cat meowing. The signals range
from very obvious direct ones, to subtle gestures we may not notice,
but which send very definite messages to other cats.
The cat’s sense of smell, touch and hearing are the most important
senses they have, and cats use them far more keenly than humans. They
also use body language to communicate many emotions, from fear and aggression
to pain and contentment.
- Smell: Cats have a special organ in their nose called the
vomeronasal organ, which helps them to detect smells. You may have
noticed your cat slightly opening their mouth when they have smelt
something new, they are using the vomeronasal organ when they do this.
- Scent is also an important communication method. They identify
each other by smell and also use it to mark out their territory. Cats
have scent glands around their mouths and also their feet. That is
why you may see your cat rubbing its face around furniture or people,
they are just marking it, to say that it belongs to them.
 Body
Language: By Understanding your cats body signals you will notice
when your cat isn’t feeling well, if your cat is afraid of something
or is generally not in the mood for a cuddle and would just rather
be left alone.
A cats face will give a lot away, if the pupils of the eyes are
wide this will indicate either a scared cat or angry cat especially
if the cat has a fixed stare. Or it could mean that they are quite
excited about something. Their body language will also help to clarify
their emotions. Ears folded back means aggression, completely flattened
against the head means that they are a really scared
cat. Pricked up and held slightly forward means that they
are confidentand a happy cat.
They are also very vocal, and can often be heard meowing
in the night. However it is thought that they have learnt to be more
vocal because humans communicate verbally and they are trying to use
our method of communication to try and make us understand what they
want.
Cat behavior problems.
To be honest it’s not the cat who has the problem, its us. What we call cat
behavior problems are really only things that we find unacceptable, like
eating our plants, spraying in the house, cat scratching and fighting
with the neighbourhood cats. Cats must wonder what all the fuss is about,
as they are only doing what comes naturally.
Any cat behavior problems that do arise should be dealt with quickly
and calmly and of course if you do have a Kitten or young cat teaching
them as soon as possible to use the litter tray and to tolerate being
groomed will make life a lot easier for the both of you.
Other pages will talk more about specific problems such as , cat
scratching the furniture, angry
cat behaviour and how these behaviours can be changed or even
avoided.
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of Cat Behavior Page
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