Domestic cat

• The cat cannot synthesize vitamin A from beta-carotene because the necessary enzyme is absent in its body. Unlike many other animals, it obtains it only from animal-based food.
• Cats can distinguish the sound of their name from other words. Researchers in Japan showed this in a published article in 2019.
• Cats have 25 times more rods than cones in their retina because they are nocturnal predators. This allows them to see in low light.
• Cats can perceive sweetness despite a damaged gene. Studies have refuted the claim that they cannot sense sweetness.
• Cats are credited with the ability to see in the dark and ward off evil spirits. Buddhists also believe they are prone to meditation.
• Cats can hear ultrasound but do not produce it, as they lack an organ generating ultrasound. Cats can hear up to 65–70 kHz, while rodent ultrasonic communication occurs in the 20–50 kHz range.
• Neoteny in cats is linked to domestication, as early humans selected animals with infantile behavioral traits. This led to domestic cats retaining juvenile features, including high playfulness.
• Kittens are born deaf and blind, and the ability to see appears on day 5–10 after birth. Kittens begin to hear at 9–11 days old.
• Cats are able to give their voice about a hundred different intonations, unlike dogs, which have about ten. Some of these sounds are especially sharp and unpleasant to human hearing, especially during fights between cats for a female.
• Cat Lucy is the oldest cat in the world. Her age is officially confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records, and she was born in 1972.
• Cats are obligate carnivores, unlike canids, which often eat plant-based food. Their digestive tract is adapted to consume only meat.
• A cat severs the spinal cord of its prey with its fangs, driving them between two vertebrae. After catching prey, it bites with two long fangs, leading to irreversible paralysis and death.
• The largest cat reaches a length of 121.9 cm. This size is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as a record.
• A stray cat lived 19 years, which is a record among known stray cats. According to the British Cat Welfare Foundation, this is the oldest known stray cat.
• Cats have a focusing ability for objects 2–3 times less than that of higher primates and humans. They perceive stationary and closely spaced objects worse than moving ones.
• A cat laps up liquid by extending its tongue at a speed of 1 m/s and drawing a column of liquid along with it. Unlike dogs' lapping, its tongue does not penetrate into the liquid.
• A cat's sense of smell is about 14 times stronger than a human's. The surface area of their olfactory epithelium is 5.8 cm, twice as large as in humans.
• Some cats and kittens can produce a threatening growl resembling a dog's, indicating extreme anger and irritation. They make this growl by arching their back and tail, fluffing their fur, and pressing their ears against their head.
• Cats can reach a weight of 20 kg, and the heaviest cat weighed 21.3 kg. This weight is a record for domestic cats.
• Non-hunting cats can scare rodents with their scent. It is believed that even non-hunting cats can scare rodents with their presence.
• Cats can swim, even if they don't like water, because their movements in water resemble walking. Any cat, even one encountering water for the first time, can swim.
• About 60% of cats can perform converging and diverging eye movements. Their field of vision is 200°, wider than in humans.
• The Don Sphynx has a dominant gene for hairlessness, unlike the Canadian Sphynx. Unlike the Canadian Sphynx, the inheritance mechanism of hairlessness in the Don Sphynx is dominant.
• Cats can mate throughout their lives, but old cats may experience maternal death during childbirth. Their pregnancy lasts 55–60 days, and usually gives birth to three to eight kittens.
• A cat falling from the 15th floor suffers fewer injuries than from the 2nd. The higher the building from which the cat falls, the fewer injuries the animal sustains.
• Cats have visual memory comparable to that of monkeys. This was discovered during an experiment comparing them to dogs.
• Stray dogs kill cats even without the need for food. Guard and fighting dogs also often kill cats, but the reason for stray dogs remains unknown.
• Among mammals, cats have the most developed sense organs. Although their hearing is worse than that of mice, their vision, sense of smell, and hearing combined with tactile and taste receptors make them very sensitive.
• Blood group AB is the rarest in cats — it occurs in 1% of domestic cats and remains poorly studied. AB is not genetically related to blood groups A and B.
• A cat can twist in the air even without initial rotation. The falling cat theorem, developed by Richard Montgomery, explains how this happens, even if the angular momentum is zero.
• Cats can die from falling from great heights, such as from windows of high-rise buildings. When falling from such heights, the reflex of spreading their legs does not always work, and the animal may die.
• Cats are able to land on their feet when falling. Because of this ability, they are considered to have a special "sixth sense" and nine lives.
• Cats with poor vision have longer and thicker vibrissae. Cats born with vision impairment have vibrissae exceeding 8 cm.
• The cat named Krim Puff lived 38 years. This exceeds the average lifespan of domestic cats several times, as maine coons, ragdolls, and norwegian forest cats rank second with a lifespan of 10 years.
• European domestic cats originated from an African population, not from the Near East, and all Neolithic and Eneolithic samples actually belonged to wild European forest cats. This was confirmed by a nuclear DNA analysis in 2025.
• The Burmese short-haired cat holds the record for lifespan, living on average 14 years. Scientists from the Royal Veterinary College in London found that it significantly outlives other breeds in terms of longevity.
• Cats solved complex tasks faster if they first solved simple ones. A cat given only complex tasks did not learn to solve them even after 600 attempts.
• White cats often have blue eyes due to the W gene in their genotype. Such cats have a 40% chance of being born deaf.
• Taurine is an essential substance for cats, without which retinal degeneration and blindness may develop. Cow's milk is a poor source of taurine, and most cats are lactose intolerant.
• Purring in cats occurs from rhythmic vibrations in the larynx. This can happen simultaneously with meowing, but only in talkative individuals.
• A cat's ear can rotate almost 180°, controlled by more than ten muscles. A cat can track two sound sources simultaneously.
• Hybrid cats of the first 3–5 generations cannot have offspring. Hybrid cats do not have offspring.
• Mummified cats had broken necks. X-ray examinations of some mummies showed that the animals had broken necks.
• A cat has the largest eyes among domestic animals relative to body size. Their eyes are forward-facing, with overlapping visual fields.
• A cat has about 52,000 sensory nerve endings in the auditory nerve, more than in humans. Humans have 31,000.
• Henry's pouch on a cat's ears has no known function. Its functional purpose is unknown, and it remains an unstudied anatomical area.
• A cat has a movement called the "milk walk," which stimulates milk production in the mother. Kittens perform this movement while nursing to activate milk release.
• Cats can descend any tree on their own, turning their tail downward and hanging on their claws. They move one paw at a time, slowly descending tail-first.
• In cats, the codominant color gene is located on the X chromosome, so tortoiseshell coloring occurs only in female cats, not in male cats. In some cases, male cats may exhibit tortoiseshell coloring due to an XXY chromosome set.
• Cat pupils glow yellow-green when illuminated from the front. At this angle, cats with well-pigmented irises display particularly vivid tones.
• The incubation period of rabies in cats lasts up to 24 weeks, but symptoms usually appear on week 4–6. The animal dies on day 3–4 after the onset of disease symptoms.
• Many cats show strong attachment to humans, establishing physical contact, for example, climbing onto knees. There are cases where a cat's loyalty to its owner was stronger than that of many dogs, despite cats originating from the world's most dangerous and unfriendly predators.
• Blue-eyed cats have weak night vision, similar to humans. Their tapetum is poorly pigmented, and their pupils reflect red less brightly.
• 250 hereditary genetic disorders have been identified in cats, many of which are similar to human disorders. The high similarity in metabolism among mammals allows genetic tests developed for humans to be used for diagnosing cat diseases.
• Cats can adjust their body position in the air to land safely on their paws. In tailless cats, the entire body performs the stabilizing function instead of the tail.
• Cats have the ability of spatial hearing — they can recognize the strength, distance, and height of a sound and accurately determine the location of its source based on these data. This ability allows them to catch mice passing by even with closed eyes.
• Cats hunt alone, unlike lions, which hunt in prides. Their hunting method does not include group actions, except for kittens and mother cats playing.
• The "milk walk" in cats means she is very satisfied. Some cats perform it when being petted, others when burying their face in a fluffy object.
• Hunting tactics in cats are the same as in tigers and leopards: the cat lurks and attacks with a sudden jump, trying to strike the neck with long fangs. Cats can catch fish in running water with their front paws.
• Cats can climb trees very quickly, backward-facing claws support their body weight, and the muscular system allows them to run upward. Backward claws do not hold the cat, and when descending, the cat may fall.
• Cats can express feelings and emotions through facial expressions and gaze. Currently, there are no methods for recognizing such facial meanings.
• Cats can predict the weather based on certain behaviors, for example, if they lick their paw — rain is coming. If they scratch the wall on their hind legs — a blizzard.
• About 35% of people are infected with toxoplasmosis, and the infection rate varies between 6 and 90 percent in different countries.
• A cat's skull has large eye sockets and similarly developed facial and cranial regions. Its facial and cranial regions are approximately equally developed, and the cranial part consists of 11 bones.
• The average age of stray cats is 4.7 years, but some live up to 10 years. In modern cities, stray cats usually do not live past three years.
• Cats have special tactile hairs, including vibrissae and wrist hairs, which perform sensory functions and help with orientation. Vibrissae are located above the upper lip, above the eyes, under the chin, and sensitive hairs are on the tail, inner and back sides of limbs, paw pads, between toes, on the tips of ears, and in the ears.
• A cat's purring does not always mean satisfaction. A cat may make such sounds while stretching and retracting claws during petting.
• Ovulation in cats occurs during mating and requires stimulation. Therefore, fertilization in cats rarely occurs during the first mating.
• Male cats may suffocate defenseless kittens if they find a nest, for example, when the mother is hunting. This behavior is more common in stray and rural cats when the father is unknown.
• Cats can befriend animals that are their natural prey, but the hunting instinct may activate. If a mouse is brought to a kitten a few weeks old, they may maintain friendly relationships for a long time.
• Wild cats usually do not allow humans to touch them and run away if approached from a short distance. On the Japanese island of Tashiro, their population exceeds the local human population.
• Cats can damage human skin with their claws during play. Sometimes they release their claws intentionally or unintentionally, causing scratches that may become inflamed, especially if cats have access to the outdoors.
• Cats have adaptations for separating meat from bones — a long, flexible tongue with bumps on the sides. These bumps secrete keratin and help the cat during grooming.
• Cats have color vision similar to deuteranopia in humans. Most mammals lack "green" cones, so their color perception resembles that of humans with deuteranopia.
• Toxoplasmosis affects human behavioral psychology, causing positive emotions during interaction with cats. This disease is not dangerous to human health, but it can be contracted from cats that become infected from mice and rats.