All articles tagged with "Cat Behaviour"
The indoor vs. outdoor cat debate is not evenly balanced by evidence. Outdoor cats face mortality rates dramatically higher than indoor cats. A widely cited 2013 study in Nature Communications by Loss et al. estimated that free-roaming cats kill between 1.3 and 4 billion birds annually in the United
Adult domestic cats sleep between 12 and 16 hours per day on average, with some individuals, particularly kittens and older cats, sleeping up to 20 hours. This striking figure is not the result of laziness or boredom but of fundamental feline physiology: cats are obligate carnivore ambush hunters
Cats scratch surfaces as a fundamental, multi-purpose behaviour that serves claw maintenance, scent communication, visual territory marking, and full-body muscle stretching. Scratching is not destructive mischief; it is a biologically driven need that every domestic cat will express regardless of w
Cats bring dead animals home because they are hardwired hunters whose instincts do not align with the domestic arrangement in which food is provided in a bowl. The behaviour reflects predatory drive, possible social learning impulses, and territory-related food caching instincts, not gratitude, spi
Cats communicate through an unusually rich and multi-channel system that includes vocalisation, body posture and movement, facial expression, scent marking, and tactile behaviour. Remarkably, most of this system is directed at other species, particularly humans, rather than at other cats. Adult ca
Cats are not nocturnal; they are crepuscular, meaning their peak activity periods occur at dawn and dusk rather than through the night or the day. This distinction matters both for understanding cat behaviour and for managing the common owner complaint of cats being disruptive during sleeping hours
