What is the brain of a cat. Why big cats have different brains. Muscles and Muscles

A cat is an animal that is popular with many people. It is bred in private houses for catching rodents. In addition, it is turned on in apartments. This little affectionate and fluffy animal cheers up all household members. Caring owners, of course, are concerned about the question of how the mental abilities of their beloved pet are arranged. For example, what kind of memory do cats have?

How is the cat's brain arranged?

If you believe experienced zoologists, then in all respects the cat's brain is exactly the same as the human one. It differs only in size - 2 times smaller. Otherwise, they are similar. Cats also have gray matter in their heads, which is responsible for mental development, and neurons that control memory. But it still remains unclear what kind of memory cats have. It is worth looking into this in more detail.

Two kinds of memory

Many experiments have been carried out on cats in laboratory and real conditions, which make it possible to assess the mental abilities of an individual. In the course of their conduct, it was revealed that she has two types of memory.

1. Short-term memory, the duration of which is not more than 16 hours. During this time, the cat may find food it recently hid or a toy.
2. Long-term memory that lasts a lifetime. For example, an individual remembers its former owners for a long time, and if it gets lost, then there is a high probability that it will still find its way home.

It is worth noting that cats, as well as for all living beings, are characterized by age-related changes. This means that young pets absorb information much better and retain it longer than older cats or cats.

About the amount of memory

Zoologists and livestock breeders have been experimenting for a long time, trying to find out what kind of memory cats have and how long it lasts. They wanted to estimate the amount of memory, but, unfortunately, so far they have not been able to do this. What is it connected with? The fact is that in the course of scientific research it was not possible to recognize in which cases the animal performs actions based on its own memory, and when it does it according to its innate instinct.

But still, scientists are faced with the problem that it becomes incomprehensible how a cat remembers a lot of information if its brain is much smaller than that of a person. It was found that the animal's memory has a powerful "filter" that helps to filter out unnecessary information and remembers only what is necessary for existence.

Ability to learn

A caring owner is concerned not only with the question of what kind of memory cats have, but also whether it can be trained in order to increase the mental abilities of a pet. As zoologists assure, this is not necessary, since the mother teaches all the necessary skills to the kitten. When cohabiting with an adult in the same house, he will observe her and learn. If the kitten was weaned from its mother early, then it will still learn the skills necessary for life, but already at the level of its own instincts. If a person still has a need to influence this natural process, then this can be done in several ways.

1. Add more vitamins to your pet's diet.
2. In addition to food, give natural products, in particular fish and meat.
3. Conduct training on their own, for example, moving a bowl or stove bench to a new place, and then check how quickly the individual will get used to the new conditions.
4. You can let the kitten go for a walk and see if he finds his way home on his own, but at this time you need to carefully monitor him so that he does not get lost.

According to zoologists, the optimal age of an animal for the development of memory is 2-5 years.

memory and aging

Studying the question of how much memory cats have, one cannot help but touch on the issue of animal aging. Just like in humans, with age, the mental abilities of a cat are noticeably reduced. She begins to forget the way home, stops remembering where her bowl and tray are. Unfortunately, this is an absolutely natural process that nothing can affect. It is only required to show maximum care for an adult pet and provide him with a decent old age.

Cats and people

Separately, it is worth talking about what kind of memory a cat has for people. Perhaps, it was on this topic that the largest number of experiments were conducted. The cat was given to the hands of a person, where she was for several hours. Then they launched into a room with a group of people, where the animal needed to find the person who had it in his arms. As it turned out, only a few coped with this test.

Cats are indeed able to remember people, but only those with whom they have lived for several years. But in this case, the sense of smell works - cats remember only the smell of their owner.

Some interesting facts

In the UK, a cat named Mark left the house and got lost. For a long time he lived in a different place, but after 6 years of travel, he was able to remember the way home, in addition, he happily jumped on his knees to his beloved owner.

A similar incident occurred in Rostov-on-Don. The young family moved to Luhansk for permanent residence, but for unknown reasons, their cat disappeared along the way. The surprise of the neighbors knew no bounds when, five weeks later, they found him on the threshold of their home. Accordingly, speaking of memory in cats, it is worth noting that there are pets with special intellectual abilities.

Features of the intelligence of a cat

Separately, it is worth talking about other intellectual features of the cat.

1. They are able to follow the verbal instructions of people, for example, to approach their call or, conversely, to run away when the command “shove”.
2. Can recognize the mood of the owner.
3. Each owner may notice that the pet even has a certain washing order, which he always adheres to.
4. They easily get used to the daily routine, they know when it's time to play with their beloved owner, eat, sleep or walk.

So, what is the memory of cats? As it turned out, in general, it is from 16 hours. But its extent is still unknown. These are unique creatures that remember only the information that they need for a full life, weed out all unnecessary details.

When assessing the impact of social life on brain size, it should be remembered that sociality is not the only evolutionary factor influencing the formation of the nervous system.

Among the hypotheses explaining the development of intelligence in animals, one of the most popular is the one that links intelligence with the level of sociality.

Despite the social life, cheetahs have to be content with a small brain, so as not to lose speed and maneuverability of running. (Photo by Michigan State University.)

A busy social life has made lionesses "brainier" than lions. (Photo by davidsluka / pixabay.com.)

It’s easier to live in a community, but only if you can communicate with “colleagues in appearance”, and this is not so easy: you need to know who treats you well and who treats you so-so, you need to resolve conflicts as peacefully as possible, you need to somehow to understand other people's emotions and intentions.

To solve such problems, a developed nervous system is needed, that is, the conclusion suggests itself that social species will have a larger brain. On the other hand, the reverse reasoning is also possible here: in singles, the nervous system will be more developed, since they have to cope with a changing environment only on their own, without the help of comrades.

It is believed that the “large social brain” hypothesis is well supported by the example of primates. But, besides monkeys and humans, there are still a lot of other animals in the world, social and non-social. And now with them it's not so obvious.

On the one hand, there are the results of a study published earlier this year in the journal PNAS: among 39 species of animals that had to pass an intelligence test, the most intelligent were bears, raccoons and representatives of the mustelid family, but meerkats, known for their social lifestyle, were the worst (mongooses made up a couple of them).

On the other hand, researchers from the University of Miami who compared the intelligence of lions, spotted hyenas, tigers and leopards found that lions and hyenas were the most intelligent.

Additional intrigue is brought by the results of Charlene Sakai ( Sharleen Sakai) and her colleagues at Michigan State University, who analyzed the structure of the brain in thirteen feline species, of which only two were social - the lion and the cheetah. (Just in case, we’ll clarify that we used the phrase “big cats” in the title in an everyday, but not in a strictly systematic sense: in zoology, the cheetah and puma are not included in the subfamily Pantherinae, or big cats, as they differ from leopards, lions, tigers etc. according to more significant morphological features.)

The brains themselves were not studied directly, but indirectly, with the help of computed tomography of skulls, of which quite a lot has accumulated in various museum and scientific collections. One would expect that the sociality of lions and cheetahs would make them more brainy in the truest sense of the word - that is, that they would have a larger brain than others - but here some nuances were revealed.

As the authors write in Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, the overall size of the brain in felines did not differ too much (again, just in case, we note that we compared not absolute values, but relative ones, given the size of the entire animal). Although there were differences, and first of all in the frontal cortex, which in some was noticeably larger, in others it was less.

The largest frontal cortex was in lionesses, which fits well with the “large social brain” hypothesis: lionesses among cats are the most socialized, they have to live together for a long time in one pride, hunt together, raise cubs, etc., so, of course, they need voluminous frontal lobes, which are just involved in higher cognitive functions, including social ones.

But it is not so necessary for male lions to build complex "interpersonal" relationships: they mostly live alone, and their "reign" in the pride is limited to several years. So the notorious frontal lobes of lions are smaller than those of lionesses.

But why, then, in cheetahs, which are also quite social, both the brain in general and the frontal cortex turned out to be the smallest of all? And why did lone leopards have larger brains than you might expect? Here we need to remember that sociality is not the only thing that the nervous system has to do, and things that are not directly related to the mind and quick wit can influence the size of the brain.

Cheetahs are runners, they do not attack from ambush, but pursue their prey in open areas, and during the hunting sprint for some antelope they often have to maneuver. The structure of the skull of cheetahs and, accordingly, the structure of the brain changed so that it was easier for them to run and maneuver better - a massive head could become a hindrance here.

As for leopards, they are known to be adept hunters with a fairly flexible behavior that can adapt to different conditions, and high behavioral plasticity, whether in a social or solitary species, implies a well-developed nervous system.

In other words, when we say that the need to communicate and lead a rich social life caused the brain to grow, then we must remember that in evolution it rarely happens that one thing comes to the fore, and that the changes that a species experiences in the course of evolutionary development, occur under the influence of a variety of factors.

I continue to publish notes on the anatomy of cats. Today we will look at the sense organs. All texts on this topic can be seen in the tab "site map / felinology"

The center of the sense organs is in the brain. In relation to body weight, the cat's brain is much heavier than that of other mammals (including predators). Its mass is approximately 20-30 g.
On average, the brain of domestic animals (dogs, cats, pigs, cows, sheep) weighs 25% less than the brain of their wild counterparts. The intelligence of an animal depends on the ratio of brain weight to body weight and the anatomy of the brain. Among the subspecies of Felis silvestris, the wild European cat F. s. silvestris, weighing about 8 kg in males and 4 kg in females, has the largest brain size, 37 g and 31 g, respectively. It is followed by the Middle Eastern or otherwise North African cat F. s. lybica, whose brain weight is about 30 g.

The brain weight of a domestic cat averages 27.6 g - 1.5 g for cats and 26.5 - 1.5 g for cats. A 9 kg large cat had a brain weight of 28.25 g. (Robert W. Williams et al, "Rapid Evolution of the Visual System: A Cellular Assay of the Retina and Dorsal Lateral Geniculate Nucleus of the Spanish Wildcat and the Domestic Cat" ). If we take the average figures: total weight - 3.3 kg, brain weight - 30 g, then the weight of the brain of an adult cat is approximately 1/11 or 0.9% of the total body weight.
For comparison: in humans, the average weight of the brain is 2% of the total weight. The approximate length of a cat's brain is 5 cm, and the average length of a cat's body without a tail is 60 cm, i.e. the length of the brain is 1/12 of its total length, the surface area of ​​​​the cat's brain is 83 cm2. The surface area of ​​the brain of a modern adult is approximately 1350-1400 cm2.
At the same time, the size or weight of the brain cannot be used to judge the intelligence of a cat, since special scientific research in this area has not been conducted. However, many will agree that every day our mustachioed pets amaze us with their exceptional intellectual abilities, which are revealed only through direct communication with them.

Vision

In its internal cellular structure, the eye of a cat is the eye of an animal that hunts at dusk, when color perception is not so important. But her eye contains a large number of cells that can notice the slightest movement, and the lens can sharply focus when necessary. Well-developed binocular vision allows the cat to accurately aim before rushing at the prey.
A transparent protective cornea covers the fluid-filled anterior chamber of the eyeball. Behind it is a colored iris and a lens that focuses light. Behind the lens is the posterior chamber of the eyeball, also filled with fluid. The retina, which is lined with the back wall of the eye, captures light, behind it is a reflective layer - a layer of cells that reflect light.

Cat's eyes are more sensitive to movement than human ones: their retina has more rods that react to the movement of objects. A large number of rods also provides cats with the ability to see in poor light, in order to distinguish objects, a cat needs 6 times less light than we do. But, just like people, in absolute darkness, cats, contrary to popular belief, do not see anything.
Cats see the world somewhat "blurred": their eyes cannot focus on small details, since a lens that is too large is forced to collect as much light as possible.
A unique adaptation of the cat's eye is a layer of reflective cells located behind the retina. These cells, like a mirror, reflect the incident light back to the retina, providing the cones and rods with a double portion of light.

The cat's pupil can expand to cover up to 90% of the area of ​​the eye to capture as much light as possible for night vision. In normal light, the pupil works like a camera shutter.
In dim light, or when the cat is excited or frightened, the pupils dilate to take in as much light as possible. In bright light, the pupils, on the contrary, constrict to a narrow vertical slit in order to protect the retina from too bright light. A change in the size and shape of the pupil occurs due to contractions of the muscles of the iris.

In the inner corner of the eye, you can see the edge of the so-called third eyelid - the nictitating membrane. In the upper part of the eye, the lacrimal glands are well developed, constantly moisturizing the surface of the eye and preventing it from drying out due to rare blinking. The nictitating membrane helps keep the surface of the eye moist and dust-free.

Eye color depends on the presence and location of pigment in the iris. Newborn kittens have dark blue eyes. The pigment is deposited gradually, the formation of eye color can last from 1 month to 2 years. The longer this process takes, the more intense and powerful the pigment layer is, therefore, the eye color is brighter (closer to copper or hazel).

Hearing
Nature has provided the cat with excellent hearing, helping her to hunt small rodents. The cat can hear even the faintest and thinnest mouse squeak or rustle from its movements.
The cat is able to perceive very high sounds - up to 65 kHz (that is, 65,000 vibrations per second), that is, as much as one and a half octaves higher than the human ear (maximum 20 kHz). But with age, as in humans, the sensitivity of the ear decreases in a cat.

The cat's ear is divided into three sections - the outer, middle and inner ear. In addition, there is also a central part of the ear, located in the brain.
The outer ear is the well-known auricle. More than twelve muscles control the movement of the pinna, turning it so that the cat can hear danger signals or sounds made by other animals. The auricle can change its position relative to the head: bend, press, turn almost 180 °. At the base of the shell there is a small opening leading to a narrow canal - the auditory meatus, which ends in a dead end covered with the thinnest eardrum.
Here begins the middle ear, represented by the middle ear cavity, three auditory ossicles and two muscles. The vibrations of the tympanic membrane are transmitted to the bones - the hammer, anvil and stirrup, which rests against the membrane of the oval window, where the inner ear already begins. Through the ossicles, vibrations are transmitted to the cochlea of ​​the inner ear, which converts them into electrical signals. The ossicles are arranged in a zigzag pattern, together with the auditory muscles they form several levers that weaken and even block too loud sounds.
Protection from loud sounds is very important for a cat's hearing, it ensures the work of the perceiving cells located in the inner ear, the main task of which is to preferentially perceive weak sounds of a certain range that are vital for a cat.
In the inner ear there is a special organ of balance - the vestibular apparatus, which consists of fluid-filled chambers and channels where sensitive hairs are located that capture the movement of fluid and send signals to the brain. A change in the direction or speed of movement is immediately transmitted to the vestibular apparatus, which allows the cat to correct its actions by changing the position of the body in space.

A sense of balance helps to correct the position of the body in the air during a jump or fall, allows you to confidently move along thin bars or balance on tree branches. The sense of time, well developed in wild animals, is almost completely lost in our pets and, usually, cats follow the daily routine of their owners. Even in cats, a developed sense of orientation can be noted. Especially interesting is the ability of cats to navigate not only close to their habitat, but also to find the shortest path, being taken away for many hundreds of kilometers. There are various hypotheses that explain this. Perhaps cats feel the magnetic picture of the area, or maybe they are guided by the lines of force of the gravitational field. It is also known that cats can predict earthquakes. Perhaps they are picking up early, weak ground vibrations, perhaps changes in the magnetic field, or static electricity building up in the air.

Although a cat's hearing is very subtle, it is selective: its ears react only to those sounds that are of any interest to it. If the sound is loud, but familiar, the cat will not even wake up, but if it is unfamiliar, although very quiet, she will immediately become alert and listen. Cats are 3 times more sensitive to sound volume than humans!

Smell
By smell, the cat finds food, detects danger and distinguishes friend from foe, and also "reads" the chemical messages in the feces. In cats, the sense of smell is less developed than in most predatory animals, but much stronger than in humans (since there are twice as many odor-sensitive receptors in a cat's nose as in a human). Having lost her sight and hearing, she will be able to adapt to life, having lost her instinct - never, she is doomed to death.

In the nasal cavity, molecules of odorous substances are sorbed by sticky membranes lining the curved bones - nasal conchas.

In the upper palate is the vomeronasal organ, also called Jacobson's organ or Jacobson's organ. Highly sensitive to substances in the air, the vomeronasal organ is a small tube about 1 cm long, which has an entrance to the oral cavity behind the upper incisors. He simultaneously perceives both smell and taste.
When a cat uses this organ, it passes the inhaled air through the upper palate. At the same time, her mouth opens slightly, her lip rises slightly, and her upper teeth are exposed. From the outside, it resembles a smile, which is why the phenomenon was called the Flehmen smile or the Flehmen smile.

Some smells have a rather strong effect on cats. So, for example, the smell of valerian and catnip acts on a cat like drugs - it causes pleasant excitement and brings it into a state of euphoria. Interestingly, taking valerian or catnip internally has the exact opposite calming effect on the cat.

The sense of smell for a cat is important in another area - contact, exchange of information with others. What humans do with words and gestures, cats do with marks and scent control. Cats practice this particular exchange of pleasantries in a very characteristic way. They leave an odorous stream of urine and splash places with the smell of their rivals and cats living in the same territory, while acting with enviable endurance and constancy. Cats leave much less pungent odors with their scent glands located on the pads of their paws. The cat rubs his neck and cheeks with a completely enthusiastic look where his sympathy walked, thereby expressing his hidden sexual or militant mood. These movements of cats are not identical to how they rub their cheeks against a person. When a cat deals with a person, he thus demonstrates his disposition.

Taste
The cat's tongue and part of the pharynx are covered with special outgrowths - taste buds. An adult cat's tongue has approximately 250 mushroom-shaped taste buds, each with 40 to 40,000 taste buds.
Cats distinguish between sour, bitter and salty tastes, but they do not perceive sweet. Research in the field of feline genetics has found the reason for this - a significant defect in one of the genes responsible for information from taste buds. The deletion of a huge region of the gene (247 complementary base pairs) that carries information about the T1R2 protein, one of the two proteins that make up the sensation of sweet taste in mammals, deprived cats of the ability to perceive the taste of foods containing sugar.
Taste buds in cats are complex, sensitive to the amino acids of meat. Cats are worse than humans at distinguishing carbohydrates from plant foods.

Touch
In absolute darkness, when the cat cannot navigate in space with the help of its eyes, it relies on tactile sensations. In this case, the role of sensitive antennas is performed by vibrissae - hard sensitive hairs.

Vibrissae are located on the cat's muzzle: chin, upper lip, cheeks and above the eyes, as well as on the back of the front paws. Vibrissae above the eyes and on the cheeks warn the cat of danger to her eyes when examining unfamiliar places.
Through the vibrissae, the cat receives a wide variety of information. Vibrissae sensitively react even to minor irritations: they do not have to touch objects at all, it is enough to catch air vibrations that occur when a cat approaches an obstacle. The slightest vibration of the tip of the hair is transmitted to the root, where it is perceived by sensitive nerve endings, which immediately send information to the brain.

In kittens, vibrissae begin to grow even in the mother's womb - before other hairs appear. They do not fall out with the coat during hormonally determined seasonal shedding. They are lost singly and are continuously restored.
The cat may move the vibrissae forward in anticipation of affectionate strokes or backward during fights or eating.

I The intelligence of cats

The intelligence of cats

Three myths about the intelligence of cats

Cats are extremely smart creatures. Ethologists (who study animal behavior) have long established that murki and snow leopards can not only draw cause-and-effect relationships, think abstractly, solve complex multi-way tasks, count, but even intentionally deceive a person!

Cat habits and oddities have long aroused people's interest. And the mysteriousness inherent in these animals has given rise to a huge number of myths and prejudices, some of which we will try to debunk today.

MYTH FIRST

Cats are not very smart, they are difficult to educate and train.

These cute fluffies are very inquisitive. They are attracted by everything new, unusual and bright. If you take advantage of this feature, then you can easily teach your pet both simple household skills and complex tricks.

In addition, stubbornness is sometimes a consequence of the high intelligence of cats: the cat perfectly understands what the owner wants from her, and repeated repetitions of tasks only annoy her.

Raising a cat by beating is useless. She will become embittered and stop responding to the owner's attempts to teach her something new.

MYTH TWO

Meowing is the language cats use to communicate with each other.

The high level of intelligence and social motivation of cats allowed them to develop a special language for communicating with the owner. Yes, yes, this is the most "meow" - only and exclusively for us! Between themselves, cats do not use these sounds. Recent studies by zoopsychologists at Cornell University have proven that cats know very well how to explain what they want from a person. The most interesting thing is that people very quickly begin to understand the needs of their pet.

MYTH THREE

Cats are very cunning, they always behave badly to spite their owners.

In fact, behavior problems most often occur in stressed murks. Cats cannot stand radical changes in their territory, whether it is a move, renovation or the appearance of a new person in the house. If a cat has become unbearable, it is either sick or depressed.

By the way, these animals are very sensitive to the psychological climate at home. Regular family scandals between owners can lead to serious illnesses, mental and intellectual disorders in cats.

Check your pet's IQ

Part I. Answer the questions

If you answer "rarely or never", your cat gets 1 point
“usually yes” - 3 points
"very often" - 5 points

1. Does your cat feel your mood changes during the day?

2. Does the cat follow at least two verbal orders, for example, “Shove!”, “No!”?

3. Does the cat recognize the expression on the owner's face, such as a smile, an expression of pain or fear?

4. Has the cat developed its own language to express its feelings and desires, for example, purring, squeaking, purring, screaming?

5. Does a cat have a certain order of washing, for example, first washes its muzzle with its paw, then licks its back and hind legs?

6. Does the cat associate certain events with feelings of joy or pain, such as a car ride, a visit to the vet?

7. Does a cat have a “long” memory: does it remember places it has been to before, favorite foods?

8. Does the cat tolerate the presence of other animals, even if they come closer than 1 meter to her?

9. Does the cat have a sense of time, for example, does she know the time of feeding, brushing, etc.?

10. Does a cat use the same paw to wash certain areas of its face?

Part II. Call your cat and offer her tasks

Follow the test instructions exactly. Each task can be repeated 3 times, while choosing the highest score.

First task

Put in a large, open package. Make sure the cat sees the package. Then watch and give the cat points.

A. The cat approaches the bag with curiosity - 1 point.

B. Any part of the body touches the bag (nose, mustache, paw, etc.) - 1 point.

B. The cat looks into the bag - 2 points.

D. She enters the package, then immediately leaves - 3 points.

D. The cat enters the bag and stays there for at least 10 seconds - 3 points.

Second task

Take a pillow and a rope about 1 meter long. Place the pillow in front of the cat, then slowly pull the rope under it so that it gradually disappears from one side of the pillow and appears on the other.

A. The cat follows the movement of the rope with its eyes - 1 point.

B. Paw touches the rope - 1 point.

B. Looks at the place of the pillow where the rope disappeared - 2 points.

D. Tries to catch the end of the rope under the pillow with his paw - 2 points.

D. Raises the pillow with his paw to see if there is a rope - 2 points.

E. Looks at the pillow from the side where the rope will appear or has already appeared - 3 points.

Third task

Lean a mirror about 60 - 120 cm in size against the wall. Put your cat in front of a mirror. Watch her and earn points.

A. The cat approaches the mirror - 2 points.

B. Notices his reflection in the mirror - 2 points.

B. Hits the mirror with his paw, plays with his own reflection - 3 points.

Part III. Answer the questions based on your observation of the animal

1. The cat is well oriented in the apartment: it runs to the windows and doors, if something interesting happens behind them - 5 points.

2. The cat releases objects from the paw in accordance with its desire, but does not drop the object by accident - 5 points.

Part IV. Answer the questions

1. The cat sleeps or naps more time than it is awake - subtract 2 points.

2. The cat often plays with its own tail - subtract 1 point.

3. The cat is poorly oriented in the apartment, it can even get lost - subtract 2 points.

Evaluation of results

Calculate the total number of points scored in the first three parts, and subtract from it the points scored in the fourth part.

141 or more points- your cat is brilliant

131 - 140 points - your cat is talented and very smart

121 - 130 points - your cat is very smart

111 - 120 points - your cat's mental abilities are above average

90 - 110 points - your cat's mental abilities are average

81 - 89 points - your cat's mental abilities are slightly below average

71 - 80 - your cat is stupid

70 points or less - your cat is completely stupid

Almost no one doubts that a cat has intelligence. These cute fluffy creatures are able to understand cause and effect, make decisions in conflicting situations, and communicate with a person.

According to some scientists, the mental abilities of cats correspond to the level of intelligence of a two-year-old child. Sometimes, watching them, you can come to the conclusion that cats understand the environment even better than our children.

10 proofs of high intelligence of a cat

• 1. They quickly learn to walk on the tray (unlike the same dogs that need to be walked on the street).


• 2. Sometimes they cheat in front of the owner. For example, they quietly claw at a leather sofa while you are at work. And when you come home, behave decently and well-mannered.


• 3. During deep sleep, they move their tail and paws, make funny sounds, which confirms high brain activity.


• 4. They treat each individual differently.


• 5. They react quite emotionally to a change of scenery (moving, renovation, arrival of guests).


• 6. Perform complex tricks for play and entertainment, not just for hunting.


• 7. They come to pity and reassure the owner when he has problems and is in a bad mood.


• 8. Develop a certain diet for themselves.


• 9. Show capriciousness in the choice of food. Explore different tastes and smells.


• 10. Carefully monitor the cleanliness of their fur.

Raising a cat

Just like humans, a cat can quickly develop good or bad habits. And in the future, it becomes almost impossible to wean it from them. Therefore, if your cat regularly began to walk past the tray, you need to urgently stop her bad behavior.

How do cats communicate with humans?

The more you talk to the cat, the more she will subsequently communicate with you. You will notice that the word "meow" can sound with a dozen different intonations and undertones, depending on the mood and intentions of the cat.

In addition, the pet communicates with a person using various gestures. And one of the main tools of communication is the tail. So, if a cat wants to express its devotion or sincere love to its owner, its tail rises up and starts to tremble. When a pet lets in and out her claws in your clothes or hair, closes her eyes and purrs, she shows that she is experiencing bliss from your presence nearby. When a cat wants to play, it quickly wags its tail from side to side or bends low to the ground, with its ears pressed to its head and its eyes wide open.

It is quite easy for an attentive owner to understand the behavior of a cat. However, the pet itself can easily guess the mood of the owner.

Emotions and feelings of a cat

The fact is that in cats, the same parts of the brain are responsible for emotions as in humans. Therefore, they are so sensitive and changeable in mood, and also prone to mental illness (including depression). Cats are able to experience affection, love, respect, resentment, jealousy. You need to treat them very tactfully and delicately.

Adult cats have a hard time accepting new four-legged family members, especially other cats, in the house. Therefore, if you want to have several pets in the house at once, it is better to place them together at once, preferably at a young age. Then they will calmly divide the territory and your attention among themselves, take it for granted.

Thus, if you want to get a pet at home not just for the sake of aesthetic pleasure or the desire to take care of someone, but also in order to acquire an intelligent, cheerful and devoted friend, then a cat will be the perfect choice for you. You definitely won't get bored with her.