Photo by Ferran under a creative commons license Big words, " cat behavior explained ", but it can be done fairly simply and succinctly, I believe. And I think it needs to be done too. Even for the benefit of a number of cat breeders who should know better. Mind you, although the vast majority of cat breeders are sensitive to a cat's behavior and needs, not all of them are, and some are downright poor. So, how do you explain what dictates and motivates cat behavior? And I am talking here of domestic cat behavior. The cat, despite being domesticated for some 10,000 years ago is still essentially a wild cat in mentality and physiology. And she is able to switch from domestication when in the home of her human "parents" to a wild cat when she goes out on her own. Cat behavior explained - Photo by Sailing "Footprints: Real to Reel" ( Ronn ashore ) under creative commons license. The two lives of a domestic cat - cat behavior explained : Domesticatio

Cat behavior issue ? A cat's paw under a bathroom door. The cat is trying to get in. Cats like to accompany us when we are on the toilet. This I believe is due to the smell which is personal to us and picked up by your cat who is very smell sensitive and whose life revolves around smells. Photo by corypina. There is no connection between the picture and this post except to illustrate it a form of cat behavior. This post deals with a cat behavior issue that explains nearly all you need to know about how to live with a cat. A person who made post in a forum (I won't say where) was asking for help (almost pleading for it) with the behavior of his one year old male DSH ( d omestic s hort h air cat - moggie or mixed breed cat). The cat was doing two things that disturbed and upset the person (actually it annoyed the person a lot). The cat was running at full speed throughout his apartment for about 20 mins. In response he locked the cat in a room. At night the person closed his doo

Cat Behavior Kneading is natural for a cat, even in this instance. This is a photograph of a semi-feral cat in Athens, Greece. The cat remembered her/his domestic cat roots as she jumped up onto the lap of the photographer's friend/partner and started to knead. Photo by sarako under creative commons license. Cat behavior - kneading , is perfectly natural to a cat but can be irritating to a human. Although there is a great deal of compatibility in the cat/human relationship there are areas of incompatibility for some people who don't understand cat behavior (no criticism is meant) or who wish to keep a cat but who do not wish to accept all that entails. If we keep cats we absolutely should accept cats for what they are. People who live with a partner (meaning a human partner) realize that trying to change your partner's behavior will not work and in any event we have decided to live with that person so we know we should, indeed must, accept that person entirely, which means

Child cat costume - photo by steena under a creative commons license. Here is a list of websites (and some have a high street presence too) where you can get cat costumes for children . These are popular and children's' parties are too. As this website's visitors are mainly from the USA (firstly) and the UK (secondly), I'll focus on these two countries. My research indicates that you can get a child cat costume through these outlets - these are the top 5 online businesses in this area of operation, in each country, based on a Google search. Google has an intricate mathematical formula (algorithm or algo for short) comprising 200 and more factors for selecting the top website so it is a good criteria for selection:- USA Costume Craze An internet based company located near Salt Lake City ( Pleasant Grove ). This is a really good website with plenty of choice. You can buy a full cat costume (child or adult) or a mask and all at typical USA prices (great value for us Brits

Cat food is probably OK as human food. Probably nearly all cat food is human grade cat food . The ingredients are acceptable. Although "by products" in cat food is material that is not fit for human consumption; that said as I understand it, it is cooked at a sufficiently high temperature to kill bacteria (hence the ash in cat food ). I am sure there are many cases of humans living off cat or dog food mostly I suspect for short periods of time (I hope!). In some ways dry cat food is more suited to humans with its high carbohydrate content. There is a gradual realization that dry cat food is not wholly suitable for cats, which seems a strange thing to say. But it should be realized that cat food is a commercial product and in order to please company shareholders the first duty of a company is to make a profit, the second duty is to feed cats well. There is a company executive whose job in part is to manage the pet food quality at Marks and Spencers. He eats it to check it .

This is how we currently see this most beautiful of wild animals, behind bars, imprisoned. As the photographer says in his caption, "praying tiger". Praying to live a normal life, uncaged free to roam, but we have created a hostile world for wild cats and the Siberian Tiger's existence is at stake. Photo by A. Dawson under a creative commons license. Introduction By far the most important aspect of the Siberian Tiger ( Panthera tigris altaica ) (Amur tiger) is the decline in population of this fantastic big cat. The White Siberian Tiger is not , as you may know, a separate big cat species (or subspecies) to the orange Siberian Tiger (the classic tiger color and pattern). This superb animal is simply a Siberian tiger with a different colored coat but see below, please. As a result this posting is about the Siberian tiger generally with reference to the genetics of the white Siberian tiger. And before proceeding it it worth mentioning the following. Note this please: It

Cats feel emotion therefore in answer to the question, " Do cats grieve ?", the answer is almost certainly a Yes . How can we know that cat's feel emotion? Some scientists will deny they feel emotion. Perhaps these are the scientists who carry out experiments on cats for some of the large cat food manufacturers. These scientists views are not objective and like all humans their views are driven by self interest. Many cat keepers exaggerate their cats abilities and turn their cats into children. This is understandable but it is not objective either. But even at a practical and unscientific level, concerned and observant cat keepers will recognize clear signs of emotion being expressed in their cats. I can only talk about my cat. She will express frustration in her voice. If I don't answer her call in the morning her voice will change to one which shows frustration and even irritation. This is a small indication of an emotional response. Cats are very similar physiologi

White tiger - A White Bengal Tiger cub - photo copyright Frank Peters In answer to the question, " what do white tigers eat ", the answer is that they eat the same as orange tigers. White tigers are not a separate breed of wild cat. They are the tigers that w e are familiar with. Except they carry a recessive gene in homozygous form (2 copies of the gene at the same location), that turns the usual orange fur, pale to an off white cream color and the strips to black, grey and chocolate color. This would appear to be a form of dilution of the orange color and mackerel strips (the tiger is a mackerel tabby cat essentially). In the domestic cat the dilution gene is a recessive gene symbolized by dd in a cat with the dilute color. In the domestic cat (and the same process may occur in the tiger), the presence of the gene has the effect of enlarging the pigment granules, which are deposited less evenly in the individual hairs. Clumps of pigment of differing sizes are fixed

Above -- American shorthair tabby cat - a pure and wholly normal cat. The cat illustrated has a classic tabby coloring and pattern, the blotched tabby pattern with the very distinct tabby "M" on the forehead - photo strictly copyright Helmi Flick. The American shorthair tabby is, for me, the best coat color and pattern for this most normal and balanced of American cats. But is she American? The origins of this cat breed is in England so it is fair to argue that this is an English cat, the English Shorthair.  Yet, as the first of this breed came over to America in the early 1600s I think the English can concede that by now an American shorthair tabby is an American cat. The tabby pattern is the most natural of all cat patterns and colors because it has evolved naturally as the best in terms of camouflage and in the early days before domestic cats became wild cats (about 9,000 years ago) it was all about survival in a natural environment. And the landscape is often brown

Blue Abyssinian cat - slate blue and oatmeal - photo strictly copyright Helmi Flick. Note: I am not 100% sure that this is a picture of a Blue Aby but I believe I am correct - wrong? please comment - thanks. As you probably know Blue Abyssinian Cats are not a bright blue or even a mid-blue but more like a delicate blue/grey color mixed with a beige like color. A number of cats have to be blue/grey and these are the grey cat breeds . The Abyssinian is a tabby cat but a special one with tabby pattern unlike the classic tabby cats. The Abyssinian tabby allele produces a restricted (much reduced) tabby pattern (on this occasion the term " allele " means a mutant form of a gene . This term is often used to mean one of a pair genes, however, but Robinson's Genetics says the former usage is more correct). The pattern only occurring (it seems very faintly) on the legs, head and tail and more faintly on the remainder of the cat. There are many tabby patterns, the classic be

The health of cat breeds and in this instance Maine Coon Cat Health is important to people. In fact it is often one of the most important aspects of a cat breed. It must be and it should be. The welfare of cats should be our primary concern. This Maine Coon cat (" Hugo ") is not ill as far as I am aware. He is here because it is a nice picture (copyright stevegarfield ) and is reproduced under a creative commons license. The Maine Coon is a fine looking cat with a long American history. This cat is large and looks robust. This is not surprising, after all, as their origins are in the barns of Maine, USA, as a semi-feral mouser cat. You've got to be pretty tough to live like that. One difficulty in discussing cat health problems is to make sure that the problem is breed specific. Some conditions are found in all domestic cats. But if that is the case sometimes a particular cat breed has a predisposition to a disease (i.e. it is found more often in a certain cat br

Maine Coon. Photo by Helmi Flick. Intro   You have to be realistic and sensible when discussing Maine Coon Personality or the personality of any cat breed. All domestic cats have similar personalities, whether they are mixed breed cats, feral cats or purebred cats. Wild cats including early generation wild cat hybrids have different personalities but even then the underlying desires and motivators are the same so most of the character is the same too. All humans have similar personalities, why should cats be different? In humans you get some fairly slight variations from country to country but the variations from individual person to individual person is greater, much greater. The same applies to cats and cat breeds. Clowns?   All that said, Maine Coon cats have noticeably nice personalities. People who keep Maine Coon cats say that they act like clowns. They may act more foolishly than other domestic cats but I doubt it. All domestic cats do things that are charming to us but seem

Introduction Photo copyright Helmi Flick I think we all realize that we owe it to the cats to start at a Maine Coon cat rescue center or organization if we are thinking about adopting a Maine Coon cat. It may take a little longer to find a cat that suits but the rewards are much higher. The underlying pleasure of rescuing and re-homing a cat, any cat, purebred or not has a very valuable and enduring benefit to the person, which adds immensely to the relationship with the cat. I should know as I have lived with a cat that I rescued about 15 years ago. She has been a wonderful companion. I've made several posts about the Maine Coon cat on this website. They are about the Maine Coon cat's appearance, character and health. You'll also see some great pictures if you follow these links: The main page on Maine Coon cats with links to the other pages. A great slide show of the best pictures by the best photographer of the best cats - true....see for yourself. Maine Coon

Savannah cat - photograph copyright Helmi Flick Savannah cats are fantastic looking cats but some people are not so sure about them. We know how well controlled the borders are in Australia (for humans that is). Well, the same rules are in place for animals too. Some people in Australia think they have a feral cat problem. Feral cats in Australia kill native species such as snakes and lizards apparently. The fear seems to be that if Savannah cats are imported or bred in Australia, this fine looking domestic cat breed, may turn into a nationwide pest. It is hard to see this cat being a pest. The concerns come from environmentalists. The argument goes that if an ordinary sized feral domestic cat can harm native species then a large domestic cat like the Savannah (in fact the largest domestic cat breed in respect of the earlier generation such as the F2 - second generation from the wild) will potentially cause even more damage if the cat becomes feral. It would, though, seem highly unl

Burmilla cat - photo copyright perlmonger. Published under a creative commons license which allows for the cropping that has taken place. Thanks for license. I've wouldn't be doing this mini-website justice without listing some selected Burmilla Breeders . Here are some websites that I like. I can only filter breeders from their websites. Thereafter it is a matter of visiting, which is pretty much a must do (note sometimes people remove web pages and websites so although these are live links as at the date of the post they may no remain that way): GEMS's and Araboth Burmillas and Asians This is a well established cattery (about 9 years or more it seems) based in Polegate . This is on the south coast of England, a nice part of the country. Burmilla Cat Club This is a UK cat club with a fine list of Burmilla breeders in the UK. The link takes you straight to the breeders page. Miamber Burmilla and Burmese Located in the northern suburbs of Melbourne , Victoria, Australia.

Photo copyright polandeze - Abyssinian cat see below The history of the domestic cat includes, this time, a brief look at the second national cat show in England at the fine Crystal Palace. It took place in early December 1871 . There were 349 entries. The competition was divided into 4 divisions: Short-haired cats, long-haired cats, "cats of no sex" and "working men's cats". A highly interesting and unusual classification by today's standards. "Cats of no sex" must mean altered cats (spayed and neutered) which implies that the other cats were not altered. This would equate with the neuter class at cat shows today, it seems. Divisions The idea behind the 4th division was "to encourage the kind treatment of domestic cats". In 1871 cat fanciers were feeding their show cats the same kind of luxury food as now despite cats of that era being much more of a useful working animal catching mice and rodents for their keepers. One person fed 2 &q

People search for Bengal cat Canada , what does it mean? Ans: Canadians want to find a Bengal cat of course! Canada being next to the home of the Bengal cat is well placed I guess. I made a posting on Bengal cat adoption . This linked page has lots of links on it to breeders and rescue centers etc. You name it you'll probably find it there. I hope anyway. One of the best links is probably the rescue center link which takes you to perhaps some unexpected areas. That is not to say there isn't a place for good Bengal cat breeders.  Photo: Helmi Flick UPDATE: ALL THESE BREEDERS ARE NOW OUT OF BUSINESS! THE POST WAS WRITTEN ABOUT 10 YEARS AGO. THAT'S THE NATURE OF CAT BREEDING. IT IS A HOBBY AND IT DOES NOT ENDURE MUCH BEYOND 10 YEARS (OR LESS). SORRY. I'll just list some top breeders here. Rosetta Cattery This is Bengal cattery is located in Burlington, Ontario, Canada (the link takes you to a Google map). I like this website, full of information and concern. One or two