Concise summary of the domestic cat's skeleton

Here is a thorough yet concise summary of the domestic cat's skeleton. Useful for cat caregivers to know. Knowledge is very supportive of good cat caregiving. It is always useful to have some basic cat anatomy and cat health knowledge as it allows a cat caregiver to be better at their job! This is a 2 minute read.

MORE: CAT ANATOMY IN MORE DETAIL

The domestic cat's skeleton is designed for flexibility, strength, and lightweight agility. The key components of a cat's skeleton include:

Skull - A cat's skull is similar to that of other carnivores, with powerful jaws and teeth for catching and tearing prey. The skull has large eye sockets, a short snout, and strong neck vertebrae.

Vertebral Column - Like all mammals, cats have a vertebral column consisting of cervical (neck), thoracic (chest), lumbar (lower back), sacral, and caudal (tail) vertebrae. Cats have relatively flexible vertebrae which allow them to contort their body and squeeze into tight spaces.

Ribs - Cats have 13 pairs of curved ribs which cage and protect the heart and lungs. The ribcage is flexible to allow cats to breathe even when occupying small spaces or contorting their body.

Shoulder Girdle - Cats have well-developed shoulder blades (scapulae) and collar bones (clavicles) which anchor the front limbs. The shoulder girdle provides strength and range of motion for climbing, pouncing, and catching prey.

Pelvic Girdle - The pelvic girdle consists of the hip bones (coxal bones) which the hind limbs attach to. A cat's pelvis is adapted for speed, agility, jumping, and forceful backward kicks with the hind legs.

Limbs - Each limb consists of an upper arm or thigh bone, two lower arm/leg bones, delicate wrist/ankle bones, and five digits on the forefeet and four or five digits on the back feet. Limbs are lightweight yet very strong, enabling cats' amazing jumping, climbing, and hunting abilities.

The skeletal structure, together with lightweight but strong bones, allows cats an almost unparalleled degree of agility, flexibility, speed and balance. Did this overview cover the key points thoroughly? Let me know if you have any other questions!

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

What type of skeleton does a cat have?

All cats have an axial skeleton which consists of a skull, spine, ribs and sternum. Humans also have an axial skeleton. It serves to protect the central nervous system and the organs in the ventral body cavity. The structure of the domestic cat's skeleton is almost identical to that of the big cats with respect to shape and proportion. The only real difference is the size between domestic cats and the big cats.

Cat skeleton. Image: MikeB

When the domestic cat walks the shoulder blades rise above the spine just as they do with the lion or tiger. The cat's many vertebrae provide 'highly visible flexibility' in the words of Dr. Bruce Fogle.

If things go wrong with the skeleton, it is not caused by design because its design is one of evolution's superb achievements. Disease or hormonal and dietary upsets can cause arthritis, for example, but not nature's design.

ASSOCIATED: Cat anatomy quiz! AND Cat skeleton in some detail

Persian cat skull showing sagittal crest. Image: MikeB

Natural selection resulted in this beautiful structure. It is said that artificial selection (selective breeding) in the cat fancy, particularly with respect to cat breeds such as the flat-faced Persian, has led to anatomical deficiencies because the skeleton has been distorted (cranium or skull) for the sake of appearance to the point where it affects health such as difficulty breathing and tear duct overflow in the Persian.

Picture of Cat Skeleton

Here is a good picture of a cat skeleton. I made it up myself (except for the drawing!). The cat's skeleton is flexible and light as it is designed for speed and agility. It has more bones than our skeleton. The cat has 244 bones and ours has 206. The difference is partly due to the cat's tail that contains 19-28 bones. The diagram says that there are 18-20 bones in the tail, incidentally. Different sources provide different information.

Picture made by Michael at PoC. If you use it, please link back to this page. Thank you.

You can see a larger version of this picture of a cat's skeleton on this page together with tons of information.