Effect of sterilisation on body weight, metabolic rate and glucose tolerance of domestic cats

This short post is based upon a study published online in March 1997. The concern is quite a well discussed topic, that of domestic cats putting on weight after they've been neutered (males) or spayed (females). I am only able to see the study's summary.

Image: MikeB using Canva. Feel free to use it but please credit me and link back to this page.

This study found that "the castrated males gained more weight as fat than the sexually intact males". And "the neutered males gained significantly more weight than the entire males".

Further, "There was a significant increase in daily food intake after neutering.".

Neutered males gained weight faster than entire (unsterilised) females.

The scientists also said that "Spayed females underwent a significant decrease in fasting metabolic rate". I take this to mean that the spayed female cats had a slower metabolic rate when they were not eating i.e. fasting. It is not stated in the study but it would seem reasonable to conclude that with a lower metabolic rate there is a greater chance of fat being stored because less energy is being used and therefore the food is being burnt up at a slower rate.

They found that there was no or little effect from sterilisation on glucose tolerance. I take that to mean that there is no impact on domestic cats in terms of a predisposition towards Type II diabetes but that is my personal interpretation and it is not stated in the study.

The term 'gonadectomy' is often used by scientists to mean the removal of female testes and the female's ovaries. In other words, sterilisation of both sexes of cat.

Comment - my views

The advice given by veterinarians is to modify your male and female cats' diet after the neutering and spaying operations. I think the operation will affect different cats differently. My cat did not put on weight and was always relatively skinny and only now when he is in middle age is he putting on a little bit of weight. I delayed his neutering operation as long as possible but was pressured by the veterinarian to have it done as soon as possible. I resisted that pressure.

Extruding penis

There is another study online which says that neutering a pre-puberty male cat can leave the cat unable to extrude his penis which would be a scientific way of saying having an erection! I'm not sure this is true although the study was completed by a PhD student. She said that 100% of male cats neutered before puberty were unable to have an erection. I don't believe that at all. 

I have first-hand evidence because my cat gets boners all the time and he was neutered after puberty but there may be an issue here is to whether you neuter a male cat before or after puberty which is about seven months of age in order to allow the male cat to retain some normal malfunction and appearance. In this instance I'm talking about the facial appearance specifically the jowly, square, larger face of the intact male tomcat.

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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.

Study: Effects of neutering on bodyweight, metabolic rate and glucose tolerance of domestic cats. Link to the study: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-5288(97)90134-X.

The reason why domestic cats are obligate carnivores (hyper-carnivores)

This article is going to be short and it is an extension of another article I wrote a few moments ago. It's a nice theory (a suggestion but a good one) proposed by James Sanderson PhD in his book Small Wild Cats (co-author Patrick Watson). In that earlier article I explained why the entire family of cats cannot taste sweetness. 

Cats evolved from a fierce sabre-toothed predator that prowled North America 42 million years ago, according to new research. San Diego Natural History Museum SWNS. Image assessed as being in the public domain. Wrong? Tell me please.

It is due to a genetic mutation which occurred very early on in the evolution of the cat which is why every lineage of which there are eight are affected by this 'defect'. 

In 2005, scientists discovered that all cats lack one of a pair of proteins required to sense sweetness. The missing protein was the result of a deletion, the loss of part of a chromosome or sequence of DNA in a gene. - Sanderson and Watson

This defect was caused after all by a genetic defect or mutation which resulted in the omission of some DNA which in turn resulted in the failure of the cat to have receptors in their tongue to detect sweetness although they retained the skill to detect bitterness which helps to protect them because often toxins are bitter.

Unlike humans and some other animals, cats lack the taste receptors known as "T1R2" and "T1R3," which are responsible for detecting sweetness. - AI computer Poe.

So the reason why domestic cats and all cats of all species are hyper-carnivores is because they can't taste sweetness. It is only plants that can taste sweet because of photosynthesis creating sugars such as sucrose. Cats can't enjoy the sweetness of plants and therefore they don't eat plants whereas cats enjoy the taste of flesh and became obligate carnivores.

That's the argument. It's a very interesting argument and one which states that the entire evolution of the cat species into hyper-carnivores can be put down to a single genetic mutation of chromosomes and genes in the very early evolution of the true cat which has taken about 30 million years or longer. The scientists are still working that out!

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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.

The genetic reason why cats can't taste sweetness

There is a scientific reason why cats can't take sweetness and is all about genetics. James G Sanderson and Patrick Watson in their book Small Wild Cats say this about that genetic reason:

"In 2005, scientists discovered that all cats lack one of a pair of proteins required to sense sweetness. The missing protein was the result of a deletion, the loss of part of a chromosome or sequence of DNA in a gene."

In other words, going back a long time in the history of the evolution of the cat, there was a genetic mutation and the interesting argument is that because of that mutation, the entire family of cats became carnivores. It was the beginning of their flesh eating lifestyle.

The point is that plants contain sugars because of photosynthesis and if cats 30 million years ago or 10 million years ago had been able to taste sweetness and enjoy it they would have started to eat plants and perhaps become omnivores like foxes but they became strict or hyper-carnivores able only to enjoy the flesh of animals and nothing else practically. Cats do eat a small amount of plant material for health reasons and the snow leopard is the greatest feline plant eater.

RELATED: 7 reasons why domesticate cats eat grass.

Although cats can detect bitterness, the opposite taste. It is believed to be a survival skill because toxins are often taste bitter. That's why you will find domestic cats leaving the bile duct - the only piece of prey anatomy that they leave behind (sometimes) - after catching a mouse. Bile is bitter and the cat believes that that part of the mouse is toxic.

My further research indicates that this lack of sweet receptors can be boiled down to a lack of the taste receptors known as  "T1R2" and "T1R3," which are responsible for detecting sweetness. They are present in the tongues of humans and are activated by sugar molecules. Without them we would be unable to taste sweetness. But with them we've become addicted to the taste of sweetness! And salts! But that's something else.

RELATED: There are actually 14 benefits to cats through the use of their tongue! Click the link to find out what they are.

Briefly, you might know that the tongue of the domestic cat is an amazing organ with two different types of backward facing papillae which the cat uses to groom themselves and tear the flesh from bones of their prey.

The concept of genetic mutations is very very important. It is how evolution works. When a mutation occurs which is a failure in copying the DNA properly during development, it can make the resultant offspring more able less able to survive in the wild. Or there might be neutral consequence.

If as a consequence of the genetic mutation the offspring survive more efficiently than their siblings and other animals of the same species they will have a greater chance to have their own offspring and over millions of years the only offspring being born will be those carrying the genetic mutation and at that time the species we have evolved into a modified version or an entirely new species. That is how evolution works through natural selection as opposed to artificial selection wishes the process of cat breeding.

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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.

High-definition video of a cat transmitted 19 million miles through space using a laser

In preparation for Mars missions, NASA has transmitted a 15 second, high definition video of a cat chasing a laser pointer 19 million miles through space via laser. The cat in the video it is owned by one of the staffers at NASA.

Screenshot from video which is courtesy NASA. Nice video actually.

In fact, the cat, 'Taters' lives with one of the employees of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The video was sent from NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications team's Psyche probe back to earth. The probe set off in October and is on a six year mission to visit an asteroid. The video was transmitted back to Earth on December 11.

“One of the goals is to demonstrate the ability to transmit broadband video across millions of miles,” Bill Klipstein, the tech demo’s project manager at JPL, told CBS. “Nothing on Psyche generates video data, so we usually send packets of randomly generated test data.

It is appropriate to send a cat video. I think you will agree because for a while, cat videos were dominating the world as were pictures of cats specifically funny pictures of cats. It was all pretty crazy and stupid but now they've managed to transmit this video over millions of miles through deep space, they'll be sure that they can do the same thing when the team travels to Mars.

Here is the Twitter X video (remember that it is embedded here. It might not work one day):

We just streamed the first ultra-HD video brought to you via laser from deep space. And it’s a video of Taters, a tabby cat.

This test will pave the way for high-data-rate communications in support of the next giant leap: sending humans to Mars. https://t.co/tf2hWxaHWO pic.twitter.com/c1FwybYsxA

— NASA (@NASA) December 19, 2023

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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.

Emaciated, abused tigers in a Thailand breeding farm. Wrong attitude by humankind to save the tiger.

NEWS AND COMMENT: There is a relatively small minority of people on the planet who genuinely want to protect and conserve the tiger in the wild. Certainly they do their best but overall, it's impossible to come to the conclusion that humankind is genuinely concerned about the tiger when a story such as in the press today comes to light which is about a starved female tiger reduced to skin and bone who could barely stand in a disgusting Thai breeding farm.

Emaciated tigers in a Thailand breeding farm. Wrong attitude to save the tiger in the wild.

The Daily Mail reports on this tiger whose name is Salamas. She is one of 53 big cats rescued from a Thai breeding farm. You see, if the tiger is seen as a commercial asset and starved to near death through negligence while being abused, it is possible to be optimistic about the chances of protecting the tiger in the wild going forward.

There's just not enough will and determination to achieve the goal of saving the tiger.  It is  shocking to see to be honest. It is depressing to see it and read about it. This poor tiger was found struggling to stand or walk because she had lost so much weight in her cage in this rundown facility in northern Thailand.

The pictures are harrowing. Patches of her fur were missing and she was skeletal. She was exhausted lying on the concrete.

Utter abuse of the tiger. 

The farm is facing bankruptcy and prosecution as it was involved with illegal wildlife trading. The tigers and leopards spent their lives in captivity. They are going to spend the last moments of their lives on grassland in sunlight at a woodland sanctuary around 550 miles away in the south of Thailand.

The founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, Edwin Weik, said "'It was feared that she was too weak to walk, but eventually she gathered her strength and stumbled over to the cage.  She was then able to be lifted to the specialist wildlife ambulance that made the twelve hour overnight drive to the wildlife rescue sanctuary. Although alarmingly skinny and with huge patches of fur missing across her body, rescuers are hopeful that Salamas will now begin to recover."

The picture shows an horrendously cramped and barren enclosure which would make any animal advocate weep.

In total, 35 tigers and 18 leopards were rescued from this farm. Twelve old tigers and three ill leopards were the first to be saved. They were sedated and underwent health checks before being loaded into cages and then into wildlife ambulances. They will transported out of the facility in the coming days.

Pictures of the rescue show an immense operation. This was a massive project and it's been described by Edwin as "an incredible rescue. It's the biggest by any NGO in Thailand. The tigers, leopards and other animals will finally see freedom for the first times in their lives. They will experience direct sunlight and the feel of grass on their feet. They will have the freedom every animal deserves.'

He added: "After months of planning the biggest tiger rescue by an NGO in Thailand's history, we are thrilled to now finally give these magnificent animals a new life at WFFT's Tiger Rescue Centre.

'Sadly, they will never be able to return to the wild, but we can offer them the next best thing: a safe, sanctuary home where they can roam forested land, socialise with other tigers, and even swim in the lake.

'We are grateful to the Thai government's Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNP) for taking action against the illegal wildlife trade and for collaborating with WFFT to help give these tigers the second chance that they deserve.

'The first twelve tigers and three leopards have been rescued, but there are many more who remain at the farm still waiting to be saved.

'We are desperate to return as soon as possible to rescue them, but as an NGO without government funding we rely solely on donations to make these rescue missions a reality."

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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.