Who doesn’t love cats? Or who does? You either love or hate cats and really, these animals are very weird. Let me tell you all the odd cat facts you need to know about cats.
- A cat’s claws are sharper in the front than in the back.
- A female cat is called a queen or a molly.
- The most traveled cat is named Hamlet, a cat who escaped his carrier mid flight. Hamlet hid for seven weeks behind an airplane panel. By the time he was found, he had traveled almost 373,000 miles.
- The richest cat in the world is Blackie. He’s a cat who was left £15 million by his owner, Ben Rea.
- Because cats are so sensitive to vibrations, they can detect an earthquake and its tremors 10-15 minutes before humans can.
- Cats spend nearly ? of their life licking themselves. This species likes to be clean.
- Cats don’t have sweat glands in their whole bodies. They only sweat through their paws.
- Contrary to popular belief, cats should not have milk. Although it’s not toxic to them, it can cause an upset stomach and gas.
- Adult cats have 30 teeth.
- A cat’s heart beats faster than a human heart. The average cat heart beats 110 to 140 beats a minute.
- A 2007 poll said that both men and women were equally likely to own a cat.
- Cat’s like people food but there are things they shouldn’t eat. For cats, no onions, garlic, green tomatoes, raw potatoes, chocolate, grapes, or raisins.
- If they have enough water to drink, cats can withstand temperatures of up to
133°F. - A cat’s nose has a ridged pattern that is unique, just like a human’s fingerprint.
- A cat’s jaw can’t move sideways, so it can’t chew large pieces of food.
- Technically, a cat’s hairball is called a “bezoar.”
- Every year almost 4 million cats are eaten in Asia.
- A cat has 230 bones in its body, but no collarbone. Because of this, a cat can fit through any opening the size of its head.
- The tiniest cat recorded is named Mr. Pebbles. When he was 2 years old, he weighed only 3 pounds and was 6.1 inches tall.
- Cats have 130,000 hairs per square inch.
- A cat lover is known as an Ailurophilia (Greek: cat+lover).
- A cat cannot climb down a tree because all of its claws face the same way. If a cat is up a tree, it must back down.
- Cats don’t meow at each other, just at humans. If cats do “talk” to each other, they spit, purr, and hiss at other cats.
- In the Italian version of Cinderella, the fairy godmother figure was a cat.
- A cat has 12 whiskers on each side of its face.
- A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single jump.
- Most cats litter is between one and nine kittens. The largest known kitten litter ever produced was 19 kittens, of which 15 of the kittens survived.
- A cat can sprint up to 31 mph.
- About 40,000 people are bitten by cats yearly in the US.
- A cat makes about 100 different sounds whereas dogs only make about 10.
- A group of cats is known as a “clowder.”