Cat questions answered

You are sitting comfortably on the sofa watching TV or reading a book when your cat jumps up on to your lap to join you. He’s soft and purring and clearly in the mood for affection, but instead of sitting down comfortably he starts rhythmically treading up and down with his front paws, almost like he is trying to dig a hole in your lap. At first you find it quite interesting to watch but after several minutes you start to feel a certain amount of discomfort as his claws dig little holes through your clothing and he doesn’t seem to want to settle. If you are a cat owner I am pretty sure you will be able to relate to this scene. The question is – what on earth is it all about and why does your cat do it? The motion is called kneading. It starts when a cat is a very young kitten feeding from his mother. The kitten kneads against the soft surface of his mother’s breast to stimulate milk production. For the rest of his life your cat will associate the motion of kneading a soft s

If you have done any research into what you should and should not feed your cat you will know that feeding her a vegetarian diet is definitely under the “should not” heading. All cats are true carnivores and they can only get the proteins they need from meat. They also have little need for fibre in their diet, so why is it then that you will often see your cat sat outside in the garden chewing intently on a blade of grass? Grass has very little nutritional value for a cat, although the juice in grass does provide cats with a much needed source of folic acid. The main reason a cat eats grass is to assist them in cleaning out their digestive system. At some point during the day a cat will inevitably consume small amounts of matter which she cannot digest. This could be as a result of the cat using her little rough tongue like a comb to constantly clean and groom herself, leading to a build up of fur in her stomach over a period of days/weeks. Likewise it could also be due to

If you are a cat owner you will almost certainly have heard your cat “chattering”. It almost always happens when there is a bird or any other kind of “prey” in close proximity – but just out of your cat’s reach. It’s really strange the first time you hear it – totally not the sort of sound you would expect to be made by a cat. If you watch him closely you will see your cat’s mouth slightly open and kind of vibrating, his teeth chattering and this strange little chirruping noise emanating from his mouth. If the prey is in very close proximity the cat usually adopts the same crouched position he would if he was stalking the prey for real, but you will notice he is agitated and his tail flicks sharply from side to side. I’ve known cat owners who are actually quite freaked out when their cat starts chattering, but it really is nothing to worry about. Your cat is not about to turn into a vampire – he’s just behaving in a normal natural way for a cat and there are several explan