by James Kronefield
A Behavioral Guide.
This small article about cat facts on social behavior and interaction should help you better understand your pet. The behavior of cats is largely misunderstood, even by highly experienced cat owners. I hope you find this information helpful.
If there's one trait that cat owners enjoy most, its the independent nature of their little feline friends. We should feel honored when a cat decides to gives us the time of day. Any cat gleefully asking for a head rub or a belly scratch is too much to resist for most cat lovers.
Have you ever looked at your cat and wondered what your cherished pet is thinking? After many years I still do that quite frequently. I also wonder why cats do what they do and act as they act. Cats can be a mystery however, much of their behavior can be easily understood if you know the reasons behind.
Being pet owners, its part of our job to learn how to better care for our beloved cats. Here are some general cat facts that should help bring you closer to your little feline friend.
1. Unlike dogs, domesticated cats do not engage in the formation of packs. When forced to live more closely to one another they normally would in the wild, cats will often resort to time sharing their territory when ever possible.
2. A kittens tendency to be friendly and sociable generally comes from two sources. A predisposition from the fathers genes and learned behavior from the mother figure.
3. A kittens learning of its socialization process is most highly formative when it is between the age of two and seven weeks old.
4. When recovering from a traumatic event, such as an auto accident or separation anxiety, cats can go through a reawakened socialization process. This frequently results in the cat becoming far more social after the fact. In more rare instances, felines with only slight formative bonds can become withdrawn after experiencing such trauma.
5. Descending from solitary creatures mark out their territory and hunt alone, domestic cats have a very limited set of body language communication skills. Typically these are merely the lifting of a paw, waging of a tail, widening or squinting of the eyes and some type of licking as well as rubbing.
6. Cats leave distinctive (to them) scent marks which demark the specific animals territory. If you had the right nose, could tell you quite a story. Scent is the medium bye which our beloved felines make up for a limited set of body language skills.
7. Your cat will leave its chemical marker by rubbing its scent glands all over its territory markers. Your cat will also rub it on you and other animals in the house, creating a communal scent and indicating that these are the creatures that are part of its social group.
I'm sure some of these cat facts will help your in your understanding of you cat. So, go have a chat with your cat!
