Your Pet Guide

The Felids are a rapidly evolving family of mammals that share a common ancestor only 10-15 million years ago. Within this family, domestic cats (Felis catus) are part of the genus Felis, which is a group of small cats containing seven species.


Members of the genus are found worldwide and include:

• Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) of southeast Asia,
• African Wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica),
• Chinese Mountain Cat (Felis silvestris bieti)
• Arabian Sand Cat (Felis margarita).

All the cats in this genus share a common ancestor that probably lived around six million years ago in Asia. Although the exact relationships within the Felidae are still uncertain,both the Chinese Mountain Cat and the African Wildcat are close relations of the domestic cat and are both classed as subspecies of the Wildcat Felis silvestris.

As domestic cats are little altered from wildcats, they can readily interbreed. This hybridization may pose a danger to the genetic distinctiveness of wildcat populations, particularly in Scotland and Hungary.

The domestic cat was first classified as Felis catus by Carolus Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae of 1758. However, due to modern phylogenetics, domestic cats are now usually regarded as another subspecies of the Wildcat Felis silvestris. This has resulted in mixed usage of the terms, as the domestic cat can be called by its subspecies name, Felis silvestris catus.

Wildcats have also been referred to as various subspecies of F. catus, but in 2003 the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature fixed the name for Wildcats as F. silvestris.

The most common name in use for the domestic cat remains F. catus, following a convention for domesticated animals of using the earliest (the senior) synonym proposed. Sometimes the domestic cat is called Felis domesticus, although this is not a valid scientific name.

Cats have either a mutualistic or commensal relationship with humans. However, in comparison to some other domesticated species, such as dogs, cats have not undergone major changes during the domestication process, as the form and behavior of the domestic cat are not radically different from those of wildcats and domestic cats are perfectly capable of surviving in the wild.

Several natural behaviors and characteristics of Wildcats may have preadapted them for domestication as pets. These traits include their small size, social nature, obvious body language, love of play and relatively high intelligence. All the small Felids may also have an inborn tendency towards tameness.

There are two main models for how cats were domesticated. In one model, people deliberately tamed cats in a process of artificial selection, as they were useful predators of vermin. However, some theorists find this implausible, because there may have been little reward for such an effort: cats do not carry out commands and, although they do eat rodents, other species such as ferrets or terriers may be better at controlling these pests.

The alternative idea is that cats were simply tolerated by people and gradually diverged from their 'wild' relatives through natural selection, as they adapted to an agricultural environment.

The cat (Felis catus), also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felines and felids, is a small carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin and household pests.

It has been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years and is currently the most popular pet in the world.

A skilled predator, the cat is known to hunt over 1,000 species for food. It can be trained to obey simple commands. Individual cats have also been known to learn on their own to manipulate simple mechanisms, such as doorknobs and toilet handles.

Cats use a variety of vocalizations and types of body language for communication, including meowing, purring, "trilling", hissing, growling, squeaking, chirping, clicking, and grunting. They are also bred and shown as registered pedigree pets.

This hobby is known as "cat fancy". Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal. However, in 2004, a domesticated cat that was buried 9,500 years ago was discovered in Cyprus, and a study in 2007 found that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run through as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) circa 8000 BC, in the Near East.

The word cat derives from Old English catt, which belongs to a group of related words in European languages, including Welsh cath, Spanish gato, Basque katu, Byzantine Greek kátia, Old Irish cat, German Katze, and Old Church Slavonic kotka.

The ultimate source of all these terms is Late Latin catus, cattus, catta "domestic cat", as opposed to feles "European wildcat". It is unclear whether the Greek or the Latin came first, but they were undoubtedly borrowed from an Afro-Asiatic language akin to Nubian kadís and Berber kaddîska, both meaning "wildcat".

This term was either cognate with or borrowed from Late Egyptian čaus "jungle cat, African wildcat" (later giving Coptic šau "tomcat"), itself from earlier Egyptian tešau "female cat" (vs. miew "tomcat").The term puss (as in pussycat) may come from Dutch poes or from Low German Puuskatte, dialectal Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt, all of which primarily denote a woman and, by extension, a female cat.

A group of cats is referred to as a "clowder", a male cat is called a "tom" (or a "gib", if neutered), and a female is called a "molly" or "queen". The male progenitor of a cat, especially a pedigreed cat, is its "sire", and its female progenitor is its "dam".

An immature cat is called a "kitten" (which is also an alternative name for young rats, rabbits, hedgehogs, beavers, squirrels and skunks). In medieval Britain, the word kitten was interchangeable with the word catling. A cat whose ancestry is formally registered is called a pedigreed cat, purebred cat, or a show cat.

In strict terms, a purebred cat is one whose ancestry contains only individuals of the same breed. A pedigreed cat is one whose ancestry is recorded, but may have ancestors of different breeds. Cats of unrecorded mixed ancestry are referred to as domestic longhairs and domestic shorthairs or commonly as random-bred, moggies, mongrels, or mutt-cats.

Since the occurrence of BSE infection through contaminated meat and bone meal, the use of meat meal in pet foods has been prohibited in parts of the world (Japan and France) but is still common practice in other parts (USA).

Comparative studies conducted by Japanese researchers have shown that meat meal is superior to the other protein meal sources in terms of dry-matter digestibility and nutritional value for cats, while corn gluten meal is the least nutritional.

The same studies showed that cats fed with these dry food diets excreted alkaline urine. Urine pH has been implicated in the formation of struvite crystals in feline urolithiasis, and many dry food manufacturers address this by adding urine-acidifying ingredients to their food.

However, this practice may lead to the formation of calcium oxalate stones, therefore water intake rather than urine pH appears to be the most crucial diet related factor for the prevention and treatment of feline stones.

Canned or wet food (75-78% moisture) generally comes in common can sizes of 3 oz (85 g), 5.5 oz (156 g), and 13 oz (369 g). It is also sold in foil pouch form by some manufacturers. Owners and veterinarians who recommend a diet consisting largely or entirely of canned, homemade or raw cat food point to higher water content of such food and the increased total water consumption in comparison to a dry food diet as an important health benefit.

Wet food also generally contains significantly less grain and other carbohydrate material. Many foods are made with fish, however an excessive consumption of fish (which contains high levels of unsaturated fatty acids) can cause yellow fat disease.

In comparison to dry food, canned food is thought to either help treat or noticeably reduce the likelihood of numerous health issues including urinary tract disorders, diabetes, chronic renal failure, constipation (sometimes leading to megacolon), and obesity.

Canned cat foods in pop-top containers may play a role in the development of hyperthyroidism in cats. This may be due to bisphenol A used in the pop-top can coating leaching into the food, so it is suggested to place unused food in reusable containers to prevent contamination.

Cat food is formulated to address the specific nutritional requirements of cats. Although cats are obligate carnivores, most commercial cat food contains both animal and plant material, supplemented with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

An important nutrient is the amino acid derivative taurine, as cats cannot synthesize the compound. Cats fed a taurine-deficient dog food may develop retinal degeneration and go blind.

Most store-bought cat food comes in either dry form, also known in the US as kibble, or wet canned form. Some manufacturers sell frozen raw diets and premix products to cater to owners who feed raw.

Dry food (8-10% moisture) is generally made by extrusion cooking under high heat and pressure. Fat may then be sprayed on the food to increase palatability, and other minor ingredients, such as heat-sensitive vitamins, which would be destroyed in the extrusion process, may be added.

Major brand-name dry cat food manufacturers often use primarily grain-based ingredients with animal protein by-products or animal digest to cut cost. Higher end foods offered as 'premium', 'natural' or 'holistic' formulas contain less or no grain, and a higher percentage of animal protein.

However, grain-free dry diets still contain carbohydrates, from sources such as potato or tapioca. The starch in those ingredients allows the kibble to hold its shape. Cats have no metabolic need for carbohydrates as the feline system prefers to create glucose from protein.

Dry cat food has an advantage over wet in convenience and price – besides usually being significantly cheaper, dry cat food can also be left out for the cat to eat at will over the course of several days, whereas canned or raw cat food spoils or becomes unappetizing after several hours.

It should be noted, however, that even dry food, since it is sprayed with fats as noted above, becomes rancid and stale as it oxidizes. Using a free feeding practice can also contribute to overeating, and ultimately obesity. Dry food is recommended by some based on the idea that cats break apart dry foods with their teeth, which causes the food to scrape off dental calculus. The degree of benefit this provides has been disputed in recent years.