Understanding your feline friend

Do you ever wonder why your cat behaves in a certain way? Most of their behaviour can be traced to when they were still wild, so we’re going to try to help you understand your feline friend a little bit better.

Purring

Contrary to popular believe purring does not always mean the cat is happy. A cat will purr when in pain, distress or when giving birth. A kitten purring is a signal to the mother that all is well and that it is well-fed.

Greeting

Cats greet each other by rubbing faces. If it greets you by standing on its hind legs, it is simply trying to reach your face. This is only done to humans that the cat trusts. Another way is to rub itself against your legs because cats have scent glands on its temples, around the mouth and at the base of the tail, so your cat it is actually marking its territory and asking other cats to stay away.

Burying faeces

A subordinate cat will bury its faeces to hide its presence from more dominant cats. A dominant cat will leave its faeces uncovered. If you just have one cat then burying indicates that the cat feels its owner is dominant.

Wagging tail

This could mean the cat is angry or feeling indecisive.

Eating grass

Vomiting will occur soon after the cat eats grass or anything similar like house plants. Thus, it is said that a cats does that when it needs to clean out its stomach. Taking food out of its bowl and eating it off the floor Cats do this either because they find the food pieces too large to chew in the bowl or is uncomfortable with its whiskers touching the side of the bowl when eating.

Scratching furniture

Scratching is a cat’s way to sharpen its claw by stripping off the old shell to reveal a new one. It is also a way for the cat to exercise its claws and paws and for scent marking (due to the scent glands under its paws) Not all cats behave exactly the same way though and some have some very distinctive habits, which we ask you to share below.