Ten great articles to read to help you to better understand your cat

Cats are very mysterious creatures and we often misunderstand their intentions, actions and behaviours; inadvertently interpreting them in very human terms or even assuming that they follow similar patterns to dogs!

Understanding your cat, their needs, behaviours and methods of communication is really important to make your cat happy and relaxed in their own home, and to avoid potentially problematic behaviours that can make both of your lives less pleasant.

If you want to get to grips with how cats think and express themselves with people and other cats alike, this article will introduce ten great articles on different topics to help you to do just that. Read on to learn more.

Do you know your cat’s personality type?

A study conducted in 2017 revealed that the vast majority of cats may fall under one of just five different core personality type headings, which can help to determine their temperament, behaviour, preferences, how they interact with people, and even things like how keen they are likely to be to play, hunt and socialise!

Find out which of the five headings your cat falls under – or if they don’t fit into one of the five defined types at all – here.

How cats communicate with their tails

Cats that have just had a fright or seen another cat on their territory are apt to bush up their fur and tails in particular to make it look as large and fluffy as possible; but why, and what does this achieve? Find out what it means when cats bush their tails up here, and how cats communicate in general with their tails here.

What makes your cat angry or annoyed?

People aren’t naturally very intuitive about interpreting cat behaviour properly, as we tend to put a very human slant on things and cats don’t try to meet us halfway like dogs do! This means that it can be really easy to anger your cat, or do things they don’t like, even with best intentions. Make sure you’re not inadvertently doing this yourself by checking out this article on five things cats really don’t like, and then find out about five more!

What stresses cats out?

All manner of things can make cats stressed and unsettled, and once more, this is not always evident to us as cat owners. Cats like to have fairly routine, formulaic lives, and anything that throws this out of kilter can make your cat stressed, and you might not even realise it. Find out what stresses cats out here.

What you need to know about cat behaviour at night

Cats tend to be more active at night than during the day, as you might know if your cat keep waking you up or likes to spend their evenings hunting! There are actually a number of sound evolutionary reasons for this, and in this article we will share five common questions about the behaviour of cats at night, and outline the answers that explain them.

What cats learn through mimicry

Animals of different types learn things through different approaches, often encompassing various different methods of learning new things that might change as they get older. As cats are not a social species per se, it can be a surprise to cat owners to find how much cats actually learn from each other via mimicry; and in this article, we will tell you more about all of the things your cat learned by copying other cats.

Why might a cat’s personality change?

Cats all have very distinct personalities that their owners get to know very well, but just as can happen with people, a cat’s personality can change subtly over time too.

There are various different things that might trigger such changes, some of which are normal and unavoidable and others that might indicate that something is amiss. Find out more about what can cause a cat’s personality to change in this article.

Why do cats mark things?

Cats scent mark by spraying and urination, but also in more subtle and less antisocial ways too, such as by rubbing their heads against things to transfer the scent of their facial pheromones.

Urine marking and spraying in the house can be a problem; and resolving it means getting to the bottom of why it is happening in the first place. This article will tell you why cats scent mark things, to give you a head start on sorting it out.

Why do cats fight with each other?

Cats that don’t know each other (and even some that do!) tend to be highly suspicious of each other, and will often fight and chase each other quite aggressively in disputes over territory. It can take a long time to get two cats to live peaceably together, and this is not possible for all cats; but why do cats fight with each other when there is no obvious reason, like competition for food or a mate? Find out here.

The keys to keeping your cat happy

Finally, if you’re looking for a short primer on what you need to do and provide to make your cat happy and relaxed, this article will cover all of the basics for living peaceably with a cat, and keeping your cat happy and chilled out at home.