Vital Pet Health

The domestic cat is one of the best loved pets around the world, yet how does it compare to it's ancestors?

Communal Living

Whilst most cat species are solitary, domestic cats, like lions, are capable of sharing resources and forming bonds with each other. Female cats will even cooperate together to rear kittens, pooling litters into a group with the benefits of two mums to feed and protect them.

Fertility

Our pets display different breeding behaviour from their ancestors, which only have one or two breeding seasons a year; domestic cats can breed all year round and produce large litters.

Appearance
Cats in a domestic setting no longer had a need for camouflaging coats and indeed the more unusual colours and patterns would have been more prized and tended to give them a better chance of passing on their genes. An increasing number of genetic mutations gave us a variety of colours, long coats, curly coats and a great many more.

Different on the inside

Not all of the differences are external, and domestic cats have evolved a significantly longer intestinal tract. This adaptation allows them to digest a greater range of food and therefore take advantage of many things they come across in our kitchens. This means they find it easier to gain some energy from cereals but don’t expect them to happily tuck in to a bowl of muesli.

Smaller Heads

It may be embarrassing for cats but domestication caused their brains to become smaller. It is difficult to say whether this is due to downsizing, or if cats have just become less bright but it maybe that with the safety of human protection there is less for the brain to do.

Neotony

This means that cats have retained kitten-like behaviours into adulthood. This is partly because humans favoured cats who were more vocal, playful and affectionate but also because cats extended the use of behaviours from their times living in groups as kittens to help them interact when living communally as adults. No self-respecting adult Wild Cat would be caught milk-trading!