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 Cat Health - The key to keeping a healthy cat is to assess your cat's health. All your cat health questions are answered with information on how to identify common cat health problems as well as major health concerns to ensure good cat health.
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Cat Physiology. An overview of the cat. Information on cat physiology and anatomy, the cat head and body, feet and paws.
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CAT PHYSIOLOGY
The cats as a group range widely in size. The great (or "big") cats,
including the lion and tiger, are the largest.
The domestic cat is
one of the smallest. An adult domestic cat is about eight to 10 inches
(20 to 25 centimeters) high.
The length from the tip of the nose to
the base of the tail averages 18 to 20 inches (46 to 51
centimeters), and the tail is about 10 to 15 inches (25 to 38
centimeters) long.
Females usually weigh from six to 10 pounds (2.7 to
4.5 kilograms) and males from 10 to 15 pounds (4.5 to 6.8
kilograms), depending on skeletal size.
The Head and Body
The
head is large compared with the rest of the body. The nose and jaws
are short.
The ears are large and they taper to rounded or pointed tips and stand erect in
almost all breeds.
A cat usually turns its head, not only its
eyes, in the direction of a sound. This aids both hearing and
vision.
The cat's eyes are placed forward on the
head and the size and
position permit as much light as possible to enter
and ensure an extensive field of vision -important factors in
hunting and nocturnal prowling.
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Cats have amazing flexibility of its body and can
with ease roll up into a ball, double up sideways, stretch the back
into almost a straight line, or arch it until front and back legs
are only a few inches apart.
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A cat cannot see in total darkness,
but it can see better in dim light than can most other kinds of
animals.
A cat's whiskers serve as delicate sense
organs of touch. Four rows of stiff whiskers grow on the upper lip
on each side of the nose.
A cat's teeth serve primarily as weapons, as
well as for tearing food. The animal has 30 permanent teeth.
A cat's tongue is rough. All cats use their tongues as a major grooming tool to
clean and comb the fur, but they also use them as efficient tools to
strip flesh off the bones of prey.
Although a cat's jaws are short,
they are extremely strong.Cats tear
and crush their food, they do not chew it.
All
cats--domestic and wild--purr.
No one knows exactly how cats purr
nor why no other kind of animal can.
The Legs and Feet
The legs appear short when compared with the
length of the body, but they are powerful.
The sharp angles of the knee and "heel" of
the hind legs contribute to the power for sudden sprints, for
climbing, and for jumping.
Most cats have five toes
in the forepaws and four in the hind paws.
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