What do your cats have in common with Lions?

Cats love to scratch almost anything.

All types of cats, large or small, have retractable claws, except for cheetahs, which have semi-retractable claws due to their running habits. In addition to hunting with your claws, you also use your claws to climb trees and gain traction, so these tools will remain sharp when not in use.

However, when a lion scratches a tree trunk, it can not only trim its claws, but also use the sweat glands of its feet to mark the territory as described above.

Members of the cat family open their mouths and smell.

Cats have a very strong sense of smell due to the millions of receptors lined up in their small noses (as opposed to humans, who have only 5 million olfactory receptors). In addition, they are among animals with organs that can detect other scents. This is called Jacobson’s organ and is located at the base of the nasal cavity and is found not only in cats, but also in dogs, pigs, cows, snakes and lizards.

Jacobson’s organs provide cats with the ability to taste and smell substances. They use this organ to use a movement called the Flehmen response to open their mouth, wrinkle their nose, and hold their breath. Cat lovers can easily see it with their pets, but large cats are more likely to notice a “smelling face.”

They rub their bodies on the surface.

Cats have scented glands on different parts of their body: the forefoot, the base of the tail, the sides of the face, and the area around the mouth. When the cat rubs the surface (like you), it uses pheromones to mark the area.

When big cats want to warn other animals that may enter their territory, they hit their heads against things in the environment to leave their scent.

They sleep most of the time.

Some cat owners think their pets sleep too much. If you search for this online, you’ll get the answer that it’s natural for cats to sleep for long periods of 12 to 16 hours a day. But this does not mean that they are lazy. Cats are predators, so high-intensity hunting requires energy savings.

Cats typically go through a food-rest-hunting cycle, as not all hunting activities lead to a delicious diet. The same is true for big cats like tigers and lions. They can sleep in the shade for as long as 20 hours. When they have a valuable catch, they do not move until it is completely digested.

They love catnip.

The nepetacataria plant, commonly known as catnip, has the most serious effects on domestic cats. When a pet gets a catnip twig, it licks, sniffs, and rolls (more, it jumps around and later crashes and sleeps).

It is their genes that enjoy the active compound of catnip, nepetalactone. 30% to 40% aren’t interested in it, but many of their big relatives love it. Lions and jaguars react strongly to catnip, but like domestic cats, this can be different between them.