🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

As obligate carnivores, cats cannot synthesize enough of the amino acid taurine and must obtain it from animal-based diets to maintain healthy vision. This overview surveys the well-documented link be…

Kittens often establish a teat order, returning preferentially to particular nipples during nursing, a phenomenon studied as a window into early learning and competition. This overview surveys researc…

Veterinary reports of cats surviving falls from great heights inspired the idea that, past a certain height, injuries may not simply keep worsening. This overview surveys the biomechanics: after right…

Recovering sperm directly from the testis or epididymis provides an alternative source of gametes, especially from animals that cannot be electroejaculated or are recently deceased. This overview surv…

Reproductive hormone levels in male cats can vary seasonally and with social status, influencing semen quality and reproductive behavior. This overview surveys research on testosterone and related and…

The Felis lineage contains the domestic cat and its closest wild relatives, including the European wildcat, the African and Near Eastern wildcat, the sand cat, the jungle cat, the black-footed cat, an…

A feline version of the Glasgow composite measure pain scale was developed to assess acute pain in cats through observation of behaviors and responses, including facial expressions, providing another…

The Preyer reflex is a rapid, involuntary movement of the ear in response to a sudden sound, used historically as an indicator of hearing. This overview surveys how such reflexive ear responses appear…

The Rivalta test, a simple inexpensive bedside test that observes whether a drop of effusion fluid retains its shape in a dilute acetic acid solution, has been studied as an aid to distinguishing FIP…

The UNESP-Botucatu multidimensional composite pain scale was developed and validated to assess acute postoperative pain in cats, combining behavioral observations, responses to palpation, and physiolo…

Research increasingly frames feline kidney disease as a continuum in which episodes of acute kidney injury, from toxins, ischemia, infection, or obstruction, can leave residual damage that predisposes…

Unlike the primate fovea, the cat's region of sharpest vision is a broader, shallower zone called the area centralis. This survey reviews what is known about its photoreceptor and ganglion cell compos…

Dichromatic animals typically perceive color along a single axis, and in cats that axis runs roughly from blue to yellow. This overview surveys evidence that cats discriminate short-wavelength from lo…

One of the most robust axes of feline personality is a bold-to-shy or confident-to-fearful continuum that shapes how cats respond to novelty, strangers, and handling. This overview surveys research on…

Cats develop many spontaneous diseases analogous to human conditions, and this overview surveys their value as natural genetic models. It examines feline counterparts of human disorders including poly…

A falling cat can turn to land feet-down without any external push, a feat that puzzled physicists for over a century. This overview explains the modern understanding: the cat rotates its front and ba…

Cats have an exceptionally strict requirement for dietary arginine because their continuous high rate of protein metabolism generates ammonia that must be detoxified through the urea cycle, for which…

Unlike many mammals that can convert plant-derived beta-carotene into vitamin A, cats lack sufficient enzymatic capacity for this conversion and therefore require preformed vitamin A from animal sourc…

Roughly two-thirds of domestic cats display a stereotyped response to catnip, sniffing, licking, rolling, and rubbing, triggered by the compound nepetalactone acting through the olfactory and vomerona…

Cats possess a tapetum cellulosum, a type of reflective layer built from regular arrays of crystal-containing cells rather than the fibrous form seen in some other animals. This survey reviews studies…

Urine spraying is a primary scent-marking behavior in cats, depositing a chemically rich signal on vertical surfaces. This overview surveys the composition of sprayed urine, which contains compounds s…

Animal domestication is often described as following three routes: a commensal pathway, a prey pathway and a directed pathway. This overview focuses on the commensal model as applied to cats, in which…

The kitten visual system became a foundational model in neuroscience, and this overview reviews what studies of feline visual development revealed. Classic experiments on visual deprivation in kittens…

Kittens purr from very early life, and this overview surveys the developmental emergence and early functions of purring. It examines reports that kittens purr while nursing, possibly communicating wit…

The tabby patterns of cats, mackerel stripes versus blotched swirls, arise from the interaction of genes that establish a prepattern in the developing skin and then translate it into dark and light ha…

The cat first digit, carried high on the inner foreleg as the dewclaw, does not touch the ground in walking but plays a role in grasping. This overview reviews its anatomy and function: a mobile, claw…

FIP has long been notoriously difficult to diagnose definitively before death because no single non-invasive test is both highly sensitive and specific, and because antibody to feline coronavirus is c…

The domestic cat harbors more than two hundred inherited disorders, many of which mirror human genetic diseases, making it a valuable biomedical model. This overview surveys how feline genetics has il…

Cats purr not only when content but sometimes when injured, frightened, or near death, and this overview reviews the puzzle of purring varied contexts. Because purring occurs in both positive and stre…

One striking property of the cat's vertical-slit pupil is its enormous range of aperture, contracting to a narrow line in bright light and opening to a wide circle in darkness. This overview surveys h…