🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist implants offer a reversible method of suppressing reproduction in cats by downregulating the reproductive axis after an initial stimulation. This overview survey…

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone and its agonists are used to induce ovulation in cats by stimulating the pituitary to release luteinizing hormone, substituting for the natural mating stimulus. This ove…

The International Renal Interest Society (IRIS) staging system standardized how feline chronic kidney disease (CKD) is classified, using blood creatinine, and later SDMA, to define stages, with substa…

Zooarchaeological finds of cat bones at Roman and medieval European sites document the steady establishment of cats as urban and rural commensals north of the Mediterranean. This overview surveys evid…

Symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) emerged as a blood biomarker of kidney function that rises earlier in the course of feline CKD than creatinine and is less influenced by muscle mass, an advantage in…

Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, oral drugs that lower blood glucose by promoting urinary glucose excretion, gained approval for treating feline diabetes, offering the first effectiv…

The folded ears that define the Scottish Fold breed result from a cartilage mutation that also causes a painful skeletal disorder, and this overview surveys the resulting welfare controversy. It exami…

Cats travelled with Norse traders and raiders, and their remains at Viking-age sites have informed studies of dispersal and body size. This overview surveys genetic and osteological evidence showing t…

Decades of feline genetics have assembled a catalog of genes controlling color, pattern, and hair properties in cats, including agouti, melanocortin-1 receptor, the brown locus, dilution, dominant whi…

Distress and high-arousal calls, such as the kitten separation cry and adult yowls, carry information about a cat's state and have been analyzed acoustically. This overview surveys research on the str…

The purr has a characteristic low fundamental frequency, and this overview reviews its acoustic structure and the claims made about specific frequencies. Measured purrs typically centre on low frequen…

Cats are often described as crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk, and this overview surveys research on how activity and hunting are scheduled in domestic and feral cats. Tracking studies show fl…

Concerns about injection-site sarcomas and inflammation spurred development of non-adjuvanted recombinant feline vaccines, such as canarypox-vectored products, intended to provoke less local inflammat…

As cats age, their reproductive output typically declines through reduced fertility, smaller litters, and lower offspring survival. This overview surveys patterns of age-related fertility decline acro…

As cats age, many experience a decline in hearing, a feline counterpart to the presbycusis seen in aging humans. This overview surveys age-related hearing loss in senior cats, which can reduce sensiti…

When threatened, cats deploy a graded set of agonistic signals including growls, hisses, spits, and yowls, paired with visual displays such as piloerection, arched back, and ear and pupil changes. Thi…

When hunting by ear, a cat actively orients its pinnae toward a sound source to maximize gain and sharpen localization before striking. This overview surveys how pinna aiming integrates with the broad…

Cats living in groups engage in allogrooming, licking one another, and allorubbing, rubbing bodies together, behaviours that build and maintain social bonds. This overview surveys research on these af…

Allonursing, the nursing of non-offspring, is best documented in lions but reported in other group-living or colonial felid contexts, including domestic cat colonies. This overview surveys research on…

When cats rub against each other, a behavior called allorubbing, they mingle their scents and may create a shared group odor. This overview surveys allorubbing and related allomarking behaviors, in wh…

Cats evaluate food partly through the tastes of specific amino acids, which signal protein content and palatability. This overview surveys how feline taste preferences are shaped by amino acids, with…

Cats possess paired anal sacs that produce a strongly scented secretion thought to contribute to individual odor identity and communication. This overview surveys what is known about these secretions,…

Mitochondrial DNA, maternally inherited and abundant in old specimens, has been central to reconstructing cat history. This overview surveys how researchers define and use maternal haplogroups, includ…

As feline CKD advances, reduced renal production of erythropoietin, along with iron dysregulation, inflammation, and shortened red cell survival, causes nonregenerative anemia that worsens weakness an…

A monoclonal antibody targeting nerve growth factor, a key mediator of chronic pain, was developed as a long-acting injectable treatment for the pain of feline osteoarthritis, offering a novel mechani…

Even as predators, cats must avoid being killed, and anti-predator behaviour shapes their activity and space use. This overview surveys research on vigilance, refuge use, and avoidance in domestic and…

Antibody titer testing measures a cat's existing immunity to diseases such as panleukopenia and can inform decisions about whether revaccination is needed, supporting individualized protocols that avo…

The story of how cats joined human society blends zooarchaeology with molecular genetics. This overview surveys evidence from early Neolithic Cyprus, where a cat was buried beside a human roughly nine…

Cats are exquisitely sensitive to a lack of dietary arginine, and this overview reviews why. Arginine is essential to the urea cycle that disposes of nitrogen waste from protein breakdown, and because…

The prominent whiskers on a cat's muzzle, the mystacial vibrissae, are arranged in an orderly grid of rows and columns on each side of the face. This overview surveys their typical number and layout,…