{"id":1674,"date":"2016-12-16T04:51:14","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T12:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1674"},"modified":"2016-12-16T04:51:14","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T12:51:14","slug":"frivolous-friday-its-the-cats-whiskers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1674","title":{"rendered":"Frivolous Friday \u2013 It\u2019s the Cat\u2019s Whiskers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lily7WeeksSo what do we know about our cats\u2019 whiskers, anyway? If you\u2019re like me, you\u2019ve heard that a cat\u2019s whiskers are as long as their body is wide and this helps them to determine when a space is too small for them to enter. Supposedly, the cat decides, \u201cIf my whiskers touch the sides, I won\u2019t fit into that space.\u201d That\u2019s a hard one to swallow when you\u2019ve seen cats climb into some mighty small places. If you\u2019re like me, you wonder if a cat\u2019s whiskers grow longer as the cat gains weight.<\/p>\n

The head of general practice at the University of Melbourne\u2019s U-Vet Veterinary Hospital, Dr. Leonie Richards says that a cat\u2019s whiskers certainly have value\u2014they are navigating tools, indicators of impending danger and, for other critters, an indicator of mood.<\/p>\n

Have you ever counted your cat\u2019s whiskers? Dr. Richards says there are typically a dozen of them in four lines on each cheek. Did you know that the long hairs over a cat\u2019s eyes, on their chins, and behind their front paws are also considered whiskers? She says that all of these whiskers \u201chelp cats work out where they are spatially.\u201d Although the whiskers themselves have no feeling, where they are embedded has many nerve endings which makes the whiskers \u201cideal sensory organ.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cat\u2019s whiskers are so sensitive they can detect airflow which helps them to determine when they\u2019re close to a wall in the dark, for example.<\/p>\n

Ever wonder what happens to a cat when her whiskers are cut off? You don\u2019t want to find out. Dr. Richards says it makes them disoriented. She says that sometimes a veterinarian will have to cut a cat\u2019s whiskers, but that they grow back in a couple of months.<\/p>\n

My mother\u2019s cat, Smokey, had these nice long, white eyebrow whiskers when he was a \"smokey2-012\"kitten. Within a few weeks, these whiskers had disappeared. Finally new tiny black hairs\u2014not really whiskers\u2014grew back. No one knows what happened to his original white whisker eyebrows.<\/p>\n

Sometimes you find whiskers around the house. Yes, cats do shed their whiskers. I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s good luck to find a cat\u2019s whisker. When I find one, I usually save it.<\/p>\n

So how can you tell a cat\u2019s mood by his whiskers? You\u2019ve probably already noticed that when the whiskers seem relaxed\u2014they droop down a little\u2014she is contented. When they are pinned back against her cheeks, she\u2019s fearful, and when they are straight forward, it could mean she\u2019s angry. I\u2019ve seen whiskers in the straight-forward position when my cats were watching a bird through the window. So I wonder if straight-forward whiskers also denote excitement.<\/p>\n

I mentioned earlier that I wondered if a cat\u2019s whiskers grow longer when he gains weight. According to Dr. Richards, they do not. She says that a cat\u2019s whiskers are less useful to an obese cat and this is just one reason why she and most other experts recommend maintaining your cat\u2019s weight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So what do we know about our cats\u2019 whiskers, anyway? If you\u2019re like me, you\u2019ve heard that a cat\u2019s whiskers are as long as their body is wide and this helps them to determine when a space is too small … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1675,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions\/1675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}