1. Cats are the UK’s favourite pets. Around 7.5 million cats are now owned as pets by people in this country (as opposed to 6 million dogs). Cat ownership is more popular in the southern regions of UK, with 17% of the UK’s cats living in London.
2. More than ½ million kittens are born in the UK each year.
3. Kittens first begin opening their eyes at between 5 and 10 days old, and then they are fully open and can see properly between 8 and 20 days.
4. Newborn kitten’s eyes are usually grey/blue colour, but this colour changes to their permanent shade when they are around 12 weeks old.
5. Kittens begin crawling at around 16 and 20 days, walking between 21 and 25 days and running between 4 and 5 weeks.
6. Young kittens need to consume up to 4 times as many calories per kilogram of bodyweight as adult cats. As their stomachs are initially no bigger than a human thumbnail, they must be offered as many small amounts of calorie and nutrient dense food as they will eat.
7. Apart from their well known ‘meow’, many cats communicate with a ‘chirrup’ or ‘purp’ noise, which sounds as if they are ‘talking’ to you and is an expression of friendship.
8. Cats were originally desert dwelling animals and water is an essential part of their diet. An average domestic cat requires between 150 – 200ml of water everyday.
9. The average British cat costs its owner around £192 a year.
10. The modern domestic cat is a direct descendant of the African Wildcat, and in Ancient Egypt, where cats were worshipped as gods, if a cat in any home died, then all the human occupants had to enter into a full elaborate mourning ritual--- which included shaving off their eyebrows.
11. The colour of a cat’s coat originally fitted in with their natural environment; so sandy coloured cats would have originated from desert regions and spotted tabby types from the forest or jungle regions.
12. Cats are often thought of as lazy when in fact they have the classic energy conserving systems of all predators. In the wild a cat’s survival rests on it’s ability to hunt, chase and catch prey. Often when a cat appears to be sleeping it is actually just resting or placing it’s body in an energy efficient ‘stand by’ mode!

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