Dorling Kindersley - The Complete Cat Breed Book

Consultan t Edito r DR. KIM DENNIS- BRY AN BOOK THE

What is a cat ? Choosing the right ca t INTRODUCTION TO C AT S DK LONDON Senior Edit ors Gill Pitts, Paul a Regan Project Art Ed itor Laura Roberts -J ensen Additional Design T a nnishtha Chakra borty , Amy Ors borne Editor s Lizzie Munsey , Steve Setfor d Editor ial Assista nt Alexand ra B eeden Jacket De sign Dev elopment Manager Sophia MTT DK Picture Libr ary Claire B owers, Martin Copeland, Claire C ordie r , Emma Shepherd , Romaine W erbl ow Commissioned Ph otogra phy Trac y Morgan Senior Picture Research er Myriam Megharbi Database Rob Laidler , David Ro berts Production Ed itor Kavita V ar ma Production Co ntroller Laura A ndrew s Managing Edit ors Angeles Gavir a Gu errer o, E sther Ripley Managing Art Edit or Michael Duffy Publisher Laura Buller Art Directo r Karen Self Design Direct or Phil Ormerod Associate Publishing Directo r Liz Wheeler Publishing Directo r Jonathan Metc alf Consultan t Edito r Kim Dennis-Bry an Contributo rs Ann Baggaley , Jolyon Goddar d, W endy Horobin DK INDIA Managing Edit ors Paksha lika Jay apr akas h, Rohan Sinha Senior Edit or Sreshtha B hattachary a Editor s Nandini Gupta, Ant ara Moitra , Priya njali Nara in Assistant E ditor Archana R amachandr an Managing Art Edit ors Sudakshina Basu, Romi Chakr abort y Senior Art Ed itors Govind Mitt al, V ai bhav Ra stogi Art Edit ors Mahip al Singh, Amit V arma Assistant A rt Edit ors Ta nvi Nath yal, T a nvi Sahu Design Consult ant Shefal i Upadhy ay Senior Jacke t Designer Suhita Dhar amji t Jacket De signer Ta nya Mehrotr a Picture Re search Mana ger Ta iyaba Khatoon Picture Re searcher Sakshi Saluja Pre-production Man ager Balwan t Singh DTP Des igners Vishal Bhatia, Ra kesh K umar , Sachin Singh, Mohammad Usman, Anita Y ad av Production Manager Panka j Sharma Editor ial Head Glenda R. F er nandes Design Head Malavika T a lukder This edition published in 20 First pu blished in Gre at Britain in 2 013 by Dorling Kindersle y Limite d, DK, One Embass y Gar dens, 8 Viaduct Gard ens, London, SW11 7BW The authorize d repr esentat ive in the EEA is Dorling Kindersle y Ve rlag GmbH. Arnulfst r . 4, 80636 Munich, Germany Copyrig ht 2013, 2021 Dorling Kindersle y Limit ed A Penguin Ra ndom House Compa ny 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0013 19131 Ju ly /21 All rights re served. No part of this p ublication may be repr oduce d, stor ed in or introduc ed into a retr ieva l sys tem, or t ran smitte d, in any f orm, or b y any means (el ectronic , mechanical, phot ocopy ing, rec ordi ng, or otherwise ), without the prior writte n permission of the c opyrig ht owner . A CIP cata logue rec ord for this book is a vail able from the British Libra ry . ISBN 97 8- 0-2 4-4631- Printed and bound in China www.dk.com This book wa s made with F or est S teward ship Council c ertified p aper one small ste p in DKs com mitment to a s ustainable f uture . For more info rmation go to www. dk.com /o ur-green-pledge

Shorthairs Longhairs CAT AL OGUE OF BREEDS HEAL TH AND BREEDING Health Inherited diso rder s Responsible breeding CARE AND BEHA VIOUR Preparin g for arriv al First da ys Foo d and feeding Handling your c at Socializing yo ur cat Indoors or out doors ? Cat communic ation The importanc e of pla y Grooming and h ygiene Tra ining your c at Behaviour pr oblems GLOSSARY INDEX ACKNOWLEDGME NTS

INTRODUCTION T O CA TS Tiger S erval C aracal O celot & relati ves Evol ution of the cat The fa mily histo ry of the domes tic cat goe s wa y back in time , to long bef ore the rst h uman-like prim ates w alk ed the E arth. All cats fr om tiger s, jagu ars, an d other big cats to smaller lynxes and ocelots belong to the f amil y of mammals ca lled Fel idae, whic h contai ns 48 living species . The r st cat -like carnivor es appe ared ar ound 3 5 milli on years ago. F os sil evidence suggests that modern felids ar ose in Asia about 11 million year s ago. Howe ver , the big cats w e know today , such as the lion, did not ev olve u ntil much later , betwee n 4 and 2 million year s ago, when a drier , war mer climate ga ve ris e to open habitats and her ds of soft-s kinned gra zing animals. The athletic build of big c ats wa s ideal fo r catc hing such pre y. Less agile types of cat s, such as the sabr etooth s, gra dually died out. The most r ecent cats to evolv e include the lynx es (USA and Europe ), the bobcat (US A), th e leopard cat (S outheast Asia ), and the wildcats ( Afric a, Eur ope, and Asia). T he domestic cat is des cended fr om the A frica n wildcat, a nd it is now consider ed a speci es in its ow n right Fel is catus . Domestication In the Near East , about 10, 000 y ears a go, humans began growin g cere al crop s and sto ring gra in for the r st time . They fo und that ra ts and mice w ould get int o their st ores and eat the gra in. Howe ver , the roden ts themselve s were eaten by small preda tors, such as the Afric an wildca t. Soon a re lationship betw een cat s and humans dev eloped: the cats had a r eady sup ply of fo od in the rod ents that The domestic cat is now the w orld s most popular pet , but cat s were n ot alwa ys tam e. The relationship be tween h umans and cats began in the Near East about 10, 000 y ears a go, when cats killed the roden ts that ate gra in stor ed in t owns and villages. T hey we re kept as pe ts in Egypt from about 2 bce , but the diff eren t breeds ha ve only been cre ated ov er the last hundred y ears o r so. This diagra m shows th e relationship be tween t he domestic ca t and some of the other members o f the cat fami ly the F el idae based on genetic evid ence. The closer a cat is to the domestic c at on this diagr am, the mor e similar their genetic make -up. All F elidae are ca rnivore s they eat e xclu sively meat and could not surviv e on a plant-base d diet. Though they vary in size , most cats share s ome phy sical chara cterist ics they ha ve lit he, muscular bodies , larg e eye s, and retr act able claw s, and mo st have ta ils that measure up to half their body length. THE C A T F AMIL Y Crossin g serva ls with domestic ca ts produce d the Savanna h breed. An experimen tal breed kno wn as the Cara cat is the product o f bre eding carac als with domestic ca ts. Cats are f ast-mo ving natural at hletes