Very Obscure Cat Trivia – 10 Facts I Bet You Don’t Know!

It’s time for more cat trivia! And I looked around and found some of the most obscure cat facts yet. I’ll be really surprised if you know more than one or two of them.

1. Cats can detect catnip at concentrations below one part per billion. That’s because of their sensitivity to the smell of the plant’s active compound, nepetalactone. 
2. Cat allergens have been found in spaceships. Fel d 1, the primary cat allergen is so tiny and sticky that it’s been able to hitchhike onto astronauts and spacecraft workers, and hence into spacecraft and the International Space Station. 
3. Newborn kittens can purr before they can hear. Kittens develop hearing at around 1–2 weeks, but vibration-based nursing vocalizations appear sooner. 
4. Speaking of kittens, did you know that the feline “righting complex,” where they land on their four feet, develops by the time they’re 3–4 weeks old? They’re not even fully coordinated yet when they begin learning that twisting motion. 
5. One hypothesis about how cats were spread worldwide comes down to their popularity on sailing ships. Sailors liked having them as rodent control, and wherever they landed, some cats probably disembarked and were left behind. 
6. More cats carry the “tabby blueprint” than you may know! If you have a solid colored cat (especially a black one), check them out in bright sunlight — you just may seem some “ghost stripes.” 
7. And if you have a black cat, your eyes aren’t fooling you — cat fur can “rust” under sunlight. Eumelanin, the most common type of melanin, can break down and cause those rusty-colored highlights. This is especially true if the cat’s tyrosine intake is low. 
8. Continuing on about fur…some cat’s coats can fluoresce under ultraviolet light. Naturally occurring proteins in the hair shaft cause this, and it’s more common in white fur and kitten fur. The effect is slight but noticeable. 
9. When it comes to scent marking, some cats favor one side of their face over the other. The same way someone can be right or left-handed, cats can be right or left-cheeked. Think about that the next time your cat rubs up against you.
10. Domestic cats can run downhill faster than uphill…but it’s not just gravity driving this. A cat’s scapular mobility changes their stride length and weight distribution on declines.

So how many of these did you know? And do you have any other rare and fascinating cat facts to share? Let us know in the comments!