Most humans have approximately the same size head and it would appear it has no relevance to the intelligence of someone?
However, I've noticed over the years that bigger cats, with bigger heads, seem to be more intelligent.
I've three cats......
Mimi - Female - 10 yrs approx - medium size, completely brainless it seems
Ginger - Male - 6 years approx (size of 6 months) small, runt of the pack, small head, completely scatty.
Big Ron - Male - 5 years approx - now 1 stone 6lbs, huge head, very clever, very much like a dog; comes to you on voice, sits etc.
Any theories or thoughts ??
Richard
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A Cat brain question
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We used to have x2 brothers, they were "very" big cats, & quite bright with it, I also had a very stocky cat, thick as pig swill & a constant worry, he stowed away on the veg van once while I was at work ,& my neighbour saw him & chased the van up the road to get him back
 he weighed over a stone, but had had to have a lot of steroids over the years, but there wasn't even any lights never mind the lights are on but no bodies in.
My present cat is 1/2 persian so her face is quite flat, she is very stumpy & small, it's all hair, I put it down to being hand reared, they often end up a bit stunted, but she is very very bright. So that does'nt answer anything for you really  Cheers
mel x our cat is fat and black, more hair brained than any other cat I have had. She sits at the back door, touching it with her paw until I go up and let her out, not a meow to be had. The only thing she does with her intelligence is to try the* feed me* technique on myself and hubby. She has occasionally been fed twice
 .
She also lays on the stairs when you want to use them, trying to trip you, not intelligence but a sick sense of humour I think.  Looove chucks!
Doors are the killer punch aren't they.
Mimi and Ginger go to the cat flap, knock it open, then sit staring at it for ages. Then go out 'just like that'. But this changes in the middle of the night when they knock it open constantly so it noisily flaps down a dozen times waking you up in the process. When we got Big Ron, we locked the cat flap so as to make him stay in, but he head butted the thing straight off the hinges! Went for a walk and came back on his own one hour later! When I was a Scout Leader there were a couple who took their cat to camps. They'd let him out as soon as they got there and he wandered in and out of camp for a week never getting lost and coming back when hungry or tired! They really are a mystery!! A good book if you can still get it is 'Catwatching' by Desmond Morris - fascinating! Found it on Amazon...... Catwatching: The Essential Guide to Cat Behaviour ![](http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=downthelane&l=as2&o=2&a=0091883113" width="1" height="1" border=) (from £5.99)
Catwatching ![](http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=downthelane&l=as2&o=2&a=0224028685" width="1" height="1" border=) (from 1p - yes, one pence)New Member? Get more from the Forum and join in 'Members Chat' - you're very welcome
I brought that book for my sister years ago, I think was a telly series too.
We used to have a cat flap with one of those magnet things, it was only meant to let in your own cats.....nightmare thing it was. We had four cats, (two cats which looked the same), two used to pee & the other two didn't, two had to stay at night, the other two only in at night as the dim one would have got run over in the dark, so his mate had to stay in as company, follow this if you can, so I could only have the magnet things on two cats which could come & go i the day, the other two slept on heated beds in the shed, then lock the day cats in for night, turn the flap to manual & the other two could have the kitchen, but.....the two which looked identical were not a pair, so we had to put bright green collars on the two outside cats & the other two had the red magnets for easy identification when we went away. They all got used to it & didn't really try to use the flap when it wasn't their turn, but the dim one would sit & look out of it & run it's batteries down, as it would just keep going "click click click" as he activated it on & off, so we had then then run a cable to it. It was really iffy technology, there's a million £'s for someone who can design one which works, this wasn't a great thing & cost a lot of money, but it was sort of worth it for a cat pee free home, as they didn't really do it that much in the kitchen. What ever next Cheers
mel x
hehe.
We've another cat flap on the kitchen / hallway door, but Ron can't get through it. I think they go by the whiskers don't they. If they touch the side, they won't go through it? Next week the Landlord is putting in a new Plastic Back Door and I'm paying the £30 to have one put in. The chap came to measure up, saw Ron and wrote 'Big size'. I'm putting the old one on the kitchen door, get so fed up opening the door for him all day long. Guess the only answer is to just keep a hamster! Richard Melons - he did a TV series on Manwatching. I brought that book as well, but it was way back when - early 80's?. Don't know about the cat one. New Member? Get more from the Forum and join in 'Members Chat' - you're very welcome
oh cats are so funny, those stories were hilarious!!
what a beautiful pic of a handsome boy too! mel i think your cats were geniuses if they could work out that cat flap system - i can't even work it out 
richard i think you have to remember what WE see as intelligent and what CATS see as intelligent are probably two different things. what self respecting cat would be seen dead answering to its name? and they most certainly aren't aspiring to being referred to as 'like a dog'! we 'catch' our cats out recognising their names. they kind of vary in their willingness to come to their name when called, but if you are watching them when you just mention their name in a sentence in conversation their head usually whips around! Sprung! They haven't had to undergo the catflap intelligence test though, as we've never had one. My mum used to have that magentic collar one, as she had problems with neighbourhood cats coming in and peeing. I think it worked ok but it was ages ago, can't be too sure. She just has a normal one now and locks it at night (it has clips to lock it). One of her cats is rather a big girl so she usually has to also put something in front of it when locked so she doesnt try to bash it open! oh forgot to say
im not too sure about the size thing - if you count coming when called by its name then our heaviest cat IS the most intelligent, but i wouldnt necessarily say his head is any bigger than our second heaviest. our smallest cat seems probably to the casual observer least intelligent , but i know who would be most likely to survive if left to fend for himself - he would because he's the most efficient hunter of mice - so in cat terms that probably makes him most intelligent In our house we judge intelligence by whether they can open doors or not. The last one could stand on the sofa arm to reach the door handle, jump on the window-sill and unlatch the window, get into the loft by tugging at the door knob, scratch at the carpet to open a bedroom door we thought was shut etc.
The one before had mastered the 'paw round the door and pull' routine but we watched him try this on a door that opened the other way, and shut himself out. The one we have now prefers to use the 'miaow' technique. Stupid or clever? |
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