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Why does your cat stretch when it sees you? The real reasons explained

Most owners read the stretch as a simple wake-up reflex, muscles loosening after a nap, nothing more. That part is real, but it does not explain why the stretch so often happens precisely when you appear, and why it is aimed at you. What the body is actually doingA stretch…

Times Pets · Nov 10

Cat stares at nothing and then bolts? Here's what's actually happening

There is a moment every cat owner knows: the cat is sitting quietly, then its head swivels to a corner of the room, pupils dilate, and it stares at what looks like empty air. A few seconds pass. Then it explodes across the floor and vanishes under the sofa. It…

Times Pets · Nov 10

Cat licks you then bites? Here's what your cat is actually telling you

One moment your cat is grooming your hand with slow, deliberate licks. The next, its teeth are in your skin. No hiss, no warning, or so it seemed. This sequence is one of the most common things cat owners describe, and it is almost never aggression in the way people…

Times Pets · Nov 10

Cherry shrimp and snails: what small tank cleaners actually need to thrive

Walk into any aquarium section of an Indian pet shop and you will find cherry shrimp and snails priced low and described, if described at all, as tank cleaners. The framing is misleading enough to cause real harm: animals bought as maintenance tools rather than as animals rarely get the…

Times Pets · Nov 10

Corydoras catfish: why these bottom dwellers need to live in groups

Walk into any aquarium shop in Delhi or Bengaluru and you will find Corydoras catfish in a corner tank, often sold as an afterthought, a few fish to clean the bottom. The cleaning part is a myth, and the afterthought part is the real problem. Corydoras are shoaling fish in…

Times Pets · Nov 10

Persian cat eye discharge: why daily face cleaning is non-negotiable

A Persian cat's face is essentially a compressed version of a normal cat skull. Selective breeding has shortened the muzzle and flattened the nose to the point where the nasolacrimal ducts, the narrow channels that drain tears away from the eye and down into the nasal passage, are kinked or…

Times Pets · Nov 10

Fleas on an indoor cat: how they get in and why your home needs treating too

A flea found on a cat that never leaves the flat is not a mystery, it is a reminder that fleas do not need the cat to travel. They need a host for feeding and reproduction, but they reach new homes on trouser hems, shoe soles, a visiting dog, or…

Times Pets · Nov 10

Dental disease in cats: why they keep eating through a painful mouth

Most cat owners have never seen their cat refuse food because of a bad tooth. That is exactly the problem. Cats are built to suppress pain signals that would slow them down in the wild, and a sore mouth rarely makes the shortlist of obvious symptoms, until the disease has…

Times Pets · Nov 10

Why does your indoor cat meow at closed windows at night?

A cat meowing at a closed window at night is not confused or bored in the way a person gets bored. It is responding to something specific, and the window is simply the wall between the cat and whatever that something is. What the cat is actually detectingCats have a…

Times Pets · Nov 9

Why does your cat scratch the floor around its food bowl?

Cats do a great many things that look strange in a Gurgaon apartment but make complete sense when you know what they were doing before they moved in with us. Scratching and pawing at the floor around a food bowl is one of them. It is common, it is usually…

Times Pets · Nov 9