Caturday felid trifecta: “Catios”, cat “makes biscuits” while watching chef, cats raised with rabbits learn to hop (?)

May 27, 2017 • 9:15 am

This is a good way to keep your cats indoors, avoiding the dangers of outdoor life and saving the birds they might kill. It is the “catio“, an outdoor extension of your house that allows your moggie to experience the outdoors without running free. They start with do-it-yourself sets of plans for $40-60 like these; your cat enters from a catflap in the window. 

Or you can buy some fancy ones that are pre-made:

Or you can have them customized; this one enables you to enjoy being outdoors with your cat:

 

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There are various names for the “kneading” behavior that cats make, said to be a remnant of the motion that nursing kittens make to stimulate their mother. My favorite term for this is “making biscuits.” Here’s an awesome video of a cat making biscuits while he watches Gordon Ramsey knead dough. Is the cat learning? Will it eventually be able to produce puff pastry?

https://twitter.com/Elverojaguar/status/867726948344180740

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Finally, these tweet claims that these kittens, raised with rabbits, have learned to imitate the rabbits’ behavior by hopping about. And indeed, they do hop about, but perhaps that’s normal kitten behavior and not an imitation. You be the judge:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsimonscat%2Fvideos%2F10155700888554523%2F&show_text=0&width=400

h/t: Douglas, Charleen, Grania

18 thoughts on “Caturday felid trifecta: “Catios”, cat “makes biscuits” while watching chef, cats raised with rabbits learn to hop (?)”

  1. Is the cat learning? Will it eventually be able to produce puff pastry?

    More importantly will it learn to be obnoxious and also swear like a bloody sailor?

  2. Fascinating, and very cute, these hopping kittens. Although kittens do hop occasionally (hence not really alien to the kitten repertoire) I’ve never seen them doing it so systematically.
    There is still a lot to be learned, it seems.

  3. I think the kittens are hopping not because they are imitating the baby rabbits (also called kits), but because they are stimulated by all the activity of the potential prey running around. It looks to me like the kittens are pouncing on each other and almost practicing that pouncing on their prey behavior cats do. If the kittens were adult cats, those baby rabbits would definitely be prey. The only reason I think cats and rabbits do fairly well together, is the size of both as adults. Rabbits are fairly big as adults for a cat to prey on. I would never put an adult cat around little kits (baby rabbits) like those in the video. I’ve had no problem with adult cats and rabbits together.
    But a very cute video, nonetheless!

    1. That was my reaction as well–it just looks like normal kitten “pounce practice”.

  4. Those catios are really nice! Do you have the URL for the company that makes them?

    Thanks!

    1. Line 2 of the article where catio is within inverted commas. The link is there to catiospaces dotcom.

  5. I sure hope Gordon Ramsay has seen this video, it’s hilarious!
    The hopping kittens are adorable. Maybe it’s like the way we humans can pick up on another person’s accent and unconsciously start imitating. 🙂

  6. The catios serve the additional purpose of protecting the birds in the yard. Good idea. But I can see the cats getting frustrated.

  7. I’m pretty sure my cats reaction to a catio would be the same as mine would have been as a kid wanting to play outside.

    “It’s nice and all, but it is still a big cage.”

    1. After posting what I just did below your comment, I think you’re right. Damn it. Some cats can never be satisfied.

  8. I NEED to build one of these for my kitty. Poor little guy is always trying to get out of what is basically a palace of a house. He doesn’t know why we keep him in (for his own good and safety), just that we refuse to let him do what he wants. This is a great idea! And so cute!

    Plus, I could make it a nice solarium/garden.

  9. It seems the person who drew that first “Catio” has a mean streak, hanging a bird feeder just a few feet away from where a cat would be watching and getting very frustrated.

  10. I quickly scrolled down the page to get to the first unread post and as these photos flashed past of what looked like screened-in patios, I thought to myself “Gosh, their mosquitoes are even bigger than ours!”

  11. At my previous residence my cats had access to a screened-in porch which they were able to access through a sliding glass door. I would leave the door open just enough for the cats to get through by placing a shortened yardstick in the door track to keep it from being opened further. The cats loved having access to the porch and since the bird feeders were about 15 feet beyond they got to sit on the walls and “chirp” at the birds to their hearts content.

  12. I do weekly 4-hour shifts on a wildlife rescue ‘hotline’ here in Australia.
    A large percentage of calls I deal with are for the rescue of native animals and birds attacked by cats.
    We have a window of only a few hours to get these injured animals to a vet for antibiotic treatment or they risk dying from the massive load of bacteria injected into their bloodstream by the cats’ teeth.
    Usually I quickly scroll past any pictures of cats on this blog. At last … I can view moggies here with equanimity since they’re all behind bars (wires)!
    Happy sigh.

  13. This is so cute!! I used to have a kitten who would hop around when he was trying to catch birds. He thought if he hopped like a bird, they would think he was one of them

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