September 18th, 2009
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Just as some people have better fine motor skills than others, some cats are able to move the individual toes of their paws separately, an unusual fine-motor control that you don’t see in many other four-legged creatures.
Although many of us have a mental image of a raccoon as being exceptionally clever using his paws, don’t underestimate your cat’s dexterity at using her paws for many functions. When she reaches out to grasp something you may notice that she prepares her paw by curling it into the right shape to best be able to grip it – and then closes her paw as she makes contact with the object, demonstrating sophisticated fine-motor skills. Radio show host and pet expert Tracie Hotchner is the author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible. Click here to follow her on Twitter. |
We have 2 Cornish Rex cats that use theirs paws like
little hands all the time. So nimble in fact that they have
been able to open the bird cage door with them.
(both birds survived the episode unscathed)
My Maine Coon Samus had very dexterious paws. I saw him hang from the bars of my stairmaster once for about 10 seconds. His paws were curled right around it. Could have been a poster!
My Maine Coon is the same! He picks stuff up all the time and is amazing to watch. His paws seem made for it!
I’ve never really noticed Ashley using her paws like this. I’ll have to pay better attention.
My cat Sasquatch is a polydactle and has six toes on both front feet. He uses the extra two as thumbs to pick things up. And when I take him to the vet to have his nails trimmed he makes a fist so they can’t get at them.
Princess, my white DSH female, likes to dip her paw in the water and drink from her paw. She also is able to put her paw into a mug and bring up crunchies, one by one, to eat.
[...] 18 – Check out this article as the people over at Catster share how some cats have special paw abilities. Did you know that [...]
My cat Bo, 2 year old DSH just learned to pick up treats and eat them out of her paw!!! I’m so proud…
That’s really cool, Sarah!