expert why cats behave the way they do, today we're going to look at 'Body Language'

Well I've created this big fat lovable cat who of course can't talk so

if I want to show an emotional how he's feeling I have to do it through body

language and cats are fantastic at body language and so it make some fantastic for

animation so you can look at a picture of a cat or an animation of a cat and

understand exactly what that cat's feeling without using any words, so to draw

an angry cat I'd start with two angry looking eyes and then it's ears would be back

give him some little ruffled fur, because he's really not really not happy at all

sitting on his haunches a bit, waggling his tail, he's not very happy at all

well Simon's Cat is such a simple design, he's basically like a big fat bean

really, he hasn't really got any whiskers or anything, so there's not a lot to work with

by just doing a few little simple body language things like having a little

tilted ear or a slightly puffed up tail but I can get over a lot of motion in

the drawing with Simon's Cat there's no talking it's all about body language

cat body language is an area that's absolutely fascinating

however cats are really subtle as a species much more so than social species

like ourselves and dogs and therefore it means they can be quite difficult to

really read as to how they're feeling what's important is to look at facial

expression and body language particularly in the context so we can

understand what's going on, so if we look at Nigel here he's looking rather relaxed

[Why do cats show their bellies?]

what it means when a cat shows their belly, it is actually a greeting behaviour

this is because they're showing the most vulnerable part of their tummy and

it's a sign of trust one of the things that many people mistake when their cat

rolls over and shows their tummy is that they think it's an invitation to have it

touched, now unfortunately most cats don't

actually like their tummies being touched and they may find they get

grabbed or bitten by the cat

[Tell Tails]

cats can use their tails to express a variety of different emotions

for example if the tip of the tail is slowly moving and

flicking like this it can mean they're agitated or something's irritated them

if the tail is moving from slowly side to side and particularly if it's at mid height

this can indicate this feeling indecisive if a cat is having its tail

up high like this, but also curved at the tip it can be a greeting behaviour you'll

see this both from cats towards other cats but also cats will greet people

like this two cats can also express themselves using their ears position

cats that are feeling nice and relaxed will have her ears facing towards in a

relaxed posture if we look at Nigel his ears are quite alert and he's listening

in to his surroundings and like I say he's definitely very aware of what's going on

when cats are actually scared they will move their ears both to the side and

sometimes back if they put their ears completely flat back on their head this

is not only indication that they feel extremely threatened but also that they

are trying to protect their ears from injury

[Look into my eyes]

There are lots of different ways in which cats can use their eyes to show different

types of emotions from slow blinking to having dilated pupils and also whether

their eyes are half closed or actually in the squinty position

slow blinking where a cat slowly opens and close their eyes so a slow blink like this and it's a

sign that they're feeling relaxed and calm in the person's presence they also

do it towards other cats what's really exciting is if you slow blink a cat or

so slowly opening and closing your eyes and seeing if they do it back cats which

are feeling stressed or insecure or nervous will often have dilated pupils

this is to gain as much information about their environment as possible however

cats may also have dilated pupils if they are excited or they're in hunting

mode for example if you notice your cat has dilated pupils it's important to

take its body language as well as a context into account to figure out how

your cat is feeling if the cat is resting or feeling relaxed they often

have their eyes half closed however this are very subtly different to if the cat

is in pain where they'll have more of a sort of squinty eye posture if you're

concerned that your cat may well be in pain we'd recommend taking them to the

vet for a health check, so by taking into account facial expression, body posture

and the context we can really start to understand cat behavior and have a much

more positive relationship with our cat, well I think a lot of the charm of

Simon's cat comes from all the realistic sort of body language and the little

nuances and mannerisms that the cat does that I've kind of learnt from having

lots of cats all my life but occasionally I tend to push push it a little bit and

have him do things like 'meow' point to his mouth when he's hungry and pick up a

baseball bat and I think that really brings out the humour of Simon's cat

because that's what cats would do if they could I think