Cat ears are responsible for a lot more than inspiring a trend of adorable headbands for humans. Your cat’s ears are incredible body parts that not only detect sound, but control balance, communicate mood, and even help cats hunt prey.
Your cat’s ears are far more than just the soft, furry bits that you could scratch and pet all day. They serve lots of functions and have fascinating abilities.
Here are five amazing facts about your cat’s ears and what they can do!
Cat ears are both adorable and amazing! Be sure to properly care for your kitty’s ears to ensure they stay happy, healthy, and well-balanced.
Do you know how your cat is feeling by looking at their ears? What other interesting cat ear facts did I miss? Let me know in the comments below!
Facts About Your Cat's Ears
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Cat Ears Have A Versatile Range Of Motion
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Human ears are pretty much stuck in the position they're in. Cat ears, on the other hand, have 32 muscles in them to help them twitch, rotate, and have a greater sense of hearing.
A cat's ears can rotate up to 180 degrees, which makes them perfect tools to help track down small, scurrying prey from nearly any direction.
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Cats Have Better Hearing Than Humans & Dogs
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Dogs are often cited as the pets with the best hearing abilities. Turns out, your cat has a larger range of frequencies that they can hear.
A dog's range of hearing is from 67 to 45,000 hertz, whereas a cat's range is an impressive 45 to 64,000 hertz! Humans fall behind by a mile with a hearing range of 20 to 23,000 hertz.
If your cat's ears are perking up, chances are they hear something that you don't.
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Cat Ears Help Control Your Cat's Balance
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Have you ever had an ear infection and felt a little off-balance? That's because you have fluid in your ears that helps support your balance.
Your cat's inner ear contains the vestibular system, which is a system full of fluids to help your kitty keep their balance.
You know how cats can almost always right themselves to land on their feet? Your kitty can thank their intricate ears for that.
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Cat Ears Can Tell You How Cats Are Feeling
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Most cat parents can tell something is up with their cat based on the position of their ears. Because of the intricate system of 32 muscles in your cat's ears, they can swivel them like a giant satellite dish to signal different moods.
A cat with ears flat against their head coupled with a tense stance tells us that they're uncomfortable and scared.
Erect, twitching ears can signal that your cat is either annoyed by something you're doing or trying to figure out where a certain sound is coming from.
Pay attention to what your cat's ears are trying to tell you.
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Cat Ears Start Out As Deaf Ears
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When kittens are born, the ear canals are closed. This means your kitten is born deaf.
When your kitty is about a week old, those ear canals will open. At about two weeks, they'll be able to start recognizing sounds.
By a month, they're well on their way to being able to tell the difference between said sounds. Pretty wild!
