Cat quiz questions for feline fans

Cats make a great quiz round because nearly everyone has lived with one, met one, or been ignored by one. Here are 19 cat quiz questions in three rounds: a warm-up anyone can score on, a round on how cats' bodies and senses work, and a harder round on history and famous felines. At the end there's a tiebreaker and some advice on marking.

Hosting a dog crowd too? Pair this with our dog quiz questions, or go wider with our animal quiz questions.

Warm-up questions

1A male cat is called a tom. What's a female cat called?Use in quizUse

Answer:A queen (source)(click to reveal)

2What's the collective noun for a group of cats?Use in quizUse

Answer:A clowder (also accept a glaring)(click to reveal)

3Which cartoon cat loves lasagne and hates Mondays?Use in quizUse

Answer:Garfield(click to reveal)

He first appeared in his own newspaper strip in 1978, drawn by Jim Davis.

4Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats is based on a book of poems by which writer?Use in quizUse

Answer:T. S. Eliot (Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, 1939, source)(click to reveal)

5The Manx cat is famous for having little or no tail. Where does the breed come from?Use in quizUse

Answer:The Isle of Man (source)(click to reveal)

6Larry, a rescue cat from Battersea, has lived at 10 Downing Street since 2011. What's his official title?Use in quizUse

Answer:Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office (source)(click to reveal)

Bodies and behaviour

7Cats can't taste one of the five basic tastes that humans can. Which one?Use in quizUse

Answer:Sweet(click to reveal)

A gene mutation stops their sweet taste receptors from responding to sugar, which makes sense for a strict meat-eater.

8The Hemingway Home in Key West, Florida, is known for its dozens of resident cats. What unusual physical trait do around half of them have?Use in quizUse

Answer:Extra toes (they're polydactyl, source)(click to reveal)

9How many toes does a typical cat have in total?Use in quizUse

Answer:18 (five on each front paw, four on each back paw)(click to reveal)

10Catnip sends a lot of cats giddy. Which family of plants does it belong to?Use in quizUse

Answer:The mint family (source)(click to reveal)

The chemical behind the reaction is called nepetalactone. Roughly a third of cats don't react to it at all, and whether a cat responds is inherited.

11What's unusual about the way cats drink compared with dogs?Use in quizUse

Answer:They touch only the tip of the tongue to the surface and pull up a column of water, then snap their jaws shut on it (dogs scoop)(click to reveal)

Researchers worked this out in a 2010 study in the journal Science (source). Accept any answer that gets across "they don't scoop".

12White cats with blue eyes are far more likely than other cats to have which condition?Use in quizUse

Answer:Deafness(click to reveal)

In a 2019 study of pedigree kittens in the UK, half of the white kittens with two blue eyes were deaf, against about a fifth of white kittens without blue eyes (source).

History and famous cats

13Scientists think cats largely domesticated themselves. What drew wild cats to the first farming villages?Use in quizUse

Answer:Rodents (mice and rats living off stored grain, source)(click to reveal)

14Which ancient Egyptian goddess was often shown as a cat or a woman with a cat's head?Use in quizUse

Answer:Bastet (source)(click to reveal)

Her main cult centre was Bubastis, a city in the Nile Delta named after her.

15According to the Greek historian Herodotus, what did everyone in an Egyptian household do when their cat died a natural death?Use in quizUse

Answer:Shaved off their eyebrows in mourning (source)(click to reveal)

16What's the name of the Japanese figurine of a cat with one paw raised, said to bring good luck to shops?Use in quizUse

Answer:Maneki-neko (it means "beckoning cat", source)(click to reveal)

17The first cat show was held in London in 1871. At which famous venue?Use in quizUse

Answer:The Crystal Palace (source)(click to reveal)

It was organised by the artist Harrison Weir, who's known as the father of the cat fancy (source).

18A cat named Félicette holds what historic distinction?Use in quizUse

Answer:She's the only cat ever launched into space (by France, on 18 October 1963, source)(click to reveal)

19The hairless Sphynx breed was started in 1966 in which country?Use in quizUse

Answer:Canada (in Toronto, source)(click to reveal)

The name sounds Egyptian, which is exactly why plenty of teams will get this wrong.

Tips for running a cat round

Start easy and stay friendly. A cat round tends to get played by people who love cats, not people who study them, so the first six questions are there to get every team on the board. Save Q13 to Q19 for the second half of the round.

Decide on near misses before you read the answers out. For Q9, accept 18 and nothing else, since the question is about a typical cat. For Q11, be generous with wording. For Q16, accept anything close to "maneki-neko", spelling included.

Watch for the trap answers. Q19 is designed to catch people out with Egypt, and Q12 will get "blind" from a few teams. Hold your nerve on both. Older quiz books claim almost every blue-eyed white cat is deaf, but newer research puts it nearer half, which is why the question asks about likelihood.

Tiebreaker. Ask: "How old was Creme Puff, the oldest cat ever recorded?" The answer is 38 years and 3 days (source). Closest guess wins.

Make it a picture round instead. Breeds are hard to describe in words but easy to recognise from a photo. If your crowd is keen, swap a few questions for a "name the breed" grid in our quiz maker.