20 fun facts about pets.

Whether you're a furry, feathery, scaly or slippery friend, every pet has its own unique traits which raise a smile to the face of our human companions. Here are a few fun facts that you may not have known about our animal mates. 

1. Dogs have around 100 different facial expressions and most of them are made with their ears
2. The only way that dogs can discharge heat is by panting because they only sweat from the bottoms of their feet
3. A cat can jump as much as seven times its height
4. While dogs have only about ten vocal sounds, cats have over one hundred vocal sounds
5. To survive, every bird must eat at least half of its own weight in food each day
6. Dogs aren’t actually colour blind. They can see shades of blue, yellow, green and grey but the  colour red registers on a greyscale in a dog’s vision
7. A pack of kittens is called a kindle, while a pack of adult cats is called a clowder
8. Iguanas are able to hold their breath for up to 30 minutes
9. Across the globe, there are more than 350 different breeds of dogs
10. Cats have five toes on each front paw, but only four toes on each back paw
11. A goldfish can live up to 40 years
12. Ever wondered how cats are so flexible? The cat skeleton contains more than 230 bones (a human has about 206), and the pelvis and shoulders loosely attach to the spine. This adds to their flexibility and allows them to fit through very small spaces
13. Dalmatians are born spotless and are pure white at first and develop their spots as they age
14. Experiments have shown that dogs can locate the source of a sound in 6/100ths of a second, using their swivelling ears like radar dishes
15. Cats have better memories than dogs and according to tests conducted by the University of Michigan, a dog's memory lasts no more than 5 minutes as opposed to a cat's that can last as long as 16 hours— which is longer than that of a monkey and orangutan.
16. While resting, a bird's heart beats 400 times per minute
17. Similar to human fingerprints, the nose pad of each cat has ridges in a unique pattern
18. Dogs do not have an appendix
19. Larger parrots such as the macaws and cockatoos live more than 75 years
20. Domesticated for more than 10,000 years, the dog was one of the first animals domesticated by humans

What are some of your more unique pet traits?