Yes, cats are mammals.

What makes cats mammals?

Cats are classified as mammals because they share the key traits that define the mammal group. Mammals are warm-blooded vertebrates that typically have hair or fur and females produce milk to feed their young.

Key mammal traits in cats

  • They have fur covering their bodies.
  • Mother cats produce milk to nurse their kittens using mammary glands.
  • They are warm-blooded and maintain a stable internal body temperature.
  • They have a four-chambered heart and a diaphragm to help them breathe.

Where cats sit in animal classification

  • Domestic cats are usually called Felis catus.
  • They belong to the family Felidae, the same family as lions, tigers, and leopards, all of which are mammals.
  • This family is within the class Mammalia, which is the scientific group for all mammals.

So, when someone asks “are cats mammals,” the precise scientific answer is: yes, cats are small carnivorous mammals in the family Felidae.

TL;DR: Cats are mammals because they have fur, nurse their young with milk, are warm-blooded, and belong to the mammal class Mammalia.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.