Unlabeled Cat Diagram

One cat walking side-on, 20 parts marked and none named, to print and label by hand.

Unlabeled Cat Diagram

Name Date

Blank diagram

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
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Write the name of each numbered part.Answer key

  1. Ears
  2. Eyes
  3. Nose leather
  4. Whiskers
  5. Cheek
  6. Shoulder
  7. Chest
  8. Ribs (rib cage)
  9. Flank
  10. Hip
  11. Rump
  12. Tail
  13. Elbow
  14. Foreleg
  15. Wrist
  16. Toes
  17. Paw pads
  18. Thigh
  19. Knee
  20. Hock

Drawn for this site on 2026-10-05 by script. Licence: own drawing; outline after a public domain plate.

Each numbered ring is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a part is answered.

Next step See the cat with all 20 names written in

All 20 parts on the diagram

Show the list

Start here: 7 main parts 7

  1. Ears The two upright, pointed ears on top of the head.
  2. Eyes Cats see far better than people in dim light.
  3. Whiskers Long, stiff hairs growing from the whisker pads on the muzzle.
  4. Ribs (rib cage) The rib cage, the middle of the body behind the shoulder.
  5. Tail A cat's long tail helps it balance.
  6. Foreleg The front leg, from the elbow down to the wrist.
  7. Hock The joint pointing back on the hind leg, like a person's heel.

Head: 5 2

  1. Nose leather The bare pad at the tip of the nose, with the nostrils.
  2. Cheek The side of the face, below the eye and above the jaw.

Body: 7 5

  1. Shoulder Where the front leg joins the body, over the shoulder blade.
  2. Chest The front of the body, over the breastbone.
  3. Flank The side of the body in front of the hind leg.
  4. Hip The hip bone, at the top front of the hindquarters.
  5. Rump The top of the hindquarters, down to the base of the tail.

Legs and paws: 8 6

  1. Elbow The joint at the top back of the front leg.
  2. Wrist The joint low on the front leg, above the paw.
  3. Toes Five toes on each front paw and four on each back paw.
  4. Paw pads Soft pads under the paws that help a cat move silently.
  5. Thigh The muscular top of the hind leg.
  6. Knee The joint at the front of the hind leg, below the thigh.

How this list was compiled: Read 2026-09-26. (1) Wisconsin 4-H Cat Project, Unit 1, Parts of the Cat (Dane County Fair copy), https://cdn.saffire.com/files.ashx?t=fg&rid=DaneCountyFairWI&f=4-H-Cat-Project-Unit-1.pdf&cb=3a034ef9 : tail, ears, neck, hindquarters, back, spine, nape, cheek, loin, hip, rump, flank, ribs, whiskers, shoulder, metatarsals, belly, knee, heel, chest, elbow, foreleg, wrist, metacarpals, toes, nose, jaw, lips, mouth, tongue, thigh, shank, eyes, pads; cats see about six times as well as people in starlight. (2) LOOF / TICA, Terminology of the cat's anatomy as it applies to breed standards (Marge Hanna), https://bis.loof.asso.fr/download/14-en-termin_anat-20150101.pdf : nose leather, muzzle, whisker pads (controlling the whiskers), cheekbone, ear, eye, front point of the shoulder, shoulder blade, sternum or breast plate, long bones of the front legs, carpals, toes (five front, four back), elbow, flank, knee, thigh, hock, rump, tail, hip bone, rib cage. (3) Wikipedia, Cat anatomy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_anatomy : soft paw pads help a cat stalk silently; cats are digitigrade and walk on their toes. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-05 by script. The outline of the body and legs follows a public domain plate, mirrored: St George Mivart, The Cat (1881), the figure Relative proportion of skeleton to the exterior of the cat, engraver unknown (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cat_skeleton_drawing.JPG, public domain); outline points were read off the plate. Changed from the plate: the tail is raised, the head is a tenth larger and the hind leg stretched back is drawn as the near one; the face, ears, toes and pads are our own drawing. Where the picture departs from a cat: there is a small step at the throat above the chest, the near hind leg has no bulge at the knee, the paws are longer than a cat's round paw and the eye is drawn as if seen from the front. Licence: own drawing; outline after a public domain plate

How it works

This unlabeled cat diagram shows the outside of a cat, not a dissection or a skeleton. Five of its 20 parts are on the head, seven on the body and eight on the legs and paws.

Read the full guide

Cat diagram, unlabeled: the 20 names

Head: ears, eyes, nose leather, whiskers, cheek. Body: shoulder, chest, ribs, flank, hip, rump, tail. Legs and paws: elbow, foreleg, wrist, toes, paw pads, thigh, knee, hock. The numbered copy counts them in this order, 1 to 20.

Other names to mark as right

A 4-H cat project sheet prints nose, pads and heel where this key has nose leather, paw pads and hock, and it gives stifle for the knee, vibrissae for the whiskers and jowl for the cheek. Each of those names the right part.

  • The seven main parts make a shorter sheet: ears, eyes, whiskers, ribs, tail, foreleg and hock.

Questions and answers

What is a dewclaw on a cat?

The fifth toe of a front paw, the cat's equivalent of a thumb. It sits on the inside of the paw, on a shorter bone than the other four toes. The sheet marks the toes together and has no separate mark for the dewclaw.

How many ribs does a cat have?

Thirteen on each side, joined to the spine above. The last one is a floating rib.

Where is the flank on a cat?

Along the side of the body, from the rib cage's end to the thigh.

How long are a cat's whiskers?

From tip to tip they usually measure a bit more than the cat is wide. That is why a cat rarely goes into a hole too small for it.

Does the unlabeled cat diagram have an answer key?

Yes. The key is this cat again, with each of the 20 names written on the drawing.

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