Could a little bit of advice from a feline behaviorist during kittenhood make the difference between a cat’s life with their family and a return to a shelter? A recent study by the department of veterinary science at the University of Pisa tried to find out. The study, The prevention of undesirable behaviors in cats: Effectiveness of veterinary behaviorists’ advice given to kitten owners, tested to see how much better-behaved cats were when their families received feline behavioral advice for kittens.
For the study, 45 families with new kittens received 25 minutes of standardized advice about cat care. Then, the cats whose families received behavioral advice were compared to a control group of 46 cats whose families had not received any advice when the cats were a little more than a year old.
Of the group who received behavioral advice, only 2 families asked for additional advice about their kitten’s behavior between the time they initially received the advice and the cat’s first birthday. That’s a bit contrast with nearly half of the families who didn’t receive behavioral advice, who asked for behavioral advice or help before their cat’s one-year-old vet visit. Proactively giving this behavioral information appears to have allowed these families to not have to seek the information on their own.
Families who had been given behavioral advice about their cats during kittenhood were much less likely to have complaints about their cat’s behavior later, too. Only 4% of the group who received the advice had at least one complaint about the behavior of their 1-year-old cat, but 46% of the families who did not receive advice had behavioral complaints.
A surprising contrast between the advice and no-advice groups was how the cats were fed. 39% of the families whose families had not received behavioral advice reported they fed their cats any time they asked for food, while 30% of those families fed the cat twice a day. Families who were advised that their kittens would benefit from smaller, more frequent meals appeared to have put this information to action, with 71.1% feeding their cat three or more scheduled times a day.
The early advice seemed to have helped families teach their cats that climbing was not acceptable on some furniture. 62.8% of the cats whose families had no advice climbed on all of the furniture in the house, while only 35.1% of the cats did so. The advice seemed to extend to climbing curtains, too, with only 8.9% of the cats whose families had early advice climbing the curtains, while 23.9% of the cats in the control group scaled the curtains.
Cats whose owners had early advice also seemed less likely to have inter-cat conflicts in the household or to maintain poor relations with the family dog. They were also more willing to allow members of the family to touch any part of their bodies and less likely to show aggression toward humans.
Probably most striking was the fact that some families in the study who didn’t receive behavioral advice relinquished their cat before their first yearly vaccination booster. All of the cats in the study whose family received advice were still in their homes at the end of a year. A little bit of advice may have made the difference between cats staying in their homes or ending up homeless!
Overall, the results of the study show that families understanding why their cat behaves the way they do and having instructions on how to manage or embrace their cat’s behavior can make a difference in their cat’s welfare. If a short talk from a behaviorist can keep cats in their homes with a strong bond with their families, it seems like a valuable use of the adoptive family’s time. Perhaps this could someday be included along with kitten vaccinations, since it can have such an impact on the long-term well-being of the cats.
Reference
Journal of Veterinary Behavior, The prevention of undesirable behaviors in cats: Effectiveness of veterinary behaviorists’ advice given to kitten owners
Image credits
Depositphotos/Andrey_Kusmin
depositphotos/oskun70
We kitties don’t come with instruction manuals! Humans need education on how to live with and care for us.
Very interesting! Summer’s right…humans need to educate themselves better about us cats.
That sounds like a very helpful study! Anything that keeps cats from entering shelters gets 4 paws up!
that is SO interesting. mom has said that she would love to set up a kitten kindergarten for people to come with questions. she does try to give her info to people who adopt our kittens as well. we are going to pass this on to our vet as well.
the old adage is true, a little advice goes a very long way..
fascinating about the relinquishment part at the end.. makes me more than ever willing to help people who have questions about their kitty
That is really interesting. Education is the key to so many things in life.
That’s a very interesting study ! And we agree with Summer, cat owners need to be educated at the beginning. Purrs
guys…..headz up…..we had trubulls with yur page loadin two day…..
N due knot ask uz why we iz thinkin bout dawgs with thiz post…. N how peepulz
go buy a puppee at Christmas….. knot noe inn a thing bout de breed…then in jan ewe wary……. de pupz at de shelterz ~~~ ♥♥♥
“families understanding why their cat behaves the way they do and having instructions on how to manage or embrace their cat’s behavior can make a difference in their cat’s welfare” — oh, if shelters would just incorporate just a bit more of this into adoptions….
I think PAWS (where I volunteer in Norwalk CT) does a good job at this. The adoption councilors follow up with the families and urge them to contact PAWS if there are any problems. They make home visits if necessary. It’s so sad when a cat is returned…
Wouldn’t it be great if someone made a video and all cat adopters had to watch before taking a cat or kitten home?
Gosh, I know of a few people who could have used help! (No, not my mom.)
That’s a coinkidink. OK, maybe Gramma left wet AND dry food out all the time for Faith and Chizzy. Maybe TW changed the way she fed Nicky after her vet tech friend gave her advice.
This is super interesting. Although, it makes me sad that the commitment to the pet comes more from education, it seems, than loving devotion, it’s clear how important education is.
TT Tabbies make a good point about puppies even though I know this is about cats. I guess the same could be said about rabbits at Easter time. Of course, these are also due to impulsive decisions in the first place. Sorry for going off subject. Again, this is a great post and I hope maybe more shelters are able to somehow incorporate this with their adoptions and/or follow-up.
This shows how important it is to have at least minimal knowledge about the animal you are adopting.