The Veterinarians’ Guide to Your Cat’s Symptoms: Normal Cat Behavior
Cats can be loving, affectionate companions. They are clean, soft, and small, are often cuddly, and are usually quiet and calm—a combination of traits that makes them especially ideal pets for older people and apartment dwellers. The fact that they do not need to be walked and are able to be left alone for fairly long periods of time without suffering from serious distress also makes them excellent pets for people who have to be away from home all day (although most pet cats greet their owners’return with signs of affection). An added plus for working people is that cats are crepuscular by nature, and one of their primary activity times is in the evening, when owners have returned home from work.
In this chapter we will describe normal cat behavior so a first-time owner will know what to expect. We will also cover several of the most prevalent types of inappropriate feline behaviors and provide some suggestions about how to deal with them.
Social Behavior
Are cats basically social animals or are they generally independent and aloof, as many people believe? There is great flexibility in the social system of cats. In the wild, cats are generally a nonsocial predatory species—that is, they are usually solitary hunters (with the exception of lions). However, when there is a concentration of food, which is always due to human activity, cats often live in large groups. But in a human household cats are more apt to be social and respond to people, other cats, dogs, and even other pets that might normally be considered prey, such as hamsters and birds.
A great deal depends on how a kitten has been raised. If she was gently handled by humans on a regular basis at an early age (the critical period is between two and seven weeks), she will usually respond positively to human handling as an adult. If this handling has not occurred, she is likely to be fearful of human contact and may never be able to be taught to be social with new people. It is also generally thought that a kitten raised with other kittens will become more socially responsive to other cats in a household when she matures, although some cats are loners by nature. By the same token, a kitten that has been raised with a friendly dog will be much less apt to be fearful of all dogs than one who has never encountered a dog before adulthood, or one who has had nothing but negative relationships with dogs.
At the usual time a kitten is adopted (around eight weeks of age), she is already housebroken and is quite mature physically. She is well coordinated and physically able to climb and jump, for instance, although she still has to grow to adult size and sexual maturity. She is already past her critical socialization period (the time during which she learns about her littermates, humans, and the environment), which means that it may take a while for an owner to establish new patterns of behavior in a kitten of this age.
Sleeping Behavior
Domestic cats sleep a great deal both during the day and at night. As a rule, they spend at least ten hours a day sleeping, interspersed with short bursts of activity. As we mentioned above, they are crepuscular and are most active at both dawn and dusk. Cats are often hungry in the early morning but don’t want to eat by themselves and try to wake their owners by meowing or walking across them while they sleep. Owners who do not want to be awakened by a hungry or playful cat three hours before the alarm clock goes off find that if they leave a dish of dry food in the bedroom, it will at least temporarily satisfy and distract a cat.
Like all mammals, cat’s sleep alternates between light or wakeful sleep (slow-wave sleep, or SWS) and deep (REM) sleep. Just like humans, dogs, and other mammals, cats dream during REM sleep.
Cats do not sleep in one spot all of the time, but change the “favorite” place where they sleep during the day from time to time (the exception is at night, when many cats sleep on their owner’s beds). They will sleep in one chair for a few weeks, then switch to a bed, then the sofa, and so on. Behaviorists think this may be a form of instinctive parasite control.
Eating Behavior
In contrast to dogs, which usually eat during daylight hours, cats eat both night and day. A peculiarity of domestic cats, which they share with lions, is that they do not like sugar and water mixed, so will not lick sweet liquids, although they do not mind sugar and fat mixed and will often eat human desserts, for instance, given the chance.
Left to their own devices (free-choice feeding), cats will eat as many as twelve times a day. Owners are often troubled if a cat displays signs of being finicky and does not eat certain foods or doesn’t eat much at all. A relatively little-known fact that may help explain this is that cats have been discovered to have innate cycles of body weight. If a cat is on one of the down cycles of her body weight, she will not have much appetite.
If the cat is eating nothing, rush her to the veterinarian. As long as a cat is still eating something on a regular basis, and the period when a cat is “off her feed” does not last too long (more than a month or so), an owner should not be concerned; nor should he rush out and change cat foods, although it won’t hurt. Cats particularly like novelty in their food and welcome a change of flavor, for instance. This is perfectly all right if the diet is complete and balanced for cats, and as long as the formulation of the diet is not changed drastically so as to upset a cat’s digestive system.
Grooming Behavior
Cats groom themselves often and their grooming pattern is programmed. For instance, cats always wash their faces with their front paws exactly the same way, starting in small circles around the nose and then up around the ears. They then lick the rest of their bodies in order; some may end up cleaning between their footpads. Cats groom themselves after eating, upon awakening from a long sleep, and after being handled. If a cat suddenly stops grooming herself, it is a sign that something may be seriously wrong with her.
Cats in the same household also frequently groom each other. Mutual grooming can be arousing and may precede either sexual behavior or aggression. What begins as gentle grooming can become harder and harder and lead to a wrestling match.
Because of cat’s continual grooming it is very important for an owner to keep a cat brushed and as free as possible from loose fur, which can be ingested and cause the formation of hair balls (for more about hair balls). This is especially true in the case of longhaired cats, which are apt to groom themselves more frequently than shorthairs, but which also need owner help in order to keep their coats free from mats.
Territorial Behavior
Cats are territorial by nature. Males have larger territories than females in a natural situation, often encompassing females’territories. That is why it can be difficult to integrate a male cat, either castrated or not, into a household where there are other cats because he may try to drive all the other cats away.
Feline territories vary with the food supply. In a natural situation where cats have to hunt for food, each cat has her own territory. But when the food supply is concentrated, such as in a garbage dump, a granary where there are a lot of rats, or a fishery, for example, then many cats can live in the same area. In these situations each cat will have a small territory, or several cats may “time-share” a territory—that is, one cat may rest in a place from one to three o’clock, another from three to five, and so forth. Fortunately, unlike dogs, cats usually share food fairly amicably, although many do not get along with others in a home situation because of their territorial nature. Two cats get along much more readily than three or more in the same household. It can be very difficult to predict problems in a multiple-cat household.
Unneutered male cats (tomcats) mark their territories with foulsmelling urine. In fact, they produce a sulfurous-containing substance found only in cat urine (felinine). Neutered males and females, spayed or not, often mark also. See below, for more about this.
Cats also mark by scratching and with scent glands located in their cheeks and the upper surface of their tails. They will wind their tails around objects or people, or bunt (cheek rub) them.
Clawing Behavior
All cats claw regularly for several reasons. The first reason is to stretch; another is to get rid of loose claw material; the most important reason a cat will claw is to mark her territory. Clawing can be a social behavior, too. A good example of this is when an owner comes home and a cat immediately goes to the nearest prominent object and claws it. Outdoors, a cat will scratch on the trees that are in the area she frequents most—this is not to mark her territory but is a more social aspect of clawing.
We discuss suitable scratching devices for cats in Chapter 2. It is helpful to have several scratching devices in a household, each placed in front of whatever piece of furniture is most prominent in the room, and another next to a favorite resting place.
Feline Communication
Cats use body language and facial expressions to communicate with other cats and with humans. For example, a cat that is greeting a person or another cat will hold her tail high, raised up in the air. One that is frightened will crouch, ears flattened to head, and she will salivate and spit. See below for a chart of some of the most common feline postures and facial expressions.
Vocalization Cats make a number of different sounds that they use to communicate with other cats and with humans. They meow in greeting and to demand attention from their owners; growl and hiss in fear and anger; and caterwaul—the latter is usually a cat-to-cat communication between fighting tomcats. There is a similar call a cat gives when carrying prey. It is also like the sound a cat will make before vomiting up a hair ball.
Adult cats do not usually purr when alone, but they do purr as a means of communicating with an owner, just as kittens purr to their mothers.
The sounds owners hear most frequently from pet cats are meowing and murmuring. There are breed differences in cat “voices.” Siamese and Abyssinians, for instance, have very loud, raucous, and insistent meows, while Persians’meows are softer. Some owners encourage their cats to meow, or meow back to them, on signal. The demanding meow signifying “let me out,” “feed me,” and so forth is easily recognized.
Behaviorists don’t know exactly why some cats meow to their owners for no apparent reason.
Communicating with a Cat
Owners communicate with their pet cats by talking to them, stroking them, grooming them, and patting them. Most cats prefer to be petted under the chin rather than on top of their heads. Some cats enjoy gentle stroking, others like harder, firmer petting. An owner has to discover what method suits his pet best. Cats can be very demanding when they want to be petted. They will meow, bunt their owners, rub against their owners’legs, and even reach out with a paw to pull their owners’hands toward them. Many cats do not like to have their tails touched; others dislike it when their feet are handled. It is very common for a cat to roll over on her back, exposing her stomach as if she wants it rubbed. Some cats will immediately attack an owner’s hand with all four feet, claws extended, when he does rub her stomach. Cat-loving visitors have to be warned of this propensity. It is not clear why some cats do this. For more about cats that are aggressive when being petted, see “Aggression Toward People,” below.
If an owner wants a cat to sit on his lap or next to him, he needs to remain quiet and not move around too much. Sometimes a cat will get too hot sitting or sleeping on an owner’s lap and will prefer to sleep nearby instead. This is especially true of longhaired cats.
Cats that are close to their owners do respond to vocal praise and scolding, although to a lesser degree than dogs do. For instance, “No,” accompanied by a loud hand clap, will certainly get most cat’s attention.
Elimination Behavior
Cats appear to eliminate in daylight hours rather than at night. An owner will often notice that a cat goes to the kitty litter first thing in the morning. As with most mammals, defecation in cats is stimulated by eating. They are most likely to have a bowel movement after a meal. Cats normally have one or two bowel movements a day. Of course, the more a cat drinks, the more she will urinate. An increase of either defecation or urination can be a sign of disease.
There is a discussion of litter trays and litter in Chapter 2, and below. Owners should be aware that constipation is a fairly common problem in cats, so it is important to be aware of a cat’s normal elimination habits.
As a rule, neutered male cats and female cats squat to urinate. Unneutered males (tomcats) almost always stand with their tails raised and spray urine on an upright surface. As we said above in “Territorial Behavior,” sometimes neutered males, and females neutered or not, will also spray urine. If a cat regularly sprays urine in the litter box, an owner may need to use plastic to protect the wall or any furniture that abuts a litter tray. An enclosed litter tray works well, too, but many cats will not use one.