Behavior Problem or Problem Behavior?

When humans decide to live with another species, certain considerations must be made: the first being that this other species has a repertoire of species-specific and species-normal behaviors, some of which may be annoying or objectionable to the humans. Many cat behaviors are understood but many still are not. Five of the common problem behaviors in cats are house soiling, scratching, climbing and jumping up on things, howling, and hunting.

Human-directed aggression in the cat.

Feline aggression-between cats or directed at humans-is, after inappropriate elimination and urine-marking behaviors, the second most common reason cats are seen by behavioral specialists. For diagnosis and treatment it is important to determine the motivation for the aggression. The more common causes for human-directed aggression in cats include play, fear, petting intolerance, and redirected aggression.

Correlation of dominance as determined by agonistic interactions with feeding order in cats.

Objective: To determine whether the direction of dominance as determined by agonistic interactions away from food was different from the direction of dominance as determined by access to a resource in cats.

Animals: 28 cats.

Procedure: Dyadic relationships and hierarchy formed from observation of agonistic interactions away from food were compared with those formed from interactions at the food bowl.

Influence of familiarity and relatedness on proximity and allogrooming in domestic cats (Felis catus).

Objective: To evaluate associations between relatedness and familiarity with the affiliative behaviors of maintaining proximity and allogrooming in cats.

Animals: 28 privately owned cats in 1 colony.

Procedure: 15 of the cats had 1 or more relatives present representing 5 genealogies.