Sponsor
Portland State University. Department of Biology
First Advisor
Deborah Duffield
Term of Graduation
Spring 1999
Date of Publication
4-23-1999
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.) in Biology
Department
Biology
Language
English
Subjects
Cats -- Behavior, Parental behavior in animals
Physical Description
1 online resource (69 pages)
Abstract
Non-offspring nursing and adoption are puzzling behaviors seen in a number of mammalian species (Riedman, 1982; Packer et al., 1992). Although domestic cats show a proclivity for adopting strange kittens, there is a great deal of individual variation in the behavior. The goal of this project was to determine the feasibility of using behavioral observations and other measures of a mother cat's personality to predict her reaction to a strange kitten. Twelve female domestic cats with litters of kittens were tested. Three behavioral tests were done with each cat: New Person Test (NPT), Familiar Person Test (FPT), and Novel Box Test (NBT). Each owner was asked to answer a series of questions about the mother's behavior and and to rate her cat on 8 different personality traits. After the three tests, an unrelated kitten was brought into the room and introduced to the mother. The mother's reaction to the kitten was recorded on a scale of 1 (violent rejection) to 7 (immediate acceptance).
Seven of the mothers rejected the test kitten (no group) and five of the mothers did not reject the test kitten (yes group). No statistically significant differences were seen in the behavior of the yes group compared to that of the no group during the tests. Maternal age may be a factor effecting willingness to adopt. The most useful information came from the questionnaire. The yes group mothers were reported to play with their kittens less than the no group mothers and were scored lower on the personality traits Playful, Curious, and Watchful. Overall, mothers who accepted the test kitten appeared to be less reactive to their environment. More research is needed to confirm this difference and to quantify exactly how it is expressed. In spite of the problem of the small sample size, this experiment demonstrates that using a behavioral approach to find a way of predicting adoption success is worth pursuing. Furthermore, the results indicate that scoring individual animals on an assortment of personality traits is a useful tool for quantifying individual differences, even when used by untrained pet owners.
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44686
Recommended Citation
Silver, Theressa Joanne, "This Cat's Meow: Individual Variation Among Domestic Cats in Maternal Response to an Unrelated Kitten" (1999). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 7059.