Social Behavior of Cats

Cats have a flexible social structure. In feral conditions, cats live in groups consisting mainly of queens and their litters, along with a few males. The tom's territory is larger, encompassing the queen's colony and potentially several other colonies. The density of the group depends partly on the availability and distribution of food resources.

Cats regulate their social interaction through distancing, affiliative display (rubbing, grooming, nose touching, etc), and antagonistic behaviors (eg, hissing, swatting, scratching, biting). Cats with better relationships tend to spend more time closer together than do cats with poor relationships. In general, cats spend most of their time away from other individuals. Similar social interactions characterize cats' interactions with humans.

Because cats have been exposed to less selective breeding than dogs, cats have far less breed diversity and a much narrower range of differences in both physical and behavioral traits.

Cats are crepuscular. They sleep 40% of the day, rest 22% of the day, and groom 15% of the day (1). Their daily activities are influenced by the environment in which they live.

Most cats are solitary hunters. Their predation on rodents and other small animals is likely the reason that their coexistence with humans is so successful.

Kittens usually learn to hunt the same type of prey that their mother hunts. If not given a variety of foods when young, kittens might also develop limited food preferences based on texture and taste. Cats prefer to eat multiple (approximately 13) meals throughout the day.

Compared with humans, who generally see things better in bright light, cats discriminate objects better in low light and hear sounds into the ultrasonic range. Information from olfactory cues includes indicators of the security of both the natural environment and the social environment.

Cats have several scent glands throughout their body and deposit their scent via rubbing, scratching, and urine marking. Cats detect pheromones by means of the flehmen response (also called the gape expression or lip curl), in which they lift the head, slightly open the mouth, push the tongue to the front of the palate, and retract the upper lip to waft interesting smells into their vomeronasal organ.

Cats can develop preferences for particular elimination substrates. Many cats dig before and after elimination (possibly to make a visual mark or to bury urine and feces). Most cats prefer separate elimination locations for urine and feces.

Cats are strongly influenced by scents and might respond by marking with urine (spraying) or with feces (middening), scratching as both a visual and scent mark, or rubbing sebaceous glands of the cheeks or body on the environment or on other cats. As urine marking, roaming, and fighting with other cats might be influenced by androgens, neutering may prevent or resolve these problems.

Queens are induced ovulators and generally cycle approximately every 3 weeks seasonally (most often from winter to summer) if not bred.

In free-range conditions, multiple generations of related females can live together, enabling communal rearing of kittens.

Typically, the queen displays lordosis and vocalizes when receptive to the male. Before mounting, the tom sniffs the queen's genitals, gapes, and bites the nape of the queen's neck. After copulation, the queen might scream and turn to strike the tom.

Gestation is 63–66 days long.

The postpartum queen might accept a similarly aged, foreign kitten. Infanticide is rare but possible. Mismothering between queens occurs.

Castration of toms eliminates sexual behavior and considerably decreases urine marking, intermale cat fighting, and roaming behavior.

Cat development can be divided into the following stages:

• Prenatal period: until queened

• Neonatal period: 0–10 days old

• Transition period: 10–15 days old

• Socialization or sensitive period: 2–7 weeks old

• Juvenile period: 7 weeks to approximately 7 months old

• Social maturity: approximately 7–12 months old

The prenatal period extends from in utero development until queening.

After queening, the first important period of development is the neonatal period. Kittens are born with closed eyes that open when they are approximately 7–10 days old. Kittens are altricial, so maternal care is critical in the first few days. The queen stimulates the kitten to eat and to eliminate.

During the transition period, the kitten's eyes are fully opened, and motor skills improve.

The socialization or sensitive period extends from 2 weeks to 7 weeks of age. The kittens can eliminate voluntarily and begin to use a litter box or other container with sand-like substrate.

Weaning occurs at 5–8 weeks. Although some kittens suckle much later, this behavior is more likely to be social than nutritional. Early weaning of kittens leads to earlier onset of play and predation.

During the socialization or sensitive period, the kitten is the most sociable and most readily habituates to cats, people, other animals, and the environment (sights, sounds, odors, touch sensations, tastes). During this narrow window, exposure to other cats, other animals, people, and a variety of stimuli in the environment is important to prevent fear.

Studies have investigated the effects of early environment and handling on kitten development. Kittens handled daily by people during the first month of life have been found to develop more rapidly, be more outgoing, be more social to humans, and have fewer problems with aggression. On the other hand, kittens isolated from humans for their first month of life have been found to be reluctant to approach people.

The queen's behaviors, preferences, and teachings strongly influence the kitten.

Interactions with littermates are important for the development of social skills in kittens. Social play, including biting, chasing, and play fighting, begins at approximately 4 weeks old, peaks at 6–9 weeks, and declines at 12–14 weeks. Social play might be directed at people, especially if there are no other cats to play with.

Object play begins at approximately 6–8 weeks old and peaks at approximately 18 weeks. Object play simulates the predatory sequence and includes stalking, chasing, pawing, pouncing, and biting. It can be directed at objects or social partners.

Hand-reared kittens might lack feline social skills and be hyperactive in object and social play. Rearing a kitten with other cats in the home and providing play sessions with wand-type toys can prevent these problems.

Genetics, especially those of the father, play a strong role in a cat's personality. If unable to play with littermates as kittens, cats might not respond to appropriate play signals as adults.

The juvenile period extends from 7 weeks to 7 months of age. During this period, social play peaks at 12–14 weeks of age and then slowly declines.

Although some cats might reach sexual maturity earlier, domestic cats reach this stage at 6–12 months old.

Social maturity occurs at approximately 7–12 months of age. Kittens might stay with the social group until 12–18 months old. Social relationships are established to minimize conflicts within the group.

Although heredity and previous socialization play important roles in the behavior of an individual, positive exposure to a wide range of animate and inanimate stimuli during the social maturity period should minimize the development of fear and anxiety.

Veterinarians and their staff should work with breeders, pet stores, and shelters to ensure that a newly adopted cat gets off to a good start. For kittens, this role includes providing advice on socialization, normal feline behaviors (eg, scratching, jumping up, elimination) and how to manage them, establishing a household environment with appealing but safe outlets for all of the cat’s behavioral needs (providing safe space, scratching, play, rest, etc), feline communication, and principles of reinforcement-based training.

The goal should be to reinforce desirable behaviors and to ignore or prevent undesirable behaviors. Undesirable behavior might be prevented through environmental management (eg, providing a safe core area, using a child gate, shutting doors, installing deterrent devices).

Preventing undesirable behaviors, while providing the cat with options acceptable to both owner and cat, gives the cat control to make choices and decreases uncertainty and anxiety.

Clicker training can be particularly useful to immediately mark and reward desirable behavior and gradually shape behaviors that more closely approximate the final outcome.

Proper development of social skills in kittens can be accomplished in part by adopting kittens into a new home when they are approximately 8–14 weeks old and enrolling them in kitten socialization classes. These classes focus on owner education about normal feline behavior and provide an opportunity for the kitten to habituate or develop a positive emotional response to a range of cats, people, and other stimuli (eg, novel surfaces, noises, odors, moving objects, uniforms, and handling) in a controlled and instructional environment. Visits to the veterinarian or groomer, car rides, and visitors to the home provide additional opportunities for habituation.

If a kitten shows any signs of fear, every effort should be made to overcome the fear by finding the limits (threshold) the cat will tolerate and, while keeping the cat below threshold, by using food and treats or toys to try to ensure a positive emotional outcome. Exposure to a wide variety of stimuli with positive emotional outcomes should be continued to adulthood.

Destruction from scratching is a common cat owner complaint, because cats have a physical and behavioral need to scratch surfaces. Cats also access vertical spaces (ie, surfaces raised off the ground, such as countertops) for exploration and a sense of safety. Providing constructive outlets for these needs (eg, appropriate scratching surfaces and elevated surfaces) can encourage cats to direct these natural behaviors more appropriately.

To outcompete unwanted surfaces that a cat already uses, appropriate surfaces should be as good as—if not even better than—the surfaces the cat already uses. It is important to account for location, height, and stability of the surface. The surface currently being used can be made less desirable (eg, covered with an upside-down [nubs-up] carpet runner or double-sided sticky tape) or inaccessible (eg, removed, covered, or placed behind a barrier).

One possible approach for keeping cats away from dangerous areas—such as stoves where a cat could get burned after jumping up—is to install motion-activated automatic spray deterrent devices. From the cat’s perspective, these devices do not feel like punishment coming from a person, and they can be used consistently without the need for direct human involvement. If a caregiver sprayed the cat directly as a form of punishment, the cat might develop fear of people, potentially escalating to fear-related aggression. Therefore, direct punishment by the caregiver is not recommended.

Elective declawing should not be routinely performed and should be avoided in nearly all cases. Meeting the cat's needs to scratch is often sufficient to prevent destructive scratching. From the cat’s point of view, scratching is a normal, instinctive behavior. Ideally, this behavior should be supported by providing scratching posts or surfaces that match the cat’s preferred material, shape, and size, and placing them in locations that the cat finds appealing. Preventing normal scratching behavior through declawing can be detrimental to a cat’s physical and emotional well-being, and it is not aligned with principles of animal welfare. In addition, declawing can lead to the development of other behavior problems.

For both prevention and treatment of behavior problems in cats, the behavioral needs of the cat must be adequately met. This is particularly important for cats housed exclusively or primarily indoors that might not have access to all the resources (eg, surfaces to scratch and objects to climb) to meet their normal behavioral needs.

There are five pillars of a healthy cat environment (2):

1. Provide a safe place.

2. Provide multiple and separated core environmental resources (eg, food, water, toileting areas, scratching areas, play areas, and resting or sleeping areas).

3. Provide opportunity for both play and predatory behavior.

4. Provide positive, consistent, and predictable human-cat social interactions.

5. Provide an environment that respects the importance of cats' sense of smell.

Although cats are adept predators, they are also a prey species. A safe place to hide can provide a sense of security and control. From a protected location—often a vertical space—the cat can survey the environment and be protected from potential threats. Providing a variety of safe hiding locations at various elevations can help cats feel secure and decrease their stress.

A cat carrier can be a safe-place option that provides familiarity during future carrier use (eg, car ride, vet visit). If a previous negative emotional event occurred involving the cat carrier (eg, car ride, vet visit), the cat might have learned to fear the carrier, and behavior modification should be considered in such cases.

Many cats prefer not to share core resources. Cats' reluctance to share core resources is especially evident in multicat or multipet households in which the individuals are not preferred associates. In these situations, cats may engage in "time sharing" strategies, by which they take turns accessing shared resources to minimize direct conflict.

If multiples of the same core resource are provided and separated across the cat's territory, each cat can access its core resources with minimal competition from or confrontation with other cats. For single cat households, providing multiple core resources can allow the cat to navigate its environment to minimize encounters with potential environmental stressors (eg, other pets/dogs, children, guests, noises).

Cat play appears to be motivated by two factors: initial interest (if the toy possesses appropriate characteristics, such as appealing texture and small size) and rapid habituation. Owners should find a number of toys that interest the cat and play with several different toys until the cat’s interest wanes. To add an element of hunting, the owner can give the cat opportunities to chase, pounce on, and bite toys that the owner dangles or pulls in front of it.

Cats can also be offered small toys for batting and chasing; boxes or containers to explore; and appealing outlets to climb, perch on, and scratch. Hunting and feeding needs might be better addressed by giving food in small portions throughout the day and placing food or treats inside toys that require some manipulation (batting, chasing, rolling, pawing) to release the food.

Positive and predictable interactions with people greatly benefit cats. A positive emotional interaction between the human family and the cat depends on the cat's perception of what is positive, not on what the human family deems positive.

Some potential interactions with humans that cats enjoy include being talked to, petted, played with, fed, and trained. Clicker training can provide mental enrichment and build the human-cat bond.

Positive punishment (eg, scold, spank, squirt bottle) can damage the human-cat bond and trigger aggression or other undesired behaviors; it should be avoided.

A predictable and consistent routine is important. An inconsistent routine can be a source of chronic stress for cats, which in turn can have detrimental effects on their physical health over time. Therefore, inconsistent routines can induce cats to show more sickness behaviors and house soiling.

The cat's sense of smell is important for information gathering. Acceptable items where olfactory cues can be deposited, such as scratching posts, should be provided. Maintaining familiar cat scent and/or using a synthetic facial pheromone in the environment can give cats a sense of security.

Olfactory scents such as catnip can be enriching. Approximately 50–60% of cats respond to catnip. Aversive scents such as strong cleaners, detergents, citrus, and scented litter should be avoided because they can cause unnecessary stress.

• Ellis SLH, Rodan I, Carney HC, et al. AAFP and ISFM feline environmental needs guidelines. J Feline Med Surg. 2013;15(3):219-230.

• Also see pet owner content regarding cat behavior.

1. Panaman R. Behaviour and ecology of free-ranging female farm cats (Felis catus L.). Z Tierpsychol. 1981;56(1):59-73. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.1981.tb01284.x

2. Ellis SLH, Rodan I, Carney HC, et al. AAFP and ISFM feline environmental needs guidelines. J Feline Med Surg. 2013;15(3):219-230. doi:10.1177/1098612X13477537