CAT BEHAVIOUR DO DR YASEMN SALGIRLI DEMRBA Socialisation

CAT BEHAVIOUR DOÇ. DR. YASEMİN SALGIRLI DEMİRBAŞ

Socialisation phase • Between 2 -7 weeks. • Kittens are self confident during this phase. • Can maximally benefit from social and physical interactions.

Socialisation • Socialization with cats and other species is important. • Positive interactions should be experienced. • Positive emotional state should be guaranteed. • Otherwise, sensation would occur.

Fail in socialisation • Fail in socialization leads to adaptation problems in multicat households. • It may also lead to behavioural problems linked to fear, anxiety and frustration. • Physiological stress directly links to low urinary tract disorder, dermatological problems and immuno deficiencise in cats.

Socialization problems related to natural behaviors of cats • The most important step is to learn how to interact with humans. • Physical and social contact, genetical background, presence of the mother are also important in socialization with humans. • Humans like to have low frequent interactions with high intensity, whereas cats prefer to have high frequent and low intense interactions. • Humans like to have physical contact while cats prefer to say «Hi» and moves away. • Hugging prevetnt cats from using their most preferred strategy: avoidace. • Some cats do need only a little amount of social interaction. • Thus, socialization with humans is important in this period.

Habituation • Cats filter harmless stimuli in the environment in this phase. • In case of less contact with different stimuli, they can develop fera-anxiety related problems later. • Complex envrionments are improtant but excessive loading should be avioded. • Kittens need time to explore each stimulus.

Development of temperament • Learning and genetical background are important. • Father has a significant genetical impact on temperament of kittens. • Mother cat and her reaction towards are important when raising the kittens. • Thus, knowing parents is important.

Social behaviors in cats • Socialization and knowing cat ethology are important for adapting cats into multicat household. • Cats are social creatures, they can establish social relationship. But they do not neet social relationships to survive. • They prefer thier relatives in a natural environment. • They try not to have physical contact with foreigners.

Social behaviors in cats • Have fundemental need to keep everything under control. • They show limited cooperation. • Avodiance is their preferred strategythey hide or sit on higher places. • They need seclusion and privacy even they are social. . • Unless, they can be suffered from chronical stress.

Social behaviors in cats • Females, in particular if they are relatives may show cooperative behaviors. • They nurse and raise the kittens together. • Generally, there is one male and his females in a territory and foreigner males are not tolerated. • Communication is important to maintain social relationships. • The best indicators of a social group is: Allogrooming and

Pacifying behaviors in cats • They have a limited repertoire to pacify the encounter. • They prefer avoidance but in case of high level of arousal serious fights and injuries can be seen.

Hunting in cats • They learn how to hunt in the age of 5 -6 weeks from their mother. • Hunting is a solitary activity. • Cats are designed as a perfect hunter. • They spend 6 -8 hours for hunting. They attemp 100 -150 hunting sequences and succeed in 10% of them. • Hunger and hunting are independent needs from each other. • Hunting is a desire seeking motivation. Thus, appropriate play is important.

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