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Helping kittens to become confident cats—why they and their owners need the support of the veterinary team. Part 2: environmental effects and support
Abstract
Despite having outcompeted the dog in popularity in UK, the cat has lived in close proximity to man for a relatively short period of time. This shorter period for domestication has affected the nature of the cat's level of domesticity, creating limitations on the behavioural flexibility that companion cats can offer. A previous article examined possible genetic predispositions that may interfere with a kitten's social flexibility. This article examines whose responsibility it is to assist a cat in maximising that flexibility while considering the question of how the cat's experience during its early weeks of life can place considerable restrictions on its capacity to relax with and interact with other cats, humans and a human environment. Following this, the article considers the nature of the advice that veterinary clients may benefit from, if they are to improve the behavioural welfare of the kitten that is expected to become a confident, sociable, companion cat.
A previous article considered some of the genetic constraints that can affect the kitten's capacity to develop the emotional resilience required to enable the cat to relax within a complex domestic social group and environment; a resilience that is essential if the cat is to fulfil the expectations of companionship often expected by owners (Karsh and Turner, 1988). However, the genetic blueprint of the kitten plays only a part of the potential behavioural and emotional development of the kitten (Zulch, 2017). The cat's genetic potential for sociability can be increased or decreased by the environment that it experiences and the learning that occurs, most formatively in the early weeks of its life (Cats Protection, 2017).
There are a number of pre- and post-natal environmental effects that can affect the kitten's capacity to develop emotional resilience to both the social and physical aspects of a domestic environment. By developing an awareness of these effects, breeders, rescue workers and new owners will find themselves in a better position to ensure that breeding environments and new homes maximise their potential to assist the kitten that is destined for a life as a domestic companion (Horwitz and Pike, 2016).
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