A small-scale study conducted in Norway came to the conclusion that one in ten Siamese cats were regularly aggressive towards people, compared to one in twenty random bred cats and one in sixty Persian cats. In this study the cats’ personalities were recorded by their owners rather than objectively observed by a third party. This cat lead to inaccuracy but nonetheless the conclusion does lend itself to the belief that Siamese cats might be a little bit more predisposed to aggression than the average random bred cat.
The study also came to the conclusion that Siamese cats were more contact-seeking, more vocal, and more playful and active than standard random bred cats.
On a slightly different but perhaps associated topic, fabric-eating cats can show other types of abnormal behaviour such as biting their owners and excessive scratching i.e forms of aggression. This sort of behaviour can occur in anxious and stressed cats.
There is a section in Dr John Bradshaw’s book Cat Sense on fabric eating in pedigree Oriental cats. He writes that Siamese, Burmese and other Oriental cat breeds are susceptible to developing an unusual form of pica which as you may remember is the eating of non-nutritional substances such as wool. Oriental cats are closely associated with Siamese cats.
Dr Bradshaw states that he has seen a Siamese cat dragging an old sock up to her food bowl and then alternately taking one mouthful of one and one mouthful of the other. This indicates that the cat was mistaking food with fabrics. It is suggested that the lanolin in wool reminds fabric-eating cats of their mother’s breast when kittens (early weaning problem). Dr Bradshaw does not have a conclusive answer as to why Siamese cats are predisposed to fabric eating and this confusion between food and non-food.
As mentioned, however, there may be a link between the suggested slightly above normal aggressiveness of Siamese cats and their predisposition to pica.
At the other end of the spectrum, as mentioned above, the Persian is six times less likely to be aggressive towards people than the Siamese. The Persian is also considered to be less active than other cats and more tolerant of unfamiliar people and cats which Dr Bradshaw suggests maybe due to the breed’s apparent laziness.
