A Michael Broad Blog
Dr Fogle calls redirected aggression pain-induced aggression (it is also referred to as ‘transferred aggression’). I have not seen that alternative term before. It seems to me that the pain that is induced can be either physical or emotional. Although Fogle means that it is physical pain. He thinks that it might happen as …
Before answering the question, we have to define the word ‘deceive’. Definition: to deliberately cause (someone) to believe something that is not true, especially for personal gain. I have never seen any cat behaviourists try to work out if domestic cats try to deceive each other. The activity of deception as carried out by …
I am going to go against the grain here and stick my neck out. It is the wrong starting point to ask if there are some dog breeds that are good with cats. It is branding dog breeds as having one character that is favorable to the cat-dog relationship. I am not saving that …
I was reading a section by Dr. Desmond Morris in his book Catlore and he suggested that sometimes domestic cats bite the hand that strokes them because of a traumatic experience they’ve had in the past and one example might be a visit to a veterinarian. Morris suggests that sometimes veterinarians, being fearful of …
The question in the title asked whether cats living in multi-cat homes tend to have more negative interactions with their owner compared to single cats living in the home with their owner. I can rely on the results of a study for the answer but I can’t really add a lot of detail as …
My conclusion from my discussion below is that domestic cats can get confused when they are licking their owner’s passive hand at a time when there is no petting and relate to the hand as food, perhaps a prey animal and bite it. It is an instinctive mental aberration brought about because of conflict …
I hope this two pages of an infographic helps in understanding domestic cat tail body language/signalling. It can be quite subtle. There is one cat breed, a rare one, with a curled-over tail called the American Ringtail. This cat will struggle with one or two of these tail signalling positions! And, of course, the …
A cat might be anxious because of something that is happening around them or not far from them. They might be slightly afraid and the normal reaction will be to run away silently and hide. If they are walking at the time, they will lower their body to tense the muscles of their legs …
