Maru, the famous box-loving cat, is “probably right-handed” although he likes to use his mouth directly rather than scoop out the food (see video). Maru’s amusing caretaker conducted an experiment for both her cats, Maru and Hana. You can see it in the video below. It seems to me that Maru is probably ambidextrous with a preference for is right paw over his left. His cat companion appears to be clearly left-handed.
Whether a cat is left or right-handed is quite interesting and in my general experience, without any real hard evidence, it would seem that there is a much higher percentage of left-handed domestic cats than there are amongst humans.
Or perhaps there are more ambidextrous cats than there are ambidextrous humans. If I’m correct it would make sense because I would suggest that there is a greater need for a domestic cat to be ambidextrous than for a human to be ambidextrous.
A domestic cat needs to be highly athletic or, put it this way, is inherently highly athletic because of his wildcat ancestor’s need to survive in challenging circumstances.
Perhaps this trait will fade in time because of domestication. Is your cat ambidextrous?
Gosh-I hadn’t really noticed preferences with all of my cats?
I do know that MaMa-Theo is right handed though. interesting video.
Thanks, Eva say’s-
Interesting article Michael. From my own experience, most of my cats seemed to favor their left side. This is something I’ve always payed attention to because about 25 years ago, a friend of mine told me that all cats are left handed. My current cat “Tommy” seems to be ambidextrous.
Me too. I have the same experience as you hence what I have written in the article. I think it is about evolution and the need to be equally good on both sides. But the favouring of the left is interesting and I can’t explain that.