A Michael Broad Blog
This is called “social play”. It is the way kittens interact with each other. It is different to how children play. Kitten playtime is based on fights and predation (hunting animals) whereas although children sometimes fight their play together is generally cooperative and not agonistic (genuinely combative). The fact that kittens fight-play and play-hunt …
When in play this is a common problem because it is normal cat behaviour. Not all domestic cats do it but it is still normal behaviour. Therefore the first point to make is that punishment is not the way to fix it because we don’t punish for engaging in normal behaviour and as all …
Should I get a kitten with or for an older cat? It depends whether they get on and you often won’t know. When you use Google to search for ‘should i get a kitten with an older cat’ (the exact search term) you get a lot of Google suggestions which strongly indicate that people …
Here are five pictures of kittens sucking on their thumbs. Thumb sucking in kittens is the same as human babies sucking their thumbs. It is an act which is comforting and which reduces stress. Sometimes human babies suck their thumbs when going to sleep. Seeing it in kittens reminds us how similar domestic cats …
This is a very short, repetitive (apologies), video (actually an animated .gif) of a mother carrying her kitten by the scruff. It is pretty plain but it has one quality: it shows the behaviour very clearly and it is sort of cute. When the mother grasps her kitten in her mouth by the loose …
Not many cat owners put a harness on the cat but when they do they may discover that their cat’s behaviour changes quite radically. Their cat may become passive. He may rollover, lie down or crawl along the ground. The overriding reaction is one of passivity. Your cat becomes stationary and does not want …
Is this OK? I don’t think it is because it is being done for human consumption and not by the mother for natural reasons. But that is just me. I respect other people’s views. It is activating the kitten’s natural response when being picked up by mother when moving her kittens. We all know …
