Cats like to play fetch just like dogs but when it suits them

There have been a number of studies about domestic cats playing fetch. And I know that you will find thousands of cat owners who attest to their cats' ability to play fetch just like a dog. They thoroughly enjoy it. For the cat it is play-hunting repeated. For the dog it is often a functional behaviour for which they been trained.

But for a cat, chasing a ball is like chasing a prey animal. They catch it, grab it in their jaws and then bring it back to their owner because they want to repeat the process. This is not an example of a working cat but a cat simply replicating the hunting process and in their relationship with their human caregiver they have learned that they can ask him or her to do certain things such as feed them, open doors and engage in a game of fetch.

That's my take on cats playing fetch and I'm going to refer to a study recently published online in the journal Scientific Reports.

They concluded that cats like to play fetch when they're in the mood. I would add to that and say that not all cats play fetch to the same level or at all. But it does come naturally to them provided they have the cognizance to bring the ball or object back to their owner to restart. That's the key because all cats will chase something but can they bring it back to their owner who threw it?

The researchers found that cats are more likely than dogs to have a particular item that they will play fetch with. They tend to reject other objects. And some refused to play with anything other than a cotton bud which is clearly an object which is more likely to elicit a game of fetch for a domestic cat.

In the study researchers also found that cats "only play in certain rooms and only fetch for particular people."

The researchers of the University of Sussex worked with 924 cat owners owning 1154 cats. All of these cats enjoyed playing fetch. The objective was to find out if the cat's behaviour was instinctive or whether the animals required training. They also wanted to find out if the cats initiated the game of fetch or it was initiated by the cats.

They concluded that: "For the vast majority, 94.4%, fetching appeared to be an instinctive behaviour in the cats. They also found that most of the cat started fetching as kittens or young cats with 36.7% reported to 1st fetch under the age of seven."

Note: they have appeared to have missed the point that playing fetch for a cat is playing at hunting with a modification: bringing the 'prey animal' back to the owner to restart as mentioned.

The lead researcher, Jemma Forman, of the University of Sussex said: "Our findings show that cats dictate this behaviour to directly influence how their human owners respond."

I would suggest that normally nearly all games of fetch with a domestic cat are instigated by the owner in a desire to please the cat, to exercise their cat and to mentally stimulate them in what might otherwise be a less than optimal environment by which I mean the full-time indoor cat environment. The game is then continued with the input of the cat playing the game.

But the cats participating in this study normal started the fetching play session as they were trained up to do that. That had got used to these play sessions:

"Cats initiated and terminated fetching bouts more often than did their owners. Thus, cats who fetch demonstrate independent and co-ordinated agency in the onset and maintenance of fetching behaviour with their human partners."

My thanks to The Times  - Kaya Burgess

Kitten makes the cutest 'attack' on a human you've ever seen (plus info about kitten play)

Cute kitten makes the cutest 'attack' on a human you've ever seen (plus into about kitten play). Screenshot.

Just playing. It's a 'play-attack' - the kind of behavior we see between kittens who spend a lot of time roughhousing. This time the target was slightly bigger than normal and it looks very cute.

As the experts say:

"Every living creature needs to play, and cats are no exception".

Play for cats is a release of pent-up energy. When kittens play with each other or perhaps with their mother they are preparing themselves for adult life in learning the movements required for attacking and defending. Interestingly, the video of this tiny and cute kitten shows a behaviour which is both attacking and defending.

When cats play roughly with each other they are well aware that they game of 'combat' is not in earnest and that they will not harm each other.

When you watch their behaviour, you will see that when the dominant cat is holding her mate, if the hold causes any pain, a growl or sharp meow will make the aggressive cat let go.

When kittens play with each other they gauge how far they can go in terms of aggression by the response of the "victim" to that aggression. And in this way, they learn about the limits to their play.

Kittens begin to play at about three weeks of age. This play starts off with the kittens gently pawing at each other. As their coordination improves, they begin biting, chasing and rolling.

Social play increases from 4 to 11 weeks of age and then rapidly declines. By this time, the kittens seem to pair off during play periods, which usually takes place four times a day. At nine weeks, kitten spent almost an hour each day playing.

The importance of play

We know that playing takes up a lot of your kitten's or kittens' time. They stalk each other, launch mock attacks, assume defensive positions, pounce and in general have lots of fun.

Playing encourages the development of coordination, provides a source of exercise and helps to socialise the kittens. And if they are kittens born in the wild without the protection of their human caregiver's home, play is a training ground to learn how to survive.

Limiting kitten and young cat play

One expert says that you should encourage kids to play and enjoy it but don't let them overdo it. They say that playtime sessions should be limited to 15 minutes each day, 2-3 times daily. They also remarkably state that "rough play, in which a kitten nips or scratches should also be discouraged."

Their argument is that "a kitten may begin to believe that aggressive, even violent behaviour is acceptable at home."

Hands are not toys

I seriously doubt that advice. Cats are inherently aggressive as they are top line predators! Kittens play with each other instinctively. And as long as they are playing with each other it's okay. I think the problem arises when a young cat plays with their owner's hands or feet. Then they equate the person's hands or feet to a toy (a prey animal actually) which they can bite and scratch to their hearts content which they can't.

RELATED: 10 facts about using hands as play toys for your cat.

This is about the caregiver limiting play and training their young cat to conduct this inherent behaviour in a way which is acceptable in the human environment.

It is entirely possible that a young cat can learn to attack their owner's hand during their early life and that this behaviour will remain with them for the rest of their life no matter how persistently and carefully their owner tries to discourage it. It can put a stress on the relationship.

Cat ate 38 hair ties and survived

NEWS AND COMMENT: As reported in The State, a cat was abandoned with other cats by their owner when they moved away. And this particular cat was very ill. She was brought to an animal shelter run by the Charleston Animal Society. It is located about 9 miles north-west of Charleston and is a No-kill shelter with a hospital which cares for around 20,000 animals annually.

UPDATE: THE CAT DIED. SIGH

Sick cat after operation to remove 38 hair ties from her stomach. Image: Charleston Animal Society from video (screenshot).

This cat was therefore fortunate to end up at this shelter where she stopped eating. They x-rayed her and found a massive blockage in her stomach. Her stomach was completely full of ties. A domestic cat's stomach is quite small at about the size of a ping pong ball I am told. How do you get 38 hair ties inside a stomach that size!? It must stretch a lot.

The blockage constituted 38 hair ties which she had obviously eaten as if they were edible foods when in the ownership of the people who abandoned her.

The veterinarian who did the operation was very surprised to see that number of hair ties in her stomach. The associate director of veterinary care at the Charleston Animal Society, Leigh Jamison, said: 

"I've never seen anything like that."

The animal hospital was so taken aback by the finding that they took time to photograph the ties and here they are below.

The 38 hair ties removed from the cat's stomach. Photo: Charleston Animal Society Charleston Animal Society

Fortunately, her intestine is were not damaged but the obstruction to her digestive tract caused fat to build up in her liver which resulted in a major health issue. She is currently being fed through a feeding tube.

They are keeping up her electrolytes to ensure that they are in balance and she is improving but she is not out of the woods yet, they report.

Comment: one doesn't want to criticise but for a cat owner to allow their cat to eat 38 hair ties and then abandon them is beyond careless. It is callous and cruel. The woman (presumed woman but it might have been a man) must have noticed her hair ties going missing. She must have seen her cat playing with the ties and eating them but did nothing about it.

And of course, it does bring to mind the dangers of hair ties and objects like them. Cats like to play with small, elastic objects. They are an ideal size as a cat toy. And as cat play is play-hunting, the end result is going to be eating the object if possible. And it is possible for a domestic cat eat a hair tie but of course they remain undigested in the stomach.

The obvious moral to the story is that a cat owner who uses her ties should make sure that they are not left lying around the floor or in any other place which is accessible to their cat. Obvious stuff. Nothing extraordinary in that statement (and it has been said a million times before) but if - as this person was - the owner is careless and doesn't care about the health and welfare of a cat you can end up killing your cat.

It seems purely fortuitous that this cat ended up at a cat shelter where there was an animal hospital attached. The story might well have ended completely differently and tragically but for that simple fact.

Here is a video which might or might not run! It may stop working. But if not great.

Excited dog desperately wants to play. Two cats think he's barking mad!

Dog is keen to play. Cats think he is barking mad. Screenshot

This video has been on Twitter for a while. It is cute. Here we have what looks like a young dog desperately wanting to play with one of two cats. The cat he has targeted is completely disinterested despite the repeated attempts to change his mind. The other cat looks on disdainfully as if the dog is barking mad! It's a case of innocent canine confronting two wise cats, who with aloofness look down on the young dog with a little bit of contempt showing in their body language. I know that I am interpreting the video through humane eyes and that I am anthropomorphising the situation, but it does lend itself to that kind of interpretation.

Dog = when you drink alcohol
Cat 1 = when you smoke weed
Cat 2 = when you take acid pic.twitter.com/flXNhhyqFY

— Professor Vow Xhing (@VowXhing) October 3, 2021

Do hungry domestic cats hunt more than well fed ones?

There is or was a belief that a domestic cat's desire to hunt is divorced from his hunger or lack of it. In other words whether a cat is well fed or not does not affect his desire to hunt prey animals as the desire or motivation to hunt in innate. It is instinctive and the feline will always do it when the prey is available.

This article refers to a study on cat food ingredients and hunting desire but before you read that it has to be common sense that a hungry cat will be a more committed hunter for the simple reason they need to eat to survive. They will kill and eat what they need to survive.

And on the other side of the coin a well-fed cat is less likely to hunt provided the food is balanced and contains all the nutrients but a fed cat will still hunt instinctively with the caveat that each cat has their own desire to hunt. Some cats just don't want to do it. I lived with a female cat who was disinterested for instance.

High quality wet cat food which is grain-free plus play will curb your cat's desire to hunt. Graphic provided by the scientist conducting the study. 

There is no doubt that there is some truth in this but a recent study  might be considered to undermine the theory or perhaps it supports the theory? The scientists found that complete diet cat food as described i.e. wet cat food which is considered by the manufacturers to totally complete, might not be quite so complete as expected as it might be omitting some micronutrients (unspecified). Domestic cats instinctively sense this and hunt mice to make up the deficit.

The scientists decided this because when they fed cats grain-free wet cat food their hunting behaviour diminished by 36 percent. Playing with your cat can reduce hunting by 25 percent.

Martina Cecchetti, a PhD student also of Exeter University who conducted the trial said: 

"Some cat foods contain protein from plant sources and it is possible these foods leave some cats deficient in one or more micronutrients, prompting them to hunt."

So there is some potential deficiency in 'complete cat food' which contains grain. Perhaps the presence of the grain in some of these foods triggers a message in the brain of cats to tell them that the food is not quite up to scratch and drives them to hunt for the real thing: a small rodent, their preferred prey animal.

Play also helps to deter feline hunting. This indicates that when a cat has hunted he pauses because he has satisfied his desire to hunt. This is the likely conclusion because playing with a domestic cat is a hunting substitute for the cat. All cat play is play-hunting.

Most cat owners who allow their cats free access to the outside would wish to curb their cat's hunting. Some find it disgusting, others accept it but dislike it. Here are two things that can be done to curb it. Select grain-free wet cat food and play with your cat a lot more.

Click here to read the study.

Domestic Cat and Mouse Picture

This photograph by Jo and Paul on Flickr, shows us very graphically the difference in size between the predator, the domestic cat and the prey, the little mouse.

It is not always the case that the predator is so dominant in terms of size. Think about the large wildcats, especially. Both the lion and tiger can and do take on prey that is many times larger than them. Lions will tackle Cape buffalo weighing 600 - 900 kilograms, while the average weight of tiger kills in Nagarahole National Park in India was 401 kilograms¹. That is heavier than the heaviest tiger. However from the standpoint of survival the wildcat will prey on animals that offer the least resistance and chance of being injured during the attack. The serval is much like the domestic cat in preying on rodents in long grass using hearing as a major form of prey detection (servals have notably large ears).

The domestic cat has it easy. The mouse is the perfect meal for the domestic cat. Sometimes cats play with a mouse they are attacking, even when it has been killed. This is seen as cruel by people.

Large black calico cat and tiny mouse - Photo by Jo and Paul's pics

Cats don't think it terms of cruelty.  There are good and reasonable reasons why both the domestic cat and the smaller wildcats play with prey before and after it has been killed.

You can read about it on this page: Domestic cat hunting.

Associated: Lion prey Kruger NP.

Note: 1 Wild Cats Of The World by the Sunquists

Kung-Fu Cat Picture

A genuine kung-fu cat photographed by Barry Primrose published on Flickr. Of course we are only kidding because cats don't do kung-fu but this is a nice picture of what I presume to be cats at play. Cat play is a form fighting or attacking prey which is why the ginger tabby bicolor cat (Bob) has his mouth open about to bite the upper back or neck of the cowering brown tabby. I don't think the brown tabby is submissive to Bob, just playing the attacked cat at that moment.

Kung-Fu cat - Photo copyright Barry Primrose - published here with his permission

I think Barry did a really nice job of capturing the action both in terms of timing and freezing the action. This requires a fast shutter speed and a good eye. I have a feeling, though, that these two cats like some rough and tumble routinely (social play) which makes it easier for Barry to get his shot.


A bit about cat play


The picture might have captured the pounce following the face-off. These are two postures/actions in the social play of cats.


In the development of kittens social play is physical interaction between kittens. The series of behavior patterns that describe social play are modified and restricted versions of the sort of behavior we see in aggressive encounters between adult cats or when preying on other animals.


I was informed that kittens learn how hard to bite during play. Facial expressions apparently give a signal that this is play and not for real. Play between kittens takes place most often at age 9 - 14 weeks. Social play stops at about 14 weeks of age. Cats then play with objects like balls etc.


The two cats in the picture seem to be adults. Why are they play fighting? If they are indeed play fighting it is because as is the case for all domestic cats, they have been kept in a state kittenhood by their human caretaker.


See an F2 Savannah cat at play in a cat play tunnel. And some more detail on cat play.

Kitty play

Kitty play, a photo by fofurasfelinas on Flickr.

This excellent photo is by fofurasfelinas (Flickr name) - Giane Portal. It is part of her black and white cat images. Please note that the photo is protected by copyright. Giane has given me permission to use it. Please respect copyright.

Black and white photos of cats allow us to look more at the form of the cat. The design and composition of the photograph becomes more noticeable because the distraction of colour is removed. A lot of people like black and white photography for that reason.

About 40 years ago black and white photography was the default or standard photography. Photographing in colour was something you made a conscious decision to do.

I love the simplicity of the image expressing the gentleness, delicacy and vulnerability of the kitten. It has the right sort of feel for a photograph of a kitten.