Many unfriendly or aggressive shelter cats can become much more sociable with humans 鈥� and hence more adoptable 鈥� if just given time.
Unlike dogs, which can develop problematic behaviours and appear less sociable as they spend more time in animal shelters, cats tend to become friendlier the longer they stay. Cats may need the extra weeks or even several months to recover from stress, veterinary issues or the change in environment that make them less approachable, says at the University of Veterinary Sciences Brno in the Czech Republic.
Vojtkovsk谩 and her colleagues rated the sociability of 158 cats entering an animal shelter over a 12-month period in the Czech Republic, where euthanasia for non-veterinary reasons is illegal. The animals lived indoors in a group of about 25 cats at a time with access to an outdoor enclosure. The cats 鈥� all at least 3 months old 鈥� underwent their first evaluation after an approximately 14-day quarantine, and then again every two weeks as long as they stayed at the shelter.
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At the first evaluation, most of the cats were rated as friendly or very friendly, the highest scores on a 5-point scale. Over time in the shelter, these cats either stayed just as friendly or became even friendlier.
However, nearly 20 per cent of the incoming cats were initially rated as neutral, unfriendly or so unfriendly that they couldn鈥檛 be touched. Of these, more than half showed permanent improvement over time 鈥� sometimes taking several months. The longer the cats stayed, the more social they became.
鈥淭his work supports the idea that human interaction is an important aspect of a shelter cat鈥檚 social life,鈥� says at Unity College in Maine.
鈥淚t is possible that as cats get more comfortable in their surroundings and new routines, they also feel more confident to engage in a higher diversity of behaviours, such as engaging in social behaviour with people,鈥� says Vitale.
None of the cats became less sociable over time, contrary to the of such a tendency in shelter dogs, says Vojtkovsk谩. Only two cats remained unfriendly during their stay, and both died of disease within two months of arrival.
Vitale says cats are very variable in their individual levels of sociability and some are 鈥渏ust more social than others鈥�.
Journal of Veterinary Behavior
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