Choosing a Friendly Kitten | | |||||||
| So on what do you base your decision? Some people choose a kitten for its looks - a particularly beautiful breed or a favourite colour. Bear in mind that if you choose a longhaired pedigree or moggy it will require daily brushing to keep it beautiful. However colour and appearance does not tell you very much about your kitten's personality. True, certain breeds do come with particular personality traits - the extremely vocal Siamese springs to mind, but with many breeds, and certainly with your common moggy, the colour and appearance of a kitten is not much of a guide for future personality. Can you predict what personality your kitten will have? Not entirely, but there are some things which will help you choose a cat which will fit in with your lifestyle. First you need to decide what type of cat you want. Most people are after a friendly cat that will be willing to interact with them in a non-aggressive way. As with most behavioural traits this is influenced by both genetics and environment. Does this mean that a friendly mother will have friendly kittens? Unfortunately not. Though the exact method of inheritance remains unclear, the father is thought to have the biggest influence. Bad news when looking at your average cat's litter of kittens as the father is frequently unknown. The environment in which the kitten is reared probably has the biggest effect on the kitten's future personality. The critical period for socialisation is between 2-7 weeks (although it may continue up to 10 weeks in oriental breeds) - much earlier than in puppies. This means that when the majority of kittens are rehomed they have already been through this period and their attitudes towards new experiences and their feelings towards people become harder (though not impossible) to change. Therefore it is important to look at the situation your kitten has been reared in. For optimum friendliness a kitten needs to be handled by a minimum of four different people - any less and the kitten will be friendly towards its handlers rather than towards people in general, and handled for a period of around 40 minutes per day. The mother also has a role to play here. Kittens copy their mother's behaviours so a kitten with a mother who is relaxed with people is more likely to be relaxed itself with people irrespective of any genetic influences. You might think that a kitten who has been hand reared would be particularly affectionate towards humans as they will have had a lot of positive early contact with people. While it is true that hand reared cats are often responsive to people, they are also often rather volatile or even aggressive if they do not get their own way. This is because when a mother weans her kittens she not only teaches them to eat solid food, she also teaches them how to deal with frustration. It is very difficult for surrogate human mothers to teach these lessons effectively. Think also about the living environment your kitten has been reared in. Has it given you kitten a chance to experience lots of everyday sights and sounds? Has it provided the stimulation and challenges necessary to produce a confident kitten capable of dealing with life? On the surface a kitten reared in a home would have the best start. Bear in mind though that a kitten brought up at a busy rescue centre with exposure to a wide range of people and sounds may be more confident and friendly than the one reared solely in the bathroom in a very quiet house. If you have a busy household then choose a confident outgoing kitten as it will settle in the easiest. Don't be tempted by the quiet shy one as it will find it hard to cope unless you have the time to gradually introduce it. Ideally if you have children, dogs or other cats then find a kitten with previous positive experiences of these, though with careful introductions most well adjusted kittens will settle in with any of these very happily. Consider getting a pair of kittens. They will give each other confidence and also ensure that there is always someone there for company and playing. This is especially important if you are going to be out often. One trait that most people would particularly like to avoid is hunting. Unfortunately this is an instinctive behaviour and nearly every cat will do it to some degree. However kittens do learn to hunt from their mothers so choosing a kitten whose mother is not a prolific hunter and who has not observed its mother hunting may give you a kitten who will also show less interest in hunting. There are no guarantees. In conclusion, with a little bit of forethought you can choose a kitten which will hopefully settle in to your life without too much trouble. Bear in mind that like children, kitten's personalities change and what you see as a kitten is not necessarily what you will get as an adult. Still, one of the most rewarding things about kittens is watching them grow into cats with their own unique personality. If you do have a very strict set of requirements for your adult cat you might be better off getting an adult cat whose personality is already formed | ||||||||
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