How Kittens Wrestle

[Satchmo Distel]

This is my experience. Note that one kitten is a pound bigger than the other, being two months older:

The bigger kitten lies on her back or side, mouth slightly open, paws in a clinch position. Younger kitten dives in and larger kitten grabs her and tries to flip her.

Younger kitten circles and tries to go for the lower end of the bigger kitten, but the latter's back legs are very strong and she can flip the younger one just using her thigh muscles.

If the bigger kitten has had enough, she flips the younger kitten and nips her in the tummy. Or a growl will do the trick. Young kitten gives a token hiss.

Aside: Yesterday the kittens found their first cockroach and we had to euthanize it (stamp on it then flush down lavatory)

[johnr]

Could be the best thread title ever...

[Benjm]

And the OP lives up to it.

Our cat felt compelled to point out that it isn't her fault that there's only one of her.

[Satchmo Distel]

You have to adopt them in pairs if they are very young. Older ones are less bothered but kittens need a playmate.

[Jah Womble]

Yes, absolutely the above.

Could be the best thread title ever...

Almost certainly the title of a soft-porn video, I'd wager.

[Satchmo Distel]

That would be Anatomic Kittens

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I wonder when they domesticated the first cat about 10,000 years ago, at the dawn of civilization, did they realize that Humanity was going to struggle to come up with anything funnier than two kittens fighting?

[WOM]

I love the idea of some poor bugger 10,000 years ago standing by an open door with a cold draft whipping up his toga going 'come on come on....in or out'.

[Eggchaser]

I am still waiting for the kitten superplex video.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Unlike dogs, I don't think we did domesticate cats. They just chose to live with us. Their behaviours around us are not radically different to how they would behave in the wild. That we are a handy food source is a bonus to them but they don't rely on us for it, just means they can sleep a bit longer and not have to hunt.

[WOM]

Unlike dogs, I don't think we did domesticate cats.

You think dogs domesticated cats?

[Satchmo Distel]

It's interesting that our big cats never try to kill the kittens. Sometimes they defer. Maybe it's a Darwinian thing about not killing your own gene pool? Contrast with alligators, whose diet has a large component of other alligators' babies (or would if the mother wasn't guarding them).

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

Domestic cats are social animals - left to their own devices, they live in colonies and feed and look after one another communally.

As Belyayev's famous experiment showed, it's entirely possible that the domestication of cats and dogs happened by a process of natural selection.

Seems incredibly plausible that rather than being a deliberate process, cats and wolves that hung around near human habitation - possible to feed off rubbish - domesticated themselves.

[Gerontophile]

[Janik]

Unlike dogs, I don't think we did domesticate cats. They just chose to live with us. Their behaviours around us are not radically different to how they would behave in the wild. That we are a handy food source is a bonus to them but they don't rely on us for it, just means they can sleep a bit longer and not have to hunt.

This isn't true, and is actually a dangerous myth that leads to animal cruelty. Around 90% of all domestic cats that go stray or are abandoned do not successfully transition to being feral. These will urgently need to find a new human host, or they will be dead of starvation within a month. However that the myth persists allows people to abandon cats, as "it will be alright". It is precisely because domestic cats do rely on humans as a food source that this occurs. Having not been brought up in the wild, their hunting skills, whilst still partially present from instinct, are stunted. These are insufficiently developed to sustain themselves.

[Paul S]

You have to handle a cat within the first seven days of its life for it to become domesticated, otherwise after that it will be feral. However, once they have domesticated they cannot go back to being wild again.

[Southport Zeb]

I clicked on this thread having misread the title as "How Kitchens Wrestle"

[Eggchaser]

I believe Mick Foley was handed a cast iron skillet by one of the nutters that came to ECW and hit The Sandman over the head with it without realising what it actually was until it was too late.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

This isn't true, and is actually a dangerous myth that leads to animal cruelty. Around 90% of all domestic cats that go stray or are abandoned do not successfully transition to being feral. These will urgently need to find a new human host, or they will be dead of starvation within a month. However that the myth persists allows people to abandon cats, as "it will be alright". It is precisely because domestic cats do rely on humans as a food source that this occurs. Having not been brought up in the wild, their hunting skills, whilst still partially present from instinct, are stunted. These are insufficiently developed to sustain themselves.

Yeah, only a small subset of cats do any serious amount of hunting, and if you've owned one of these cats, you'll know the difference.

[Alderman Barnes]

Yeah, only a small subset of cats do any serious amount of hunting, and if you've owned one of these cats, you'll know the difference.

Whether they're good at hunting or not, they still have half the birds in my garden, through sheer weight of numbers.

[Femme Folle]

This is my experience. Note that one kitten is a pound bigger than the other, being two months older:

The bigger kitten lies on her back or side, mouth slightly open, paws in a clinch position. Younger kitten dives in and larger kitten grabs her and tries to flip her.

Younger kitten circles and tries to go for the lower end of the bigger kitten, but the latter's back legs are very strong and she can flip the younger one just using her thigh muscles.

If the bigger kitten has had enough, she flips the younger kitten and nips her in the tummy. Or a growl will do the trick. Young kitten gives a token hiss.

Mine still do this and they are 14 and 8 years old.

[San Bernardhinault]

My two cats do not wrestle in a mutually agreed way. The fun, hyper two year old will chase the quiet, reserved 9 year old, will try and jump her when she's eating, will - every now and then - pin her down briefly. She will growl, run away, and sometimes try and swat him. There is no "fun" wrestling in this house.

[Femme Folle]

My older cat never seems to be enjoying it, but considering that he's got at least five pounds on the younger one (who is always the initiator), he could easily stop it if he wanted to. Of course, he knows that all he has to do is miaow loudly and I will say, "Sam, leave Mickey alone" or "stop picking on him!" and Sam will stop. I'm very well trained by all of my pets.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Whether they're good at hunting or not, they still have half the birds in my garden, through sheer weight of numbers.

heh, it's more about enthusiasm. I think the best estimate is that only a third of them do any hunting at all, and a smaller subset of them do most of the killing. but as you point out, it's the sheer number of them.

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

heh, it's more about enthusiasm. I think the best estimate is that only a third of them do any hunting at all, and a smaller subset of them do most of the killing. but as you point out, it's the sheer number of them.

Also it's what they kill that's the difference in that even the most indifferent mog can catch fledgling blue tits, but taking a rat requires some specialist hunting skills that have to be learnt