How to Build a Good Friendship?

Open online seminar with Ayoe Hoff, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
A Representative Survey of How Danish Cat Owners Introduce New Cats, and the Cats’ Reactions to Each Other Given the Method of Introduction
Presentation of work performed by Ayoe Hoff, Peter Sandøe, Thomas Bøker Lund, Irena Czycholl, James Serpell and Daniel Mills
At the seminar Ayoe will present the first finding from an ongoing research project, How best to introduce and ensure welfare for cohabiting companion cats.
The domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) does not always find it easy to share its home with other cats, given that it is somewhere in between being a social and a solitary species. Some cohabiting companion cats display behaviours indicative of positive relations, many simply ignore each other (‘agree to disagree’), and some display behaviours indicative of ongoing conflicts. The latter may be linked to stress and thus reduced welfare for the cats, and it is therefore important to understand how positive relations can be encouraged.
One key factor that is believed to contribute to friendly relations in multi-cat households is the method by which new cats are introduced to resident cats. Gradual introductions, as opposed to putting the cats together from the first day, are routinely recommended by cat professionals. It is in the literature argued that this approach will encourage long-term positive relations between the cats. However, only few studies have studied the association between introduction method and the subsequent relationship between cohabiting cats, and so far without conclusive results. In our study, which is based on a representative sample of the Danish cat owning population, we aimed to investigate this issue further. We mapped introduction practices applied by cat owners and the correlation between introduction practices and relations between new and resident cats the first month after introduction.
Generally, we only found a weak association between introduction practices and reactions. However, we also find some interesting tendencies, especially that applying gradual introduction may be correlated with increasing probability of aggressive encounters the first month after introduction, when both the new and resident cats are young (< 5 years). On the other hand, that some aspects of recommended techniques may be correlated with positive relations when the cats are older (5+ years).
How to participate
The seminar is open to all.
The seminar will take place online via Zoom