Early social isolation of the domestic cat: Responses during mechanical toy testing

Abstract

Four male and four female kittens were reared in each of the following rearing conditions: (1) mother and a littermate; (2) alone with their mother; (3) brooder and littermate; (4) alone with a brooder. Each of the 32 kittens were separated briefly from their rearing condition once a week from 2–5 weeks of age. They were placed alone in an open field with a mechanical toy and a brooder replicate. The brooder-reared kittens spent more time with the toy than the mother-reared kittens. In fact, they spent more time with the mechanical toy than they did with the brooder. The brooder-reared kittens entered more squares than the mother-reared infants, but vocalized less than the mother-reared kittens. It was concluded that while all kittens appear to form social attachments, brooder-reared kittens do not seem to form substitute social attachments to a brooder.