Annals of Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW. Animal ...

16 K. Fiszdon, K. Góral, J. Narojek
increases. According to Horwitz (1997),
among 100 cats that presented this kind
of problems, 65% were kept in multianimal
household, 50 of them (77%)
lived with another cat, and 23% with
more animals. Also Seksel (2000) claims
that marking increases proportionally to
number of cats that live in one place.
As far as sex is concerned, it is worthy
to note that frequency of marking increases
twice in neutered animals, both males
and females (Tab. 2). The difference
between neutered and intact animals was
statistically significant. Nevertheless,
Marder (1991) and Patronek et al. (1996)
concluded opposite – marking was more
frequent in intact animals. Seksel (2000)
claims that this behaviour appear mainly
in males, and castration does not have
any influence on it. In our survey marking
was not separated as such from urination/defecation.
These behaviours were the least frequent
in purebred cats and the most frequent
in mix bred ones, i.e. those having
one purebred parent, yet differences were
not statistically significant. They were
also relatively rare in cats that were born
and reared in their permanent homes,
whereas they were often reported with
adopted cats (Tab. 2). Again, these differences
were not statistically significant,
most probably due to obviously different
numbers of animals in each group.
Additionally, age of children seems to
influence the behaviour – it occurs with
higher frequency in homes with children
of 0–4 and 14–18 years of age. Even though
differences were seemingly obvious, they
could not be statistically confirmed.
Aggression towards other cats
Among all abnormal or unacceptable behaviours
the next common one is aggression
towards other cats. It was reported in
53 specimens, i.e. almost 20% of all cats
included in the survey. Studies in Animal
Behaviour Clinic, Cornell University,
show that in 13.5% of homes with more
than one cat cases of aggression were
observed. Studies on aggression caused
by introduction of another cat into household
(Levine et al., 2005) showed that its
cases appeared in almost 50% of such
households. Borchelt and Voith (1996)
report cat fights with frequency at least
once a month in 44% of homes.
In the study was found that age of
cats and level of aggression were correlated
(V = 0.242). Aggression was most
common among old cats (over 8 years)
and more than twice less common in
younger ones (Tab. 3). Beaver (2003)
claims that elderly cats are more likely to
show aggressions towards kitten, while
Levine et al. (2005) did not find any relation
between age of cats and aggression.
Another important factor were living
conditions (V = 0.153) (Tab. 3). Aggression
was most frequent among cats that
were allowed out, whereas it was least
frequent among those kept permanently
inside. Similar result was reported by
Levine et al. (2005) – in his study aggression
cases were 3–4 times more common
in the first group.
Aggression towards other cats was
also most common in spayed females
(30%) and lest common in intact males
(only 11.4%) (Tab. 3). This difference
was, however, statistically insignificant.
Other studies report different results.
Landsberg et al. (2003) claims that highest
level of aggression can be observed
among males. Lindell et al. (1997) report
that males tend to be most aggressive, and
their aggression is directed both to other
males as well as to females. According to