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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Is it random how cats choose their human?

35 replies

Cheekychip · 31/08/2015 13:54

I have never had a cat but I'm getting two kittens this week.

I keep reading comments about how a cat 'chooses' a person in their family as their favourite. Is this random or is there a way to sway the cat towards a particular person?

OP posts:
HollyJenni · 13/09/2015 22:02

Our kittens are rescue ones and me and my other half have a cat each. Gizmo loves my other half and Socks loves me. Absolutely no idea why x

nipersvest · 13/09/2015 22:16

ours cats seem to love all of us equally, the oldest likes to sleep next to dh but when he's outside, i'm the only one that he'll respond to to get him to come in. both our cats came from a rescue centre, 6 months apart. both well and truly chose us as their human family and flung themselves at us from their pens.

they hated each other at first when the second cat arrived but after 3 months, they're much happier and will eat from the same bowl and clean each other.

CharleyDavidson · 15/09/2015 22:28

Our cat has his favourites.

Not me, who wanted a cat, stayed up late on his first night until he got over being scared and came for a cuddle. Oh, no.

Not DH either, who wasn't keen on getting attached to another cat really. He feeds and will play with the cat lots though, but Bailey almost never goes near him otherwise.

Instead, he favours the DDs. He plays more with DD1 and then snoozes on her bed while she's doing her homework.

If DD2 is around, however, that's where he will be. He has his mad hour after she goes to bed, then joins her and sleeps on her feet for the rest of the night until she gets up in the morning. In the early days, when I was telling her not to pick him up like a toy, I had to eat my words as I watched him sit at her feet and cry at her loudly until she did pick him up, then purr happily in her arms.

If she's at a sleepover then he will deign to sleep on my feet instead. And I'm feeling particularly favoured at present as he's asleep against my legs on the recliner of the sofa at the moment, but he'll sod off to her room when I make a move up to bed.

Wolpertinger · 15/09/2015 22:33

DH is the food provider and lap dispenser. However both cats prefer me Grin as they know he only really does it under duress.

Depends on personality of cat and how much effort you put in. For some cats too much effort is counter productive making the whole thing unpredictable.

sashh · 16/09/2015 04:52

Yes of course you can sway. Spend time with them. Be the one who feeds them, plays with them, strokes them, and has treats in your pocket

yep and they ignore you and go to be other people for affection.

chipshop · 16/09/2015 17:28

I'm number one in our household with our 8-month-old kitten, much to DP's annoyance as he feeds him. Kitten follows me everywhere, he's sleeping underneath my office chair right now.

I have always played with him a lot more than DP. We have a chase round the house game which is his favourite thing ever.

Dontbesilly · 19/09/2015 09:53

Our girl cat loves dd2. She was a rescue and isn't keen on being picked up. She is a nightmare to get in a cat box so much so I asked the vet if they had any suggestions even a mild sedative as she claws and dh has to wear his motor bike gloves to put her in the box. Dd came in the room picked her up and put her in the box and looked at us like Hmm

Dd goes up to bed and says to the cat come on and the cat gets up and follows and they talk to each other too. Dd speaks to the cat and the cat chats back. It's like she is hypnotised. Dd never feeds her, nor cleans the litter tray or grooms her (that's me) although she does play with her, but she is our cats favourite person.

cozietoesie · 19/09/2015 10:11

A moral to be drawn from all of this is 'Never get a cat unseen as a child's present' because you have no idea who they'll decide to favour and it's no fun explaining to a child why 'their cat' prefers someone else.

(My parents bought Firstcat for me as a birthday present when I was young but they were plain lucky because he bonded with me for some reason.)

Cheekychip · 19/09/2015 15:53

Thanks for sharing everyone, dontbesilly you made me chuckle picturing your dd having zero problems getting the 'nightmare' cat into the box Smile

Our two kittens have only been with us for 3 weeks and I do all the feeding etc and they do seem to mostly prefer me at the moment but my kids are still toddlers so the cats are curious but (quite understandably) cautious of them.

OP posts:
tabulahrasa · 21/09/2015 12:17

One cat was bought by my DP, I wasn't allowed to feed her or do anything with her for ages in case it swayed her into preferring me...she adores me anyway, I'm her person and she is literally attached to me at any opportunity (she's a Siamese so that's a lot, lol).

The other one I got from a neighbour's accidental litter and because by then I was the one looking after the first one, I looked after this one too and so I was 'mum' and keeper of the food...until she got to about 8 months old and suddenly decided she was DD's cat, I still feed her because I don't huff like DP, lol, but if she needs to be manhandled it has to be DD that does it as she's the only person who gets to pick her up or do anything to her without getting bitten.

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