Intelligence levels of cats in your household?

[9GreenBottles]

We have 4 cats, and this evening one of them has been ripping up the carpet trying to get out of our bedroom. I could hear him, and thought the bedroom door must have got shut by accident because the door opens outwards. No, he just seemed to have got confused that he didn't have to pull the door towards him with his paw (and he is useless at getting into the room from the hall too).

This follows on from each of the cats getting a microchip cat feeder over the last couple of years. The first cat took about 6 months to use it regularly of her own accord (there was a bit of active resistance as well as genuine confusion and fear of the noises it made). The second cat was up and running in about 48 hours. Cats three and four got theirs in the Black Friday sales this year. Cat three had the hang of it in about 12 hours. Cat four is the boy getting stuck in the open bedroom - still having to be guided to use it!

On another note, cat one is still confused by the cat flap - 4 years after being introduced to the concept. I hear her trying to claw the flap towards her rather than just pushing her head through - on both sides of the door :-D

Do your cats demonstrate different levels of intelligence?

Our cats have fluff for brains I'm sure. Favourite activity is to sit on the footstool staring at the radiator and with their noses about 2mm from said radiator. They will sit side by side for hours doing this

Are you in an old house?

Boy cat.... Asks for different door to be open if there's rain outside the first one he tries, is utterly flummoxed by the Dreamies mouse, has never mastered opening doors that are open a crack from the inside (jumps up shutting himself in room he's trying to exit or squishes paw in door), thinks all medication is yummy treats (handy as never objects to being pilled). Lost his tail in an RTA (was seen by neighbours sunbathing in the middle of the road shortly before, they shooed him away to safety ... He went back), has jumped straight out of first floor window (which he knows is high up and he's used to being open so not for jumping through all his life) in pursuit of a moth,aged 14. Terrified of water bowls as I put out an enamel bowl forgetting that cat flap magnet on collar would stick to it... Wet cat repeatedly, now only drinks from tap.

His female litter mate shows superior intelligence, mainly thru scathing looks directed at him and kindly opening doors for him and she never upended the enamel water dish despite also having a magnet on her collar.... but is not food motivated (tiny thing only 2.9kg) so is oblivious to Dreamies mouse etc. though.

Our boycat couldn't be bothered batting the Dreamies mouse for it to deposit its contents one by one in a trail over the floor. He picked the whole mouse's head part up in his big mouth and shook it so hard that the Dreamies were scattered all over the room.

My mum has a cat who is beyond daft. We actually think she was taken away from her mother too early or maybe abandoned/rejected as she has never really learnt to be a cat.

My favourite story is when she was once trying to get outside through the cat flap but the back door was already open (inwards). She went through the cat flap (a rarity) and ended up looking out through the doorframe but because her feet were still on the indoors floor she just gave up and walked back into the kitchen.

I include a photo of the same cat sat behind a halogen heater in our freezing house (broken heating) during the depths of winter.

Well mine managed to clicker train DD...so, cleverer than my 16 yr old, lol.

DD went into the room intending to prime the clicker and then train the cat to come on command.

The cat now goes and stares at the clicker to demand treats from DD, she won't however come when DD calls her.

So she's trained DD just to give her treats when she feels like them

BiteyCat is fairly dim (can't open doors, or work out windowsills when curtains are closed) except when food is involved. Worked out the treat ball within moments, has figured a way to retrieve it from the bottom of his toy basket to encourage us to fill it and is excellent at climbing down the bunk bed ladders at speed when he hears someone go to the kitchen. He's brighter than our previous boy but nowhere near my friend's cat who can open the fridge and cupboard doors.

Years ago I had a female tortoiseshell cat who was really clever. She could open virtually any door (not locked ones!), and it was hard to keep her out of areas she was excluded from (bedrooms). She got into the fridge once.
My current cat (male), initially seemed a bit thick, but he's actually improving. He can pull open a door if I leave it ajar. When it comes to food, he's razor sharp.

Dixie...Ernie chases his own tail, tumbling all over the shop. He tries to do it on the stairs (odd triangle shape anyway) and wonders why he falls down. He even tries it on the back of the settee and the windowsill ...that he can only just climb and prefers the stool.

He once bit his own tail so hard he yelped.....we have never laughed so hard

Love all these stories.

I have five cats of varying intelligence. Moderately smart cat has made me laugh tonight.

We're feeding a neighbours cats at the moment. DH commented that they were getting though a lot of food so tonight when I was walking the dog I thought I'd shine the torch through the neighbour's back door to see if the bowls needed replenishing.

I shone the torch and spotted one of my cats polishing off their food and looking very pleased with himself (only 15 mins earlier he had been fed a huge meal at home)

When I called his name he looked so guilty and shocked to see me it was like a comedy cartoon moment.

He legged it out through the catflap and made it home before I did - he had placed himself in front of the fire and had the nerve to roll over, yawn and stretch as if he had been there all night.

We've had many cats over the years.

Compost cat who I found 3 years ago was very, very bright.
Tonka was almost human
Psycho sis was focussed but bright

Furball is food obsessed but amusing

and then there is Lump
his dad and Grandad are the same cat.
It shows
he is so stupid I wonder how he copes
he's 6 and has yet to learn to miaow

idiotcat is not just an unkind nickname.

He is not very good at jumping, he is very doglike tbh. The most amusing thing he does is when he wakes after rolling over onto his back in his sleep, he actually "jumps" in fright as he stretches his feet out up toward the ceiling and is scared to realise he is upsidedown an not floating above what he thinks is the floor.

His sister is much smarter, she pretends they are not related and is sick of his nonsense. just like that meme

When you have several cats it's much easier to see the different levels which they operate at. My dim girl cat has two microchips because she seemed to be unable to get the cat flap to open and we thought the chip had migrated, so she got another implanted.

Food is often a great motivator, although it's probably equally used to train us to what they want (how many tins of delicious gourmet cat food can I turn my nose up at today???)

Maltropp: I've heard of cats bringing home forks on their magnetic collars but not bowls!

I had two brothers , they were black with white bibs , we called them
'The management'.

One was super smart , slim and an excellent hunter , the other was fat and dim. He was always falling off the fence , windowsill etc. and a useless hunter.

One day he came in with a dead bird in his mouth . We reckon he fell out of a tree and landed on it !

One is super smart - I think it's only the lack of opposable thumbs that mean he and his ilk aren't running the world.

One is, um, not. Fluff for brains. Seriously dim. Pedigree, and all the commonsense has been bred out of him

Can I have a stealth boast? Old cat, nearly 17 has learned how to knock the dreamies out of her cheesy mouse dreamies dispenser.

It has only taken her three months of me pushing it around the floor to show her what to do, but she is now unstoppable! She sometimes forgets how to use the cat flap, can't jump as well as she used to ,still gives daughter sideways glances when she comes round but she can knock the dreamies out of her cheesy mouse dreamies dispenser!!!

Years ago I had a female tortoiseshell cat who was really clever - having had a tortoiseshell for 16-17 years I never thought I'd see the words "tortoiseshell" and "clever" in the same sentence!!

Ours, bless her, was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She would never push the cat flap to go through it -instead she would bat it with her foot until it swung back towards her enough to catch it and lift it towards her so she could go through.

She would also run up the dressing gowns on the backs of open doors and sit on the top of the door. That was fine, but then she'd reach out with her front feet towards the door frame/architrave - obviously with 2 front feet on the frame and 2 back feet on the door, the door would then slowly open further.....

We have two cats, neither seem to be that bright. The girl cat will use the litter tray, and spend a good couple of minutes scratching at the plastic side of it after, presumably trying to cover up what she has left, with absolutely no success whatsoever. The boy cat spends his whole life looking through our patio doors. If you let him in, he will turn round and sit looking out of them. He is also still terrified of us, after living here for 10 years, unless he is in his basket, when he is quite happy to lay on his back, throat an belly exposed, and be made a fuss of.

The Dreamies mouse seems to be a sort of 11+ for cats, doesn't it? On the basis that Bogbastard mastered it in an evening, he may be grammar school material after all.
His intelligence varies with context though - this is the cat who, when his tail gets wet, convinces himself it is a highly dangerous snake and crouches over it hissing fearsomely. He also likes to lie out along the back of the chair where he fitted nicely as a kitten, ignoring the fact that he's grown to about a stone of cat in the twelve months following. He sort of drapes his middle bit along the chair back and sticks one back leg out for balance each side. Mean humans have been known to tickle his chin at this point, so that he stretches and rolls over ...
My teenage-owned cat, on the other hand, was the most monumentally thick animal I've ever had the pleasure of cohabiting with. Hes the only cat I have ever seen go through a cat flap upside down

Iq goes up & down here.

I think he pretends to be a bit dim sometimes, he's certainly perfected a good blank face.

Portia is pretty bright.. if she could work a can opener she wouldn't need us. Mistress of getting into things, opens doors, excellent communication skills.

Ophie... has just learned to sit on my lap. It has taken her 2 years and 4 months She would jump up, turn around and around and fall off again. I don't think she is Mensa material

Obie.. dear GOD he is stupid. I think pedigrees have all the brain bred out of them if those two are anything to go by!

Both of them seem to forget they have a tail. They drink from the pond allowing their tails to dangle in..huge great Maine Coon tails and then are all surprised when they are wet! Neither can hunt either... Ophie's best catch to date was a worm!

Mine is as thick as shit but she's lovely no matter how much the baby chases her.

Stable cat looked witheringly at the dreamies treat mouse and bit the human closest to her before she threw it on the floor. She rules the place
Ollie... Mmmm. Average cat. His head is mainly full of rainbows and hearts and "I lub my hooman so much and my hooman lubs me tra la la"

Loving this thread.

Little M is incredibly clever, but an idiot savant. I'm pretty sure MCat's the one telling him to open doors etc., because he can't. Like Ollie Cat, Little M's head is full of rainbows, unicorns. Also pinging rubber bands and mischief .

When we were having building works done, we had to decant to PILs. They have dogs, so MCat had to stay upstairs all the time. I was woken one morning to what looked like a pair of white stockinged feet, scissoring through the slightly ajar door. DH had gone for a wee in the night, and in his sleepy state, forgotten to close the bedroom door behind him. Poor black & white MCat couldn't work out how to nudge the door open.

He's happy now he has somebody to do his grunt work.

Mine are a little dim in some ways. 2 of them were indoor cats when I got them... it took them about one year to learn how to jump the fence.

The same 2 are trained on command to get off my lap (only when I really really have to wee obv). They tell me off when they hear the command too :( one of them tells me when she has a flea (she gives me a "look"). She also lies perfectly still while I give her the flea drops... she has worked out that smelly drops = no fleas. Her sister cries like a banshee until I turn the tap on- she has me well trained.

The third recognises weekday and weekend schedules, so let's me have a lie in on weekends :)... shame the other two don't :(