Do Cats Have Instincts?
Althogh cats learn some behavior by watching older cats, many reactions, especially those related to survival, are instinctive. For example, kittens will respond to certain stimuli even before their eyes reopen. If disturbed, they may hiss or spit. They are also horn knowing how to suckle; if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to eat and would soon die.
Another natural habit is for kittens to rest next toothier siblings; this provides both warmth and security. House cats can also produce normal cat sounds without hearing them first. Even kittens born deaf develop their species’ normal repertoire. Cats all seem to be born with a passion for curiosity and wandering, and during adventures they develop enough sense to know the possibility of danger and to land on their feet during fall.
Sexual desires and reactions are instinctive and not learned. When the time comes for queens to become mothers, instinct drives them to look for a partner and get impregnated.
The mother cat instinctively knows how to give birth to and care for the kittens until the kittens are able to care for themselves. Sometimes, after several weeks, when the kittens no longer need quite so much physical protection, she obeys an instinct which tells her to move the nest to a less confined space.
It is unlikely that cats learn these things by watching other cats, because in most cases there are no other cats around to observe. But there are some things that cats do have to learn. Although kittens are born with the instinct not to dirty their own nest, they do not know exactly where to relieve themselves unless they are shown. And even though they appear to know how to bury their feces to protect themselves from predators, it is more likely that they learn this habit by watching other cats. Experiments have demonstrated that cats not shown how to hunt by other cats do not develop skills for killing hunted prey. Most cats who know how to hunt and kill prey have learned this by watching their mothers.
Some experts believe that some of these instincts have been bred out of cats, that years and years of domesticating cats has changed them into more home-like, companionable animals, quite different from the wild cats that formerly roamed the planet. A pet cat that have food, litter box, warmth, amusement, and security provided is much easier than living on its own in the wild. Human intervention which they experience early in their lives gives what-ever wild instincts today’s house cats have little chance to develop very far.