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Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

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Re: Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

#31

Post by idk1 »

I have two cats, one is quite clever and responds to her name, dinner, hop up (for it's ok if you want to sit on my lap) and a few other things. I can ask her to get one of her toys too if she wants the play. She also very rarely meows.

The other cat is not so bright, if you ever say anything to him directly he'll only meow back and come over for a pat, that's it. It's just a back and forth screaming match if you talk to him. The chopsyest cat I've ever met. Just shouts at everyone and everything without purpose.

I think what I'm trying to say is, cats have a range of intelligence and some of them are quite good at learning names.

Re: Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

#32

Post by rvieira »

Totally anecdotal evidence, but I have two cats and I give them "wet" food once a day. If one of them is far from the food bowls I say his name and he immediately comes running. If none is near me, both come running as soon as I call the first name (from different parts of the house). So, non-scientific, but I always assumed they could recognise each other's name.

Re: Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

#33

Post by toss1 »

herodotus wrote: post #21

I have tried to train my two cats with just these words: 1. "Let's go" - morning meal 2. "Upstairs" - I am going to bed 3. "Dinner" (plus clink bowls together) - evening meal 4. "Lie Down" and their names. Emerald, who prefers being upstairs, definitely responds to "Upstairs": she charges upstairs when I say it. Jade remains enigmatic and skeptical: that seems to be her nature. But if she is in the mood for a tummy r…

Long and close observation of cats leads me to the inescapable conclusion that the latter is almost always the case. The number of times they understand some obscure thing exactly when I have no expectation that they'll get it at all, and their ability to selectively ignore the things I know they already understand, plus their ability to ask for complex things (where often I'm the dummy in the conversation) makes it a pretty inescapable conclusion. . .

Re: Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

#34

Post by personlurking »

nerdjon wrote: post #5

I am both surprised and not surprised by this. It does kinda make sense, I have 2 cats (from the same litter and have been together their entire lives. 14 yo now). They each clearly respond to their name and not their brothers name. Or at least respond differently, but I have noticed they look up sometimes if I call one and not the other (but won't run up to me). I have long though it was them responding to the "pet…

The other day on Reddit [1] there was a video of farm animals reacting to their names, but I think it's just responding to the "pet voice", or rather to their food provider vocalizing in their direction.

1 - https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/uq5yjo/animal...

Re: Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

#36

Post by praptak »

smcl wrote: post #35

A weird amount of people I knew growing up named their cats just "cat" or "kitten". Every dog had a name (even in households that had a "cat" cat) but not all cats. I wonder if the cats figure their own names out in these cases :)

It's acceptance of the fact that cats don't respond to commands.

Re: Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

#37

Post by at_a_remove »

News-Dog wrote: post #16

A friend of mine tooking in a cat that had been owned by a deaf family. This cat didn't make any noise (meow) at all, if she wanted to go out, etc., she would run between you legs, (yes, totally under-foot!) a major trip hazard. I taught her how to vocalize very quickly, which she understood we would hear, and would respond too.

Meowing is definitely a "please parent me" behavior. It took quite some time to domesticate two feral cats that were nearby -- many years. The meowing reflex was not present until much much later. One cat would open her mouth but forget to make the sound, but she eventually caught up to her brother, who would correct her by looking at her and meowing if she forgot.

Re: Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

#38

Post by cmrdporcupine »

devmor wrote: post #11
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #6

Cats have friend cats? I'm surprised. This seems like the exception rather than the rule. Seems to me like most cats prefer a life without other cats around... with human caretakers and all the comforts they provide... kept all to themselves. In my almost-50 years I think I've only met "cats with cat friends" a handful of times. Even when we had a pair of sibling cats that "liked" each other, when one of them died th…

In nature, cats form colonies where they take communal care of the young, old and infirm. One of the core behaviors of cats is hunting and providing for colony members who are too weak to do so. Cats being "solitary" animals is largely a misunderstanding of cat behavior towards humans due to cat affection being expressed differently than dog affection.

"hunting and providing for colony members who are too weak to do so."

Is that why my cat dropped a dead vole on our doorstep last week? Is she sad that we're deprived of such essentials? :-)

Re: Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

#39

Post by gquiniou »

devmor wrote: post #11
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #6

Cats have friend cats? I'm surprised. This seems like the exception rather than the rule. Seems to me like most cats prefer a life without other cats around... with human caretakers and all the comforts they provide... kept all to themselves. In my almost-50 years I think I've only met "cats with cat friends" a handful of times. Even when we had a pair of sibling cats that "liked" each other, when one of them died th…

In nature, cats form colonies where they take communal care of the young, old and infirm. One of the core behaviors of cats is hunting and providing for colony members who are too weak to do so. Cats being "solitary" animals is largely a misunderstanding of cat behavior towards humans due to cat affection being expressed differently than dog affection.

feral cats tend to form colonies but wild cats are solitary, like the european wildcat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wildcat

Re: Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

#40

Post by t-3 »

I have two cats, a young male (perhaps not coincidentally, a colony rescue?) and a very elderly female. When I let them outside, if I call them to come in, the younger will find the older and herd her to the door. He then vigorously resists coming inside himself. He's also very vocal, and his tone of voice will change depending on whether he's happy to see me and wanting pets or if I'm ruining his stalking and spying or he doesn't want to come inside (the other just ignores me and does whatever she wants).
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