Does a cat ever wonder why humans feed them?

Comments

• Izzy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’m pretty sure they think of the person taking care of them as some analogous of a mother. We should be careful not to anthropomorphism their emotions as they are probably not quite as complex as we would like. They certainly have some degree of emotions though.

  But they have no concept of “human” or “mother” so I would guess it is more like “thing stops hunger, thing warm, thing safe”. Thus they bother you when they are hungry, sit on you when they are cold and come to you when they are afraid.

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  • Pechente@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    To support your theory: Wild cats don’t meow when they’re grown up. They usually only do this as kittens. When they grow up around humans they keep this trait to communicate with humans. So yeah, we’re like moms or something to them.

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    • Tywele@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      In addition to this they also meow in the frequency of a crying baby to get our attention much easier IIRC

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    • Repossess6855@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Love this. I’ve also read they can learn and adjust how much they meow based on some of the feedback they get from the owner, ie if you actually respond to each meow with your own voice or similar. Really neat stuff

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    • echo@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      my cat came from a hoarder and the shelter said she might not be very well socialized because there were so many cats that they wouldn’t have gotten much human attention, but she literally never stops meowing

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    • EhList@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I wonder if adult cats communicate in ranges we cannot hear such as when a cat looks at yiu opens its mouth and nothing comes out

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  • Smoogy@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    My cat guards me while I’m on the toilet, ready to take on any predators while I’m in a vulnerable state. You can’t convince me they have less than complex emotions.

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    • thorbot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      They are inexorably drawn to the comfort of the pants-cavern you create around your ankles

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    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You feed them, if you die while pooping, they don’t get fed.

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    • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Likewise, one of my cats wants me to guard him while he’s on the shitter.

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    • hmart316@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I thought only my weirdo cat did this. He’s my little poop buddy.

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  • BornVolcano@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    They have no concept of “human” or “mother”

    Actually, they do. Maybe not in the words we use for it, but a cat can recognize their mother and can determine humans apart from other species. It may not be an complex psychological process of ranking them, but they recognize.

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    • Domille@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      also humans apart from each other. Our cat chose us (my husband and I) to be her humans, so she’s super affectionate with us. Other humans? She does not give a crap about anyone else. She will never come snuggle with a guest for example, but she will snuggle with me all day.

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  • thekaufaz@toast.ooo ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Feral cats I’ve been feeding daily for 3 years still won’t let me get close or pet them. They do not see me as a mother or warm and safe. I think they see me as a slot machine.

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  • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I don’t necessarily disagree that cats don’t have as much emotional depth as humans, but I also think you’re selling them a bit short on their ability to think abstractly or emotionally. And it of course varies from cat to cat. They can express fear, affection, curiosity, frustration, satisfaction, anxiety, depression, caution, anger, overstimulation, desire, boredom, jealousy and plenty of other emotions. If you pay attention to body language and their vocalizations/ lack of vocalization, you can interpret much of what’s going on in their heads. They’re very expressive creatures much of the time. I’m not really anthropomorphizing either. I do that, cause they’re cute little goofballs, but it’s a voluntary effort I put in when I want to fawn over them a little. It’s easy to notice when I’m anthropomorphizing them and when I’m observing their emotional state, as they’re usually separate from one another

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  • ziggurism@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Probably all mammals have a concept of “mother” even if it’s just a nonverbal instinct

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  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yeah, they’re pattern recognition machines like pretty much every animal and definitely every predator

    As far as the think, humans feed them at certain times or when they complain loud enough. That’s all the “why” they need.

    Basic cause and effect, nothing deeper.

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    • can@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Just like us

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  • Fredselfish@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    True cats don’t have family bonds way humans do. We took in a cat from my ex who is the sister of one of ours and the mother to other and both my cats hate her even though related.

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    • Doug@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You never met anyone who hated part of their family?

      I know some Thanksgiving dinners you could go to…

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    • Wooly@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Had they every met before? If cats grow up together of course they’ll be nicer/more familiar.

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• tunetardis@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I think it depends a lot on the individual cat? In my experience, their attitudes towards humans can vary quite considerably.

  Some are more aloof and independent and see their human as a source of food like you say.

  But then I think about our current cat. He’s a rescue who’s clearly been through a lot on the streets. When I come home, he just wants to climb onto me and head butt and do that slow blink thing. He wants this more than food, even, which is a first for me.

  When we were adopting him, we fostered first for a couple of weeks before he had to go in for a surgery, and in the week or so when e was boarded, the staff said he was wailing every night wanting to go home. So he had clearly developed an attachment to us that transcended simply wanting any human who provides food and shelter.

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  • Repossess6855@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I agree with this too. Depends on the cat. One I know of will take attention anytime over food, it’s crazy.

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    • Sabata11792@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Depends on the food. If I got the normal dry food, she will wait until head pats are done. Treats, shes willing to work for and do tricks.

      If i got the good wet food, its a life and death situation. Usually she's so excited I can't get her to focus on doing tricks.

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• Bumblebb@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I mean it depends on the cat

  I have a feral who acts like it's some great coincidence that she lives in the ultimate lap of developed world luxury and humans just happen to be there and no they can't touch her

  I have two kitten brothers who only love because they are fed. If one of us starts being more regular about feeding them then that's their new best friend

  I have an old lady cat who couldn't care less about food she just wants her belly rubbed and a friend to be with

  My husband has his geriatric boy who I'm fairly certain is a small man in a cat suit. He keeps us all on a tight schedule of demands.

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• SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’ve read that cats assume we are a giant, weird looking cat otherwise why are we feeding them? And they treat us as a parent causing them to stay in a juvenile state so they engage in play behavior and such. Normally the mom cat would tell her kids to move out after a few months.

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  • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Normally the mom cat would tell her kids to move out after a few months.

    Exactly this, we had a cat that did this that I mentioned in another comment. It was quite brutal to watch, as we happily would have kept both mother and child, but cats don’t work like that.

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• theneverfox@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I think people often underestimate the animal mind

  It’s not like they have discrete thoughts in words, but animals form friendships even across species in the wild. It’s not abnormal for one animal to partner up with another - with an imbalance in size/strength the smaller one often will scout out prey and the larger one will give them scraps. Sometimes equals will share territory and even raise kittens/cubs together, taking turns babysitting.

  With less abundant food, that’s certainly got to be more rare now, but we’ve seen it happen, even captured it at length on video

  Cats are going to have all sorts of ideas about our relationship, from a parent to a big predator friend to a giant clueless kitten. Or, maybe just another predator sharing space, or sometimes they totally discard their instincts and live by human rules

  It’s not so dissimilar from what we’d think if an alien took us as a pet and we didn’t try to put a label on it - every relationship is unique

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• HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  “I deserve this”

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  • Agent641@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “Once again, the ransom payment is on time.”

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  • mryessir@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Fixed it:

    Hey, cat here. I just deserve it.

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  • stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    pretty sure cats know they’re gods in the human world

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• over_clox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Not related to food, more to your second question…

  “What do cats think of their humans?”

  I had one cat that apparently thought something was wrong with my face because I wear glasses. Any time he got close enough to my face, he’d try in his own silly gentle way to ‘help’ me by gently biting the hinge on my glasses and pulling them off my face LOL!

  Was the weirdest cool quirk I’ve ever seen out of any cat. I could tell he was deliberately doing it in his own effort to try to ‘help’ me. Never could totally break him of that habit either, I just had to make a point to not let him get that close to my face.

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• Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  They probably wonder why we don’t more often.

  I’ve seen my cat look at his empty food bowl after he ate everything in 2 seconds and then look at me like “hey, what the fuck dude?”

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• radix@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  My cats are more likely to wonder why they aren’t being fed RIGHT NOW.

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  • suzyq@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I have one that will relentlessly attack anything plastic - like Ziploc, trash bags, store bought bread - until someone refills the food. Had to buy an honest to goodness bread box so she’d stop destroying the loaves.

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• UncleBadTouch@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Cat: “Why has it taken you so long to feed me? I can see the bottom of the bowl, WTF is going on? Do you know how close to death I was?”

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• VeryAmaze@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  In the wild, cat moms would share mothering duties. So a kitten would have a mom and a bunch of aunts.
  Wild cats generally only meow when they are kittens communicating with their mom. Kneading ('making biscuits') is also something they only do to their mom (it stimulate milk production).
  Domesticated socialized cats basically... Mentally stay in the kittenhood phase. So they literally think you are their mom or aunt.

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• dulce_3t_decorum_3st@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  If my cat can’t connect his relentless walking over my head while I’m sleeping, and then guiding me to his bowl, with me actually feeding him, there’s no hope for the little shit.

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  • 001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    “Annoying the human will magically summon food. Must annoy the human more!”

    -😺

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• Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I think it depends on the cat and also on the moment. Sometimes it’s “Thanks fam, I know you can be relied on to bring the cat food.” Other times it’s “Okay kid, you need to work on those clumsy hunting skills, try practicing with this dead mouse.” And sometimes it’s " Hey, fam, come you never share the good stuff, like that pizza?!" It’s a bit like stepsiblings in a feral cat colony, they teach each other and sometimes fight but also defend and share and groom each other.

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• MxM111@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I am quite sure it is not like “HUMAN, WHERE IS MY FOOD?”

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• BornVolcano@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I don’t think they question it. Just like if you feed a stray cat, they will often continue to come back

  “Human gives food. I stay with human.”

  It was this evolutionary trait that allowed us to domesticate animals in the first place. It’s a trust bond, not a superiority one.

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• Hogger85b@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  My cat brings me "offerings" back too

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  • cerevant@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I think this is essentially the answer to OP - Cats understand the concept of feeding their family, and eventually figure out that the person is a pretty effective provider.

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• Niello@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I don't think this question is that different from asking whether a cat ever wonder why a dog might want to play with it. A cat probably assume something, which might not even be the same as another cat. It probably also depends on their personality. Kind of like how humans often assume certain things without thinking about it too deeply, like the motivation of another person, even if that assumption is wrong.

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• VanillaGorilla@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  First is a cat, second is a dog.

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