I know this girl and I have been spending a bit of time with her lately. She has two cats. One is a very friendly cat. It plays, it head butts you, it purrs and hops in your lap. The other is a nasty piece of work. It hates me.
It looks at me, it will be in another room and walk into the room I’m in and glare at me. I try to play with it and it just looks at me like I’M STUPID for even asking him to play with him.
I asked my lady friend if something was wrong with him. She said that no, he’s always been like that to everyone. She then said that she didn’t really want to take him but the two cats were brothers and she got them when they were kittens so she didn’t want to separate them.
That surprised me that two cats from the same litter, same mother would be so different. I am not a cat person. I had a cat and dog growing up. My cat was pretty much indifferent. She was like “pick me up/put me down I don’t care.” It wasn’t till I was 25 when I realized some cats were actually fun.
I’m definitely a dog person but my friend assures me, it isn’t me, the other cat, not only doesn’t like people but goes out of his way to inform you he doesn’t like you
That stated, like I said, the other cat is a nice fun cat. They’re both tuxedo cats, if that matters.
My question is, is this common in cats? For one sibling cat to be nice and the other mean. You think coming from the same litter they’d be similar in behavior. I don’t have pics of the guys now, but if I keep seeing her I’ll get some.
We have two sisters, Lisa and Trudy. Lisa, we call “Clinically Depressed Kitty” - she’s quiet and reserved, always on the sidelines. Trudy is a flamboyant, loud, obnoxious bitch. Not mean, but super-diva-ish, and very much the opposite of Lisa.
Doyou have any siblings? Are they just like you? No? There ya go.
We had a litter of kittens a few years ago. Even at the tender age of 2 weeks they all had distinct personalities. We ended up keeping the shy one. She went to two different homes, where she wouldn’t come out from hiding even to eat. She’s now 11 years old. she still hides most of the time. I’m the only person who can pet her. Her littermates we still know are all happy and friendly.
Common enough, sure. Cats are probably a tad bit more individualistic than dogs in this regards, because they haven’t gone through nearly as much deliberate breeding for specific behaviors. But you can see it in dog litters as well, often in the sense of bold vs. shy littermates.
However another thing to remember is if these cats were from a shelter and they had a stray or feral mom in any kind of suburban/urban setting ( less so in rural areas were a tough tom has a better chance to monopolize all the action in a thinner population ), that the same litter can have multiple fathers. Indeed you could potentially get six kittens from the same litter all with different dads :). They’re induced ovulators when in heat - cat mom screws dad, egg drops and is fertilized. Cat mom screws dad #2, egg drops and is fertilized. Repeat ;).
And different dads can have markedly different personalities that pass down. It has been at least anecdotally demonstrated that the more generations cats reproduce as ferals, the wilder and less tameable they become on average. That’s why some feral kittens can be essentially never be fully tamed, while others tame readily.
For instance I think it was Zsofia ( ? ) that had acquired a super-friendly feral kitten in a family of a shyer mom and kittens. That’s pretty unusual, but it may be that her’s was specifically the son of a friendly housecat, while the others had wilder dads ( just speculation, but it could be part of the answer ).
Even the fact that they are both tuxedo can’t guarantee the same father. Both black and piebald spotting are dominant traits, hence how common that pattern is.
