Why do baby animals & young humans eventually stop engaging in rough play?

Factual Questions
1

A friend online has a pair of 6-week-old kittens that she’s been fostering since birth and has decided to adopt with their mom. She posts a lot of videos of the kittens and they pounce on each other and wrestle a lot, to both of their amusement. I remarked that I’m going to have to relearn that in kittens this is normal and not as alarming as when adult cats attack each other.

The adult cats I’ve owned would engage in play fighting once in a while but only about 5% as often as kittens do. And about half the time it wasn’t fun for both and one would turn it into a real fight.

I don’t have nearly as much experience with owning multiple dogs but when we did have 2-3 I don’t recall them tustling like puppies, well, ever. We never had two males, though. Just one male and two females (briefly, the dog we inherited didn’t live too much longer herself).

Small humans enjoy wrestling too, especially when their parents are on Zoom calls…

But eventually knocking someone down and nipping at them becomes less fun for puppies and kittens, and little humans are less likely to find fighting fun too.

I assumed with kids that threaten of punishment or just adult disapproval weighed more than the entertainment value socialized them out of it but that doesn’t really explain the baby animals. Dogs are taken from their parents long before they’re grown so other dogs aren’t teaching them advanced doggy decorum. And cats don’t care what humans want so it’s not a desire to please us that stops their behavior.

So what does?

2

Ideally kittens and puppies aren’t taken too early - 8 weeks is a better age for both puppies and kittens for exactly this reason. Because it is in fact socialization with peers that trains hard biting out of both. If your puppy or kitten didn’t get enough socialization it is incumbent on you to train them properly and there are a billion links online on how to do so( it’s pretty simple - at base you sort of replicate how a peer would act by yelping and withdrawing from contact ).

And yes kittens do care about pleasing you and in a roughly similar fashion to puppies. While adult cats aren’t as group-oriented as dogs, kittens want to engage with their surrogate parents/playmates and are in fact trainable for normal developmental stuff like this.

3

Think what might happen if fully grown tigers pounced on each other and engaged in rough play with claws out. The animals instinctively know this and become justifiably wary. Note that when they do fight, they use the same moves they carefully cultivated and refined during play-fighting.

Some humans do engage in rough sports, including wrestling. Who says they stop?

4

In animals, a lot of “play” is developing innate hunting skills or establishing dominance over their siblings. Watch Too Cute and immediately after pups and kittens are born, they start tumbling over each in in “playlike” manner as they seek their mother’s milk. Within days, an alpha (usually the largest) is soon established, though that may change as they get older.

We had five Maltese, Mama, Papa, two boys and a girl (two litters). Mama was a few years older than Papa and would play with the kids when they were young, but stopped as they grew older. Papa and the kids played together throughout their lives, in various combinations, but rarely all at once. Mama never played with kids after the second litter and occasionally with Papa, but never the kids. Mama was clearly the Alpha dog and she would occasionally play with us because we were her Alpha.

These are just two reasons theorized for play: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beastly-behavior/201705/why-play-is-important.

But sometimes it may just be fun:https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/2/150219-crocodiles-playing-animals-science-behavior-fun/

I suspect wrestling in small children is related to the innate (though largely suppressed as we grow older) physical desire for dominance and peeking order. It’s fun only as long there’s a bit of fair play and give and take. Continually physically dominate a small child and it soon stops being fun and the child won’t “play” anymore.

Watch this video of a gorilla playing with son: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1TVgKypBwE Awww…

Then watch this this video of a youngster annoying his Dad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c4QcbmuWmc Ohhh…

Remind you of some Dads you know?

As for cats, well they’re just natural jerks! :stuck_out_tongue:

Seriously though, if the “play” turns into a fight, it probably was never play to begin with. Watch for these signs when you see two cats “playing”: https://www.wikihow.pet/Know-if-Cats-Are-Playing-or-Fighting

As for nipping, like all babies, animals go through teething pain and learning how to use their teeth. This article talks about dogs, https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/dog-care/common-dog-behavior-issues/mouthing-nipping-and-play-biting-adult-dogs, but I’ve seen the same behavior in cats in real life and other animals on TV. A yelp while playing means back off.

If hunting, it means you’ve got a good hold on your prey and once it stops, you’re ready to eat! https://www.caninejournal.com/why-do-dogs-like-squeaky-toys/

5

maturity

6

I’ve known multiple cats to engage in vigorous wrestling play well into their teens, provided they’ve got a suitable partner to wrestle with.

My current eight-year-old is recently very happy because, after several years of there being nobody living here who was willing to wrestle with him properly (by his standards of properly), a now approximately two year old tomcat showed up on my doorstep in February. While I had to keep them separated for some time to prevent actual serious cat fights, by the time I’d given up on finding the new cat’s previous humans and gotten him neutered they were used to each other’s scent; and they now spend quite a while each day going at each other vigorously. Minor scratches are quite common but it’s obviously play and no significant injury occurs – they’re both quite practiced at this.

The current Old Cat stopped being much interested in wrestle games by her early teens, but her littermate brother kept right on wrestling with the current eight-year-old after he arrived, and kept it up until his strength started to fail him in his last couple of years.

There’s also a three-plus year old who Does Not Want to wrestle. I’m not sure whether she wasn’t well socialized to such games (I didn’t meet her till she was two), or whether she just feels outclassed by the much more athletic other two, or whether she just doesn’t like wrestling. It might have something to do with gender; but the Old Cat is female and wrestled with her brother for quite a few years after the age of three.

7

You can see plenty of this going on right now on this rescue webcam. Enjoy!