Link Jennifer K, Moody Carly M
The Animal Welfare Epidemiology Laboratory, Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Anim Welf. 2025 Jun 23;34:e39. doi: 10.1017/awf.2025.10013. eCollection 2025.
Socialisation is important for normal social and behavioural development in companion animals. However, little research has focused on kitten socialisation or owner attitudes towards kitten socialisation programmes. Thus, we used a quantitative online survey to describe US cat owner attitudes towards kitten socialisation and elucidate aspects of socialisation programmes deemed important by owners. Questions (n = 45) included participant demographics, participant experiences with socialisation, information regarding participants' cats (), where participants receive socialisation information, and rating the importance of socialisation components. Participants were recruited via advertisements posted on social media and an online news article. Of the 2,238 responses, participants were most frequently women (74.7%), owning two cats (38.0%), who had not worked with cats professionally (72.9%). Most participants had not heard of socialisation programmes for kittens (69.3%), but would be interested in enrolling in a future programme (50.4%). Participants indicated important aspects of kitten socialisation programmes as: education about reducing problem behaviours (87%); understanding cat body language (85.8%); and getting kittens used to handling (83.1%). A logistic regression revealed that the presence of aggression in their current cat predicted interest in a future programme, as well as living in an urban or suburban area. These results suggest a lack of owner awareness of kitten socialisation, and indicate many owners are interested in enrolling in a future kitten socialisation programme. Further research should explore methods to improve access to kitten socialisation information, elucidate components of current socialisation programmes, and assess their impact on owner management and cat behaviour.
社交化对于伴侣动物的正常社交和行为发展很重要。然而，很少有研究关注小猫的社交化或主人对小猫社交化项目的态度。因此，我们进行了一项定量在线调查，以描述美国养猫主人对小猫社交化的态度，并阐明主人认为重要的社交化项目方面。问题（共45个）包括参与者的人口统计学信息、社交化经历、参与者猫咪的相关信息、参与者获取社交化信息的渠道，以及对社交化组成部分重要性的评分。参与者通过社交媒体上发布的广告和一篇在线新闻文章招募。在2238份回复中，参与者大多为女性（74.7%），拥有两只猫（38.0%），且没有从事过与猫相关的专业工作（72.9%）。大多数参与者没有听说过小猫社交化项目（69.3%），但有兴趣参加未来的项目（50.4%）。参与者指出小猫社交化项目的重要方面包括：减少问题行为的教育（87%）；理解猫的肢体语言（85.8%）；以及让小猫习惯被抚摸（83.1%）。逻辑回归分析显示，他们当前的猫存在攻击性以及居住在城市或郊区预测了对未来项目的兴趣。这些结果表明主人对小猫社交化缺乏认知，并表明许多主人有兴趣参加未来的小猫社交化项目。进一步的研究应探索改善获取小猫社交化信息的方法，阐明当前社交化项目的组成部分，并评估其对主人管理和猫行为的影响。
