Understanding feline emotions: … and their role in problem behaviours

Abstract

Practical relevance:

Despite its importance, emotional health is a subject that is sadly neglected in the context of companion animals. Understanding emotions is at the heart of veterinary behavioural medicine and is key to preventing, managing and treating reported behavioural problems in domestic cats.

Clinical challenges:

On a daily basis, veterinary practices are presented with the physical health impact of emotional health and with emotionally motivated behaviours that are undesirable to owners and/or detrimental to the cat. Emotional health is of equal importance to physical health and lies at the very core of veterinary medicine. Clinically, the emotional motivation for a behaviour must be identified before an assessment is made of whether the motivation is contextually appropriate and whether the cat’s response is justified and normal, or abnormal in the circumstances.

Evidence base:

The majority of referenced evidence for our understanding of emotional motivations in mammals has come from the human field, but recently there has been increasing interest in the emotional health of non-human animals and a resulting growth in research. This review draws on the published literature and the author’s personal experience to explore how emotions can influence feline behaviours.

Global importance:

Understanding the importance of emotional health is a major factor in ensuring positive welfare for cats, wherever they are kept as companion animals. It impacts on their physical health and their quality of life, and also on the relationship between cat and owner.

Introduction

Veterinary practices are presented on a daily basis with the physical impact of emotional health.^1,2 In addition, the behavioural manifestations of emotional motivations may be considered undesirable by owners and may also be detrimental to the individual cat, or sometimes impact negatively on the welfare of other cats. Behavioural issues are reported as a key reason for relinquishment of cats, sometimes very soon after adoption, as well as requests for euthanasia.^3,4

Feline stress in association with veterinary practice visits has been identified as one of the principal reasons for owners delaying taking their pet cats for veterinary attention and this has major implications in terms of feline health and welfare. ⁵ Minimising the negative impact of the veterinary visit on pet cats and their owners can help optimise detection, management and treatment of physical feline diseases.

Publications specifically about the emotional health of cats are relatively rare and recent, but there are articles from as long ago as 1990 that look at feline emotions from a neurophysiological perspective. ⁶ Improved understanding of the clinical implications of emotional motivation depends on continued research and the application of understanding of emotional states to the domestic cat. ⁷

Motivational-emotional systems

From an affective neuroscientific perspective, adapted and developed from Panksepp, ⁹ emotions can be classified into different motivational systems. These are used to understand the normal behavioural responses of a species and can be grouped into positive and negative categories. They are also beneficial in explaining why behavioural responses can become problematic.

Positive emotional motivations

Desire-seeking system

This is a general purpose neuronal system that motivates animals to move to places where they have more potential for finding and consuming resources needed for survival; for example, food, water and shelter. ¹⁰ in a clinical context the behavioural manifestations of this system include predatory behaviour, object play and social interaction. The fact that cats are non-obligate in terms of social interaction in adulthood means that the desire-seeking motivational drive to acquire social interaction is very different from that demonstrated in socially obligate mammals such as dogs, horses and humans. The role of resource availability in learning is associated with the desire-seeking system. ¹¹ This occurs through positive reinforcement in operant conditioning and cueing of positive emotion in counter conditioning, and makes the system extremely important in the application of behavioural modification.

Social play system

This system gives information to individuals about their own social competence and potential in relation to others. The domestic cat is motivated by this system in its interaction with other cats, and in particular young kittens have a high drive for social play (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Young kittens have a high drive for social play. Courtesy of Claire Bessant

In socially mature cats, where social interaction is not an obligate requirement for survival, the motivation of social play can be significantly diminished but there is considerable individual variation.

Lust system

The ‘lust system’ organises the specific reproductive needs, ranging from the attraction or selection of a partner, through courtship to any potential bond, to mating with a sexual partner. In many western countries, this system is the least likely to be relevant to the behaviour of pet cats since the vast majority of kittens are neutered prepubertally.

For those keeping cats for breeding and showing, the presence of entire cats in their households can be associated with behavioural responses that can cause a degree of inconvenience, and the cats themselves may suffer from an inability to act on their lust motivation. In some situations, housing in order to limit the negative effects of this motivation may place additional pressures on the cats through compromising their environmental needs, and this must be taken into account if their welfare is to be protected. For example, if an entire male cat is urine spraying as a result of the lust motivation, this can lead to decisions to house the cat in an easily cleanable enclosure, which may well lack the necessary environmental complexity to fulfil feline needs, such as the ability to engage in play and predatory behaviour. In addition, using solitary pens away from the main housing areas in order to reduce scent communication with the entire females and reduce the risk of unpleasant olfactory working conditions for people can impact the provision of consistent and predictable human social interaction. ¹²

Care system

The ‘care system’ is dedicated to maintaining the bonds to individual offspring through recognisable parental care (Figure 2) and is also involved in nurturing behaviour towards others. In socially obligate species, such as horses, dogs and humans, the behavioural manifestations of the care system are seen in a variety of relationships not confined to the parent-offspring interaction. Cats are, as already discussed, not obligate in their social behaviour in adulthood and the motivation of care is often less significant once they have become socially mature. However, there is considerable individual variation and many owners do report examples of care-motivated nurturing behaviours demonstrated by adult neutered pet cats toward other cats and sometimes other pet species within the household. These individuals will often ‘mother’ the newcomer and owners describe them as being very caring in terms of spending time with the other animal and perhaps washing and grooming it.

Figure 2.

One positive emotional motivation is the care system, which is dedicated to maintaining the bonds to individual offspring through recognisable parental care. Image ©iStock/oksun70

Negative emotional motivations

Frustration system

The ‘frustration system’ is triggered by a failure to meet expectations, obtain resources or retain control. This system intensifies and accelerates behavioural responses. It is associated with aggressive behaviours when animals do not have control over a situation, or when they are irritated or restrained. As a species that is non-obligate in terms of social interaction and is a solitary survivor, the need to be in control is a fundamental part of the feline behavioural repertoire. This increases the potential for cats to perceive a lack of control and to experience frustration as a result.

The emotion of frustration can be triggered in association with any of the other systems, since an inability to react to other emotional motivations in a manner that the cat perceives to be appropriate will result in triggering of the frustration system.

Fear–anxiety system

The ‘fear–anxiety system’ relates to the preservation of comfort provided by predictable access to essential resources and the management of threats to personal or resource security. This system intrinsically helps an animal to avoid dangers since it is more adaptive to experience anticipatory fear (anxiety), and engage in resulting behavioural responses that limit potential exposure to a threat, than it is to be attacked and harmed.

The behavioural responses to the emotion of fear-anxiety are designed to ensure survival and often result in an increase in distance from the perceived challenge or a decrease in interaction with it. However, emotional systems are not mutually exclusive and in some situations the coexistence of positive emotional motivation in the same context can lead to a desire to remain in the presence of the threat and to adopt information-gathering behavioural responses that aim to limit the potential for a negative outcome. This is less likely in the cat due to the non-obligate nature of its social behaviour.

Understanding and recognising the difference between frustration and fear-anxiety is a particular challenge in a feline clinical context. For example, there is often a tendency to assume that any cat that is aggressive in the veterinary practice is motivated by fear-anxiety, but frustration is a common motivation for feline repulsion responses.

Pain system

The ‘pain system’ is related to the maintenance of body integrity and functioning, and it is both a distinct sensation and a motivation. ¹³ The pain system is associated with the preservation of physical comfort and, as such, can also be considered to be part of the fear-anxiety system. In a veterinary clinical context the importance of pain as a potential factor in behavioural presentations is significant and consideration of pain as an emotional motivational system is beneficial. While the most obvious contribution of pain to behavioural reactions may be the contribution of acute pain (Figure 3a), the influence of chronic pain (Figure 3b) in behavioural cases is common and the potential for learned behavioural responses to persist following an experience of pain also needs to be considered.

Figure 3.

Pain – whether acute (a) or chronic (b) – is an important emotional motivation in the veterinary clinical context. For example, for cats with osteoarthritis, chronic pain may make accessing preferred sleeping places more difficult, and modification of the environment is important. Courtesy of Sheilah Robertson (a) and Deb Givin (b)

Panic–grief system

This system is related to safeguarding the survival of young and therefore the protection of the genetic survival of the species. Before they are able to protect themselves, young animals start to exhibit powerful emotional arousal indicating desperate need for nurturing care. Kittens will ‘cry’ when separated from their mother and this vocalisation is designed to alert the queen to a need to seek, retrieve and attend to her kittens. This system is most commonly displayed by young kittens, as they have a need for social interaction; it is a less strongly motivated drive in adult cats as a result of their solitary survivor social behaviour. However, behaviour that is motivated by the panic–grief system is reported in older cats and can be displayed in relation to the loss of a bonded cat such as a sibling.

Some authors also suggest that separation from human caregivers can lead to a distress response due to a heightened level of attachment to the person in some individual cats. This is not universally accepted and the term ‘separation anxiety’ is often used when authors describe this behaviour. However, if the distress is thought to be related to removal of a nurturing attachment figure the panic–grief motivational system would be involved.^14,15

Potential behavioural responses to negative emotion

In the presence of a trigger for negative emotion (fear and anxiety in particular) the cat can have two possible aims:

• To increase distance from and/or decrease interaction with the trigger.

• To gather more information about the trigger.

Responses that increase distance and/or decrease interaction

Avoidance

This is a preferred feline strategy that makes perfect sense in terms of the social behaviour of the domestic cat. As non-obligate social animals, protection of self is a primary aim and the increasing of distance and decreasing of interaction through their own actions, rather than inducing a reaction in others, is a more reliable way of maintaining control over the situation. There is a range of possible avoidance behaviours, from the more passive eye aversion (Figure 4) to the more active response of physically running away.

Figure 4.

Eye aversion can be used as a form of avoidance behaviour, particularly when cats are in close proximity and physical avoidance runs the risk of inducing chase

Repulsion

This response involves the individual cat inducing a reaction in the trigger that will serve to increase distance or decrease interaction. The most commonly quoted examples of repulsion are active responses such as swiping (Figure 5a), chasing and biting. These are sometimes referred to as ‘aggressive’ behaviours. In addition repulsion can be achieved through more passive means such as staring or physically blocking (Figure 5b) behaviours that are often overlooked or misinterpreted in the domestic cat context.

Figure 5.

In the presence of a trigger for negative emotion, repulsion is one response that is used to increase distance and decrease interaction. Repulsion can be achieved through ‘aggressive’ behaviours, such as swiping (a), as well as more passive behaviours, such as staring (b). Images ©iStock/Edith64 (a) and ©iStock/tzahiV (b)

Responses that result in acquisition of information

Inhibition

This term refers to the collection of information about a trigger without the individual becoming actively involved, and can be achieved through the sensory systems of auditory, olfactory and visual communication. These behaviours are passive in nature and commonly displayed by feline species. They are often overlooked or misinterpreted within the domestic cat context. Auditory inhibition behaviour will involve listening; visual involves looking or watching; and olfactory involves sniffing.

The cat may voluntarily remain at a distance from the trigger while engaging in these behaviours. In some situations the matter of proximity is out of the control of the cat and inhibition behaviour can be seen when cats are in close proximity to a trigger; for example, a veterinary surgeon during examination or an owner during their intended displays of affection toward the cat.

Appeasement

This term refers to the active gathering of information, which may also involve some form of interaction with the trigger. This is the least common response in adult cats due to their non-obligate social behaviour. In obligate social mammals, where the positive emotional motivation of desire-seeking is involved in social interaction, emotional conflict can develop (the animal may be negatively motivated by a social trigger due to personal perceptions, while still being positively motivated through their species-specific social drives). In this situation, engagement with the trigger, in order to find out more about it, is more likely to be seen.

If appeasement is displayed by cats, be they kittens or individual more socially motivated adults, it will involve the use of sensory (auditory, visual, olfactory or tactile) communication. In contrast to obligate social animals, the purpose of both giving out information and gathering information from the other individual is to ensure their own safety, rather than adopting the alternative strategy of modifying their behaviour to enhance the possibility of successful social interaction.

• Visual appeasement will involve the giving of information through body language signals, such as ear position, facial expression or whole body posture, while also collecting visual information from the trigger, such as the other cat/animal.

• Auditory appeasement will involve vocalisation as well as listening.

• Olfactory appeasement will involve active exchange of scent information between the cat and the trigger, which obviously will only be successful in the context of intraspecific encounters.

• Tactile contact is the least likely to be used in a context of appeasement by cats. However, it is the most likely to have an aim of facilitating social interaction and is usually reserved for individuals within the same social group, both feline and of other species, such as family dogs or people.

Figure 6.

Hunting may be seen as problematic by owners, but for the cat this is a positive emotional motivation. Image ©iStock/joegolby

Determining the significance of emotional motivation

Once the motivational-emotional system(s) involved in a given behavioural presentation have been identified, it is important to decide whether the emotions are justified by the context, whether the behavioural response is justified by the emotion and whether the behavioural response is normal in terms of intensity and duration in relation to the context. When problematic behaviours are motivated by emotional systems that are unjustified by the context and consist of behavioural responses that are out of proportion in terms of intensity and duration, an emotional disorder exists. Veterinary behavioural medicine is the discipline that deals with emotional disorders in non-human animals.

It is important to remember that not all behavioural presentations in domestic cats fit into the category of emotional disorder and that some behaviours that owners find unacceptable and undesirable are motivated by emotions that are entirely justified. The justification of the emotion needs to be considered from a species-specific perspective and also from an individual perspective. The latter will be influenced by prior learning and experiences, and an in-depth chronological history is therefore essential in every behaviour case.

Justified emotional motivation and ‘normal’ but unwanted behavioural responses

All of the motivational-emotional systems described above are normal and adaptive. They underlie behavioural responses that are designed to protect the survival of the individual and of the species. An understanding of normal feline behaviour will increase recognition of the different systems in behavioural responses of domestic cats (see accompanying article on normal feline behaviour in this issue).

The emotional systems involved most commonly in reported problem behaviours related to justified emotional motivation are desire-seeking, social play and frustration. If a cat is motivated to gain access to a resource and is denied the opportunity to do so, frustration will be triggered. This can lead to behaviours that are perceived to be ‘aggressive’ in nature and yet the cat may be responding to perfectly justified emotion. The answer to this problem is to ensure that the cat can access necessary resources in an appropriate time scale by addressing the feline environmental needs outlined in the AAFP and ISFM guidelines. ¹²

Determining whether frustration is involved in a behavioural presentation can be achieved through accurate history taking and comprehensive review of the physical and social environment from a feline perspective. It has also been shown that visual signalling is important in determining emotional motivation, ¹⁶ and one study has looked specifically at the negative emotions of fear and frustration in relation to feline communication. ¹⁷

Pain is another justified emotional motivation that can lead to unwanted behavioural responses, and the emphasis in dealing with these cases is to accurately diagnose and treat the underlying physical trigger for the pain, if one exists. This is clearly within the remit of the veterinary surgeon, be that the general practitioner or the referral level veterinary behaviourist. If the case has been referred to a non-veterinary behavioural professional, the involvement of pain highlights the need for excellent levels of communication between veterinary and non-veterinary personnel. Assessment of visual communication has been shown to assist in the monitoring of acute pain in feline patients, ¹⁸ and it is also important to consider the role of chronic pain and learned responses to pain when investigating behavioural presentations.

Unjustified emotional motivation and ‘abnormal’ behavioural responses

Living in a domestic environment undoubtedly puts considerable pressure on domestic cats and optimising their social and physical environment is a responsibility of anyone owning or working with the species. While subopti-mal environments can often be involved in behavioural presentations, this is not always the case and consideration of whether the emotional motivation of the patient is unjustified is necessary.

The emotional motivation is always related to the perception of the individual, and factors that can influence that perception will need to be investigated. These will include previous experiences, or lack of them, and chronological history taking is necessary in order to ensure that vital information is not missed. In the context of the domestic cat, this past history may not be available and assessment of the justification of the emotional and behavioural response can only be made in relation to the circumstance in which the behaviour is displayed.

Role of vets and other professionals

Veterinary behavioural medicine is a discipline relating to the safeguarding of emotional health in non-human animals and understanding the complex relationship between physical and emotional health. In all cases where a behavioural presentation is reported in a domestic cat, it is important for a veterinary examination to be carried out in order to rule out potential physical causes; it is therefore essential for any non-veterinarians to be engaged in the management of the case on veterinary referral only.

In the UK, where the author is based, there has been a tradition of good communication between non-veterinary professionals working in the field of clinical feline behaviour and the veterinary profession. This is to be welcomed since it helps to improve the level of service available to domestic cats and their owners, and ultimately offers a more comprehensive approach to improving feline welfare.

However, the initial veterinary examination is only the start of the two-way relationship between the professionals involved with the case, and the non-veterinarian will need to maintain dialogue with the referring vet in order to ensure that any further veterinary investigation is carried out as needed.

In cases where emotional motivations are justified, it is likely that environmental optimisation is going to be the most important feature of the therapeutic approach, together with owner education and increased understanding of the feline species and its needs. Even then, the involvement of a veterinarian may be required; for example, in cases where pain is playing a role.

When the behavioural presentation is related to an unjustified emotional motivation, the involvement of a veterinary behaviourist is appropriate and in-depth investigation may be needed. Referral is often the best route to take in such cases but some veterinary practices may have in-house expertise that can be used to investigate the case appropriately.

Cases involving unjustified emotion can be tackled using a wide range of interventions and the use of medication is not always needed. Even when medication is prescribed, veterinary behaviourists will also use a thorough behavioural approach in order to address social and physical environmental factors that are impacting on the cat’s emotional health.

Key Points

• Behavioural responses result from the balance of emotional motivations.

• Modifying behaviour without identifying the underlying emotion is akin to treating a physical sign without diagnosing the underlying disease state.

• Successful behavioural treatment relies on considering all of the factors that affect the underlying emotion.

• When emotional motivations are justified by the context, and the behavioural responses are justified by the emotion, it is vital to address the influences of the physical and social environment on the pet’s behaviour.