It Turns Out Cats Like Playing Catch Too – But Only On Their Terms

If you own a cat, you’ll probably know that they interact with their owners in a very different way to dogs. 

Where a canine chum would wag their tail or lay their head on your lap to show you they care, feline friends might headbutt you or stretch dramatically on your return. 

But recent research suggests that the two pets might have more in common than we thought ― some cats like to play fetch, too.

What?

Animal behaviour psychologists from the University of Sussex and Northumbria University wrote a paper, published in Scientific Reports last year, that looked at the habits of cats who already liked playing fetch.

They found that fetching is an instinct, rather than a learned behaviour, in 94.4% of the pets studied.

If you’re thinking “wait, if it’s so instinctive, why can’t I pick up a ball and expect my cat to catch it?” the experts found a cause for that. 

The research suggests that, in typical cat fashion, your pet doesn’t want to play fetch on your terms but theirs, meaning they interact far better when they kick off the game.

Jemma Forman, the study’s lead author, told the University of Sussex: “Cats who initiated their fetching sessions played more enthusiastically with more retrievals and more fetching sessions per month.” 

“This perceived sense of control from the cat’s perspective may be beneficial for the cat’s welfare and the cat-owner relationship… not all cats will want to play fetch, but if they do, it’s likely that they will have their own particular way of doing so”, she added.

Perhaps that pet-first dynamic is why fetching, instinctive to so many cats, is “not commonly associated” with the species, Dr Fornan says. 

Co-author Dr Elizabeth Renner shared: “It demonstrates how much this behaviour is led by cats themselves, since very few of the owners surveyed explicitly trained their cats to fetch.” 

Cats don’t find all items equally fetching

The study also showed that while every catch-loving cat has their own hierarchy of fetching fodder, some items ranked more highly than others overall. 

Around 38% preferred toys, while 25.3% liked fetching spherical items, including scrunched-up paper and baubles, the most.

A damning 9.5% chose cosmetics as their favourite thing to fetch. 

“I’d encourage owners to be receptive to the needs of their cat by responding to their preferences for play – not all cats will want to play fetch, but if they do, it’s likely that they will have their own particular way of doing so,” Dr Forman said. 

Sounds about right…