1
Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Cats fear of water
« on: 23/08/2004 20:25:11 »
Hi, ok so a bit of background first! I've got two cats, they both got a tragic case of fleas a few weeks ago and nothing seems to get rid of them. The other day I came up with bathing them long enough to drown all the fleas but they both got a bit narked when I tried putting them near a 1cm puddle let alone the deep bit. So that idea got flushed and I put it down to their fear of water. Later on I got on to wondering why they dislike it so much, they drink enough of the stuff!
The last time I thought about it I thought it may be to do with their fur. Like it would get far too heavy for them to swim so as a natural defense they avoid all "big" expanses of liquid. I also thought that they are usually quite scrawny under all that fur or ultra wide and that would also affect their swimming capacity. I heard a while ago that not all cats dislike water so this got me to wondering again. Cats normally react badly to things that remind them of bad experiences in their past. I thought it was a bit far fectched to think that all cats could have a bad water experience so early on then I thought what about inside the mothers womb? Do you think its possible that they gain awareness of the enviroment before they emerge, you know like wake up in a big ball of liquid? I figured that a kitten could perceive the whole birth process as quite traumatic and that the whole being surrounded in liquid becomes a future bad association.
The last time I thought about it I thought it may be to do with their fur. Like it would get far too heavy for them to swim so as a natural defense they avoid all "big" expanses of liquid. I also thought that they are usually quite scrawny under all that fur or ultra wide and that would also affect their swimming capacity. I heard a while ago that not all cats dislike water so this got me to wondering again. Cats normally react badly to things that remind them of bad experiences in their past. I thought it was a bit far fectched to think that all cats could have a bad water experience so early on then I thought what about inside the mothers womb? Do you think its possible that they gain awareness of the enviroment before they emerge, you know like wake up in a big ball of liquid? I figured that a kitten could perceive the whole birth process as quite traumatic and that the whole being surrounded in liquid becomes a future bad association.