COMPARATIVE STUDY REGARDING SOME BEHAVIOR ASPECTS OF DOMESTIC FELINES RAISED INSIDE WITH AND WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF GOING OUTSIDE
Carmena Şerbanoiu, Elena Popescu-Micloşanu
Abstract
As the number of domestic felines in the shelters, as well as those raised in apartments is increasing, comparative researches have been made to point out the behavior modifications induced by their maintenance in captivity, without having the possibility of going outside and the eventual means of avoiding undesirable for bevahior and welfare consequences. The main behavior manifestations of nine cats have been observed for 10 days, between 08 and 18 hours, using individual record cards, for each hourly interval of daily time. It has been noticed that for the cats maintained inside (group 1), the behavior manifestations of activity were 80.30 % out of the total studied manifestations, while the rest and abnormal behaviors were of 19.63%, respectively 0.37 %. The cats maintained with the possibility of going outside (group 2) have presented 71.13 % manifestations of activity, while the rest and abnormal behaviors were of 25.48 % and respectively 3.39%. The social behavior was more frequent for the cats from the group 1, because of a more frequent manifestation of affection behavior. For the cats in the group 2, play and aggressiveness had a higher ratio than for the ones maintained only inside. The hygiene behavior is higher for group 1, while the examination behavior is approximately the same in both cases, as well as the one for feeding and for defecating.
