# Survey about cat behavior



## catbehaviorstudy (Aug 10, 2012)

Hello,

I am doing a masters thesis research project about some aspects of cat behavior. To collect data for my analysis I have made a questionnaire that I hope as many of you as possible will fill in. It is web based and will probably take no more than 10-15 minutes to complete.

Please feel free to answer it more than once if you have more than one cat!

I will report back to you here about the results when they are finished in a few months time. I cannot reveal the exact topic of the project at this time since it could possibly interfere with the result, but it concerns things where there is a big lack of research. So your answers could possibly be very valuable for future practical purposes!

The link to the questionnaire:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGF1c0Jnd083eTFVUlJPdFBCT2dqeVE6MA

Thank you for your time!

-

EDIT: There are a lot of repetitive looking questions and perhaps "odd" questions, but it is that way for a reason. I will do a statistical analysis of all your answers, and the result will be much better with several questions that try to measure the same thing from slightly different angles. With too few questions about the same thing I might not get any significant result at all, even if there is one to be found, and there may be some statistical complications that make the analysis impossible to perform in a reliable way. Also, even if many of the questions might not seem to apply to your cat they will still be very important for the analysis!


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## RabbitMonster (Mar 20, 2012)

I've filled it in, but some of the questions were a bit odd, I thought, and very repetitive.


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## spid (Nov 4, 2008)

Indeed! I filled it in for one cat but couldn't be bothered to go through it for all four.


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## startru (Feb 16, 2012)

Filled out for one cat. Found it really repetitive and long. 

Good luck with your study.


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## Misi (Jul 13, 2009)

I filled it in for both cats but it doesn't really cover many aspects of feline behaviour and I found the repetitive questions a bit odd


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## kiara (Jun 2, 2009)

well that was strange!!


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## catbehaviorstudy (Aug 10, 2012)

Thank you for filling it in! 

There are a lot of repetitive looking questions and perhaps "odd" questions, but it is that way for a reason.

I will do a statistical analysis of all your answers, and the result will be much better with several questions that try to measure the same thing from slightly different angles. With too few questions about the same thing I might not get any significant result at all, even if there is one to be found, and there may be some statistical complications that make the analysis impossible to perform in a reliable way. I guess I should have explained that already from the beginning.

I hope that some more people will fill it in now that you know the reason. And especially if you have a cat with some kind of odd behavior problem.


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## Golgotha_tramp (Feb 27, 2011)

See, I think I see where this survey is going (and to be honest I find it a little leading) but there aren't questions about if owners provide appropriate scratching relief, play time with their cat. 

Cats need to scratch - it's not a bad behaviour and if furniture and carpet is the only scratching source available they will use it. To me that's not a bad animal, it's innapropriate husbandry.


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## RabbitMonster (Mar 20, 2012)

catbehaviorstudy said:


> Thank you for filling it in!
> 
> There are a lot of repetitive looking questions and perhaps "odd" questions, but it is that way for a reason.
> 
> ...


It's unclear what you define as odd behaviour though. It could be that some inexperienced owners would find a behavior odd when seasoned owners don't, so your results will end up somewhat skewed.


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## spid (Nov 4, 2008)

to me the survey was trying to relate early removal from the mother with biting and scratching as a 'bad' behaviour and suckling as a psychological issue. ANd pica.


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## AlexTurley (Oct 30, 2011)

theres lots of questions that are the same thing but worded differnertly :/


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## smiler84 (Feb 4, 2012)

done it. i agree that there's a lot of repetitive questions. but having completed my own msc thesis i also understand the reasoning behind it!! 

good luck!


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## catbehaviorstudy (Aug 10, 2012)

Rabbitmonkee said:


> It's unclear what you define as odd behaviour though. It could be that some inexperienced owners would find a behavior odd when seasoned owners don't, so your results will end up somewhat skewed.


It doesn't matter if the data is skewed in that way, because I will do a completely different kind of analysis of it. I think it will all make sense to you when you see the final result, but that will take until later this year.


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## MCWillow (Aug 26, 2011)

I have just finished it - only did it for one of mine but the answers would be the same for all 3


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## RabbitMonster (Mar 20, 2012)

catbehaviorstudy said:


> It doesn't matter if the data is skewed in that way, because I will do a completely different kind of analysis of it. I think it will all make sense to you when you see the final result, but that will take until later this year.


Fair enough, good luck with your research then


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## Lunabuma (Dec 12, 2011)

I've done it for one cat. 

Very interesting!


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## Notnowbernard (Jul 31, 2012)

*Sometimes he/she makes loud noises which keeps me awake or wakes me up when I sleep.*

I've got three siamese -2 of which have only just turned one!

I'd be interested to know what analytical method/s you are going to use for this data (I'm a scientist) there seem to be a huge amount of variables here


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## catbehaviorstudy (Aug 10, 2012)

Notnowbernard said:


> *Sometimes he/she makes loud noises which keeps me awake or wakes me up when I sleep.*
> 
> I've got three siamese -2 of which have only just turned one!
> 
> I'd be interested to know what analytical method/s you are going to use for this data (I'm a scientist) there seem to be a huge amount of variables here


Some items will be grouped together into scales, the scales will be checked for reliability, and so on. So there will not be nearly as many variables as there are questions. A few questions might not be used for variables at all for various reasons, but most will. Perhaps some of the questions that will be grouped into each scale do not look obviously related, but there is previous neurobiological and other research linking them together in specific ways.

I have a number of related hypothesis I want to test, so not all variables will be entered into each statistical test either. I will use four different types of statistical tests for the analysis, and use some of them more than once.

My main concern is that I might not get enough answers for some of the tests (I would like at least 250-350 cats in the study, so far I have 180). Hopefully the analysis will turn out some very useful results either way.


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## Notnowbernard (Jul 31, 2012)

Hopefully you will get the amount of responses you need then. It will definitely be interesting to see the outcome. 

The variables I wondered about were breed and age. For example the question I referenced above - my cats are young and siamese - they are always loud as it's a breed trait and as they are young, they are more inclined to tear about the house and knock things over.

I should point out that I'm not criticizing your survey in any way - I'm just wondering what my approach to analyzing the data would be, given the complexity of it!


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## catbehaviorstudy (Aug 10, 2012)

Notnowbernard said:


> Hopefully you will get the amount of responses you need then. It will definitely be interesting to see the outcome.
> 
> The variables I wondered about were breed and age. For example the question I referenced above - my cats are young and siamese - they are always loud as it's a breed trait and as they are young, they are more inclined to tear about the house and knock things over.
> 
> I should point out that I'm not criticizing your survey in any way - I'm just wondering what my approach to analyzing the data would be, given the complexity of it!


Age will mainly be controlled for, and all the breeds will be grouped together in groups in a specific way.


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## seraphinious (Jun 18, 2012)

I was confused because I thought it was a health and safety thing (i.e. cat might choke on fabric) rather than have they been taken away too early.

My life would be FAR easier if Bo suckled on fabric. He point blank refuses and stubborn as a mule will keep searching for my skin instead  No one else's skin just mine, have tried all sorts to move the behaviour on to something else and the best I can do is get his paws somewhere where he's not clawing me to bits at the same time.

It's lovely he's so happy but also very annoying and painful with claws especially when sun burnt which I am at the mo. He was 12 wks when he left btw.


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## Amy-manycats (Jun 15, 2009)

Done too, but I couldn;t bring myself to do it fo rmore than one cat,  sorry.

I must have the "dullest cats" ever as they don't play unless its prey, they dont grab, hold, suckle, scratch bite or misbehave at all. Sadly for various reasons not one has been with the mothers over the age of 6 weeks.

I'd be interested to know the results, but I am always wary of statistics as you will be able to skew the results to prove anything...


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## DeekshaDD (Oct 25, 2012)

I study in Eleventh standard and i am asked to do a minor research project on behaviour of cats. 30 marks are alotted for that. I have no idea what to do. Can you suggest something?


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