Validation of a temperament test for domestic cats

Abstract

Cats are popular companion animals, particularly in Europe and North America, and appear in correspondingly large numbers in animal shelters. Temperament tests are not widely used to assess cats before adoption from shelters. However, cats exhibit a wide range of temperaments as do the families adopting them and ensuring compatibility between the two could increase the rate of successful placement. Scores on a feline temperament profile (FTP), which measures a cat's responses to standardized interactions with an unfamiliar person, were compared between cats and over time and related to responses of cats to familiar and unfamiliar persons and to basal salivary cortisol levels. Cats showed significant differences in FTP scores (p<0.001). Ranking cats according to FTP scores resulted in three distinct groups of cats. Over eight months, changes in FTP scores were minor, with cats scoring somewhat more acceptably and less questionably following adoption. Acceptable scores on pre-adoption FTPs were positively correlated with 1) positive responses to familiar caretakers in housing rooms (p=0.01) and 2) average percent of time spent near either unfamiliar men or women in open field tests in novel rooms (p=0.01 in both instances). Thus, cats displaying general positive responses to humans did so in both familiar and test environments and with familiar and unfamiliar persons. No correlation was seen between FTP scores and basal salivary cortisol levels (p>0.05), though there were significant differences in cortisol levels between cats (p=0.04). The data indicate that the FTP was relatively stable over time for adult cats, and test scores correlated well with ethological observations of cats' interactions with humans. The FTP could provide an accurate, consistent assessment of cat temperament, leading to more successful placement of cats.