In the latest Feline Friday post (published late, on Saturday, this past week), I described my attempts to introduce Romeo to the joys of going outside while on a leash. Romeo is our big, 15-pound male cat who had been using his outside time to get in fights with a cat from next door. After numerous vet visits to patch him up, Romeo has been on restriction. He’s been a 100% indoor cat for a couple of months, and not all that happy about it.
The solution, I thought, would be a harness. But strap that gizmo on him, and Romeo just collapses in place. He goes down and refuses to move, acting like he can’t possibly put one foot in front of the other while wrapped in that little bit of foreign matter. He goes totally passive. We refer to it as “going Gandhi.”
Then several readers wrote to say that their cats displayed exactly the same behavior.
So there’s something going on here beyond Romeo’s psychology or history.
And last night it dawned on me.
I woke up in the middle of the night with the realization that I’ve bumped up into instinctive feline behavior. It’s the “mom hold” at work.
This refers to the way a mother cat will pick up her kittens by the scruff of the next to move them, to quiet them, or to stop undesired behavior. The kitten’s instinct is to go limp and let the mother cat do her thing.
I found many descriptions of this online from a variety of sources.
Here’s one such description from something called [the nest] (“Why Do Kittens Act Paralyzed When Picked Up by the Scruff?“):
Kitten Instinct
His mom will use his scruff to carry him around. It is his instinct to go limp when his mother carries him. This allows for safe transportation. If kitten was crying or wiggling, it could injure him or his mom. His mother cat also grab may him by the scruff to get him to stop doing an undesirable behavior, like nipping or biting. This allows mommy to assert her dominance. She’ll often groom the kitten after scruffing to calm him down.
I even found an article describing research at the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine taking advantage of the same instinct to calm cats by applying clips to loosely hold the skin on the back of their necks.
They coined a term: “Clipnosis.”
In the study, 30 of 31 cats responded positively the first time clips were placed on the scruff of their neck. The positive response tended to improve after repeated clippings over three months, suggesting the technique can be used over the course of a cat’s lifetime for such procedures as physical examinations, blood draws, and vaccinations.
The clipping seems to evoke the same scruff response that renders kittens still so their mothers can carry them in their mouths, said senior study author Tony Buffington, professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Ohio State. Even most adult cats will go limp when they are gently grasped by the scruff of the neck, he said.
“Cats generally seemed more content, sometimes even purring, and less fearful during veterinary procedures when clips were used instead of restraint by some other means,” Buffington said.
The study appeared in the February 2008 issue of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.
So there it is. On the harness I bought for Romeo, the leash connects right at that magic spot at the back of his neck. And he responds by immediately going limp. Cats like Romeo, and the other cats described in comments over the weekend, appear to simply be displaying that instinctual passivity triggered when carried by their mother, or in this case, a mother surrogate.
On the basis of way too few observations, I would say the harness thing is just not going to work. That instinct is tough to overcome.
Now I’m wonder…will a collar avoid the “mom hold” behavior? It wouldn’t be as good for controlling an uncooperative cat, but Romeo probably only needs a little guidance to stay out of trouble. I’ll have to proceed with a collar experiment later in the week.
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I wonder if a vest-style harness might leave the critical back-of-the-neck spot exposed. It would have the advantage of better control, as well as likely more comfortable than a collar.
Idk i have a vest style harness my kitten goes limp at first but if its left on for a while she adjusts and starts to reopen up and walk around im using it to try and teach her to not wonder off far
Nan got it right. A while back there were lots of ads on TV for something called a “thundershirt.” It’s intended for dogs, but I see no reason why you couldn’t use it for a cat to avoid the mom-hold syndrome. It’s called thundershirt because putting this shirt or vest or harness on a dog calms it down by making it feel like it is being held, so it won’t be scared by thunder or fireworks. Service dogs sometimes wear a vest which identifies them as service dogs so they can go into stores or restaurants.
WOW all good thoughts…will wait for volume II with absolute solution!
This is what you need: http://www.kittyholster.com/
It’s like the “thundervest”. OR you can do what we do — we have a wired enclosure outside along one edge of the house for the cats to lounge in.
Or you could set up a mesh ‘cat maze’ on the porch http://www.baxterboo.com/p.cfm/crazy-cat-maze
Do your cats use the kitty holster?
My cat is terrified of the velcro sound when putting it on/off.
Before using a collar, definite hanging hazard, please try different harnesses. Just put it on and let Romeo get use to the feeling first. I have been told, by friends who have trained their cats to walk on a leash, that the Figure 8 style works best. That one does not press on the back of the neck.
I found this information interesting. I was attempting to do some research on the topic of cats and harnesses. We have discovered that having trained our cat with a harness that simply wearing the harness gives a very calming effect. Our cat is docile and has improved behaviour while wearing the vest style harness we have.
Its been an interesting journey getting my cat accumulated to a harness. First few times he was scared and jumpy and displayed a hilarious walk. Well after about 3 weeks of putting on the harness for an hour or so every day he is use to it. I put it on him and he goes to the front door because he is expecting me to take him out. Now the interesting thing I don’t understand is when I put the harness on he becomes very calm and wants to cuddle next to me. This is not a cat who likes to be held long. If I want his affections all I have to do is put the harness on. Strange, oh and he still has a hilarious walk, maybe he doesn’t really like it?
My cat acts the same way. He is always pretty loving and affectionate but with the harness he only wants to cuddle and purr. I harness trained him when he was kitten so the initial training was easy.