An Investigation of Environmental Factors that Affect the Behavior and Welfare of Domestic Cats (Felis sylvestris catus)

Domestic cats are the most commonly kept companion animal in the U.S. with large populations of owned (86 million), free-roaming (70 million), research (13,000) and shelter (2-3 million) cats. Therefore, large numbers of cats are confined to cages each year, so offering the most appropriate housing environment could lead to improvements to their welfare and possibly in the outcomes of biomedical research, shelter adoptions and veterinary care for cats.;Most research on the welfare of confined cats has been aimed at modifications to their cages (micro-environments) but a few have aimed to understand the effects of aspects of the room (macro-environment), such as the effects of noise, lights, odors, and predictability of the husbandry routine. One of societies concerns for species that are confined is space allotment and recently this concern has been raised in relation to confined cats. Typical cat housing in the U.S. is a small, single cage of less than 0.56 square meters (6 square feet) of floor space leading to an inability to express normal species-typical behaviors. Although several groups have established recommendations for cage size little research has been conducted in this area. Finally, an area of research that remains relatively unexplored in the domestic cat is their cognitive abilities, specifically memory, in regard to their responses to the cage environment. It is likely that cats that are frequently confined and handled may respond negatively or positively to this confinement and handling as a function of their memory of past experiences.;Study one aimed to evaluate the behavior of cats housed in enriched or unenriched macro and micro environments. Study two aimed to evaluate the behavior and welfare of cats housed in enriched or unenriched macro and micro environments with 1.1 square meters (11.8 square feet) of floor space, greater than the typical space allowance provided to caged cats in the U.S. Results indicate that cats respond adversely to factors in the macro environment that they may have perceived as threatening, and these factors were at least as relevant to them as were factors in the micro environment. Additionally, provision of 1.1 square meters of floor space did not change cat behavior, at least in the first 48 hours of confinement. It seems that the quality of the environment may be more important than cage size. Study three aimed to indirectly assess the cat's long-term memory of a confinement housing experience through comparisons of initial responses to a controlled confinement experience to responses one year later. The results suggest that cats may form memories and that those previously housed in an enriched macro environment habituated more quickly upon re-exposure to that environment.;Future research is needed to study how other aspects of the environment, such as factors pertaining to temperature, lighting and odors, and human-animal interactions might affect cat behavior and welfare, the minimum space requirements for cats and how length of confinement affects this parameter and direct assessment of the cognitive abilities of cats, particularly their ability to form long-term memories of salient experiences.