Do cats recognize their siblings after a period of separation?
lele asked:
My cat, Izzy (a female), is a stray who came to our garage when she was just 6 weeks old. Immediately Ozzie (a male), another stray we’d taken in about 6 months earlier, took a liking to Izzy. He protected her from our other cats and is still very close to her. They play constantly, and seem to be inseparable. One of our theories is that they are siblings, and Ozzie recognized this and that’s why he protected her and took such a liking to her. Could this be true?
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My cat, Izzy (a female), is a stray who came to our garage when she was just 6 weeks old. Immediately Ozzie (a male), another stray we’d taken in about 6 months earlier, took a liking to Izzy. He protected her from our other cats and is still very close to her. They play constantly, and seem to be inseparable. One of our theories is that they are siblings, and Ozzie recognized this and that’s why he protected her and took such a liking to her. Could this be true?
March 6th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
They could have some sort of genetic relationship and because of their age the two cats were not siblings.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:40 am
Well they could just be good friends. I’ve seen two different species of animals do the same thing.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
it’s possible that they share the same mom and recognize the smell from each other. I know for a fact dogs smell family relationships so why not cats?
March 12th, 2009 at 6:46 am
wouldn’t it be nice if they are…
March 15th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
No. They forget their “brothers nd sisters” after separation.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Not likely, in reality. Cat’s can recognize other cats that they might like or dislike, but as far as knowing if a cat of a totally different age (or same age really), is their sibling or not, no they don’t seem to be able to tell.
Related cats often fight or otherwise don’t get along once mature. After a certain point they’re just competition for resources. (For example- Some cats on a farm I work at occasionally, have kittens at various times of the year, most of them are related in one way or another some direct siblings just a different age, others half brothers or sisters, etc…, some get along, some hate each other, it’s more a quirk of the individual cat than them being closely related or not)
Sometimes cats just immediately like one another, when that happens it’s great. Glad to hear your one cat decided to take the little one under his wing.