Cats may be a lot more sensitive than we think they are
Do Cats Grieve After a Loss? A New Study May Have the Answer
Updated Aug. 29, 2024
Cats aren’t known for their sensitivity. In fact, they have such a reputation for self-centered jerkiness that there are whole memes built around what your cats might do to your corpse if you suddenly dropped dead before delivering their dinner. (Let’s just say it’s not pretty.) But a new study published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science suggests that our feline friends may care more about us and other pets in the house than we give them credit for. So do cats grieve?
Researchers at Michigan’s Oakland University surveyed hundreds of cat owners about how their cats’ behavior changed when another pet in the household died. What they found was that cats responded to the loss in a way that looked strikingly similar to mourning. Reader’s Digest went straight to the source, study co-author and psychologist Jennifer Vonk, PhD, to find out more. Ahead, get a better idea of what may be going on in the mind of your cat after a loss.
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How did the researchers examine cats’ mourning behaviors?
Vonk and her co-author, Brittany Greene, surveyed 412 cat owners or caregivers, asking them how their cat reacted after the death of another pet in the house. Participants used a five-point scale to indicate any changes in the cat’s behaviors in the days and weeks after the death. Behaviors they tallied included: sleeping, eating, playing, vocalizing, spending time alone, hiding, seeking attention from humans, sitting or laying on or near humans, acting fearful, being curious, interacting with any other remaining pets in the home, grooming, appearing to be looking for the lost pet and sniffing areas where the other pet spent time.
Respondents were also asked to describe the relationship between the cat and the deceased pet, as well as their own relationship with the lost pet and the grief they were experiencing themselves. And while in most cases the cats’ behavioral changes were relatively small, “the more positive the relationship between the cat and the deceased animal, the more the reports of grief-like behavior,” says Vonk. “It suggests that they are forming bonds and relationships with each other and actually responding to the loss in an emotional way.”
Do cats experience grief?
It seems like cats get sad when another cat or companion dies, though it’s impossible to say for sure. “I hesitate to use words like mourn or grieve because it’s a little premature to attribute an emotion to it,” Vonk says. “But the behaviors can be interpreted as consistent with that.” Some cats changed their eating and playing habits. Others sought out more human interaction. And some even searched the house for their missing family member, lingering around the places where they used to play or sleep.
Still, Vonk cautions that there could be other reasons for the changes in the behavior besides cat grief. They might be eating more because they now have more access to the food bowl, or they might be playing less because they no longer have a playmate. Owners may also project some of their own grief onto their cat. “It’s so easy to interpret things in ways that are consistent with our own expectations,” says Vonk. “So we definitely want to ask more questions.”
But, she says, even if they do experience grief, it’s probably different from the kind that humans feel. “I think they know that an individual is gone, but whether they’re thinking about it being final and that they’re not coming back, that death is inevitable and life is finite, and all the other things we think about—I think that’s too abstract for them. It’s more likely they’re noticing that something has changed in their social environment, and they are responding to the change with feelings of maybe fear or anxiety.”
What are the signs that your cat may be grieving?
It really depends on the cat. “Animals, like humans, respond differently when they are grieving,” says Vonk. “Some cats were eating more, and some were eating less. Some were sleeping all the time, and some weren’t sleeping at all.”
While cats don’t cry when they’re sad, there were reports of increased vocalization and looking for the deceased cat or dog in places they would usually sleep, or sniffing the areas where they used to spend time. Other cats seem to get sad when another cat dies, reacting to the loss of a fellow pet with classic signs of anxiety and depression. “Some spend more time hiding or acting fearful,” says Vonk.
Do cats mourn the loss of an owner too?
Vonk would like to think so, but again, she can’t say for sure without more research. “I think it is human nature that we want to believe our cats would miss us when we go,” she says. “My husband and I have had those discussions about our own cats. If someone else was feeding them and giving them love, would they be just as happy? Of course, we’d like to think they’d be a little sad, but it’s hard to say. In the last couple of years, we’ve also adopted several cats whose owners passed away, and in a way, it’s given us mixed feelings. We’re happy that they’ve adjusted and accepted us, but then we kind of think, Aren’t you sad about the previous person? There’s so much more we need to look at.”
That kind of research presents its own issues, though. “I mean, we should be able to get that from multiple-caregiver households where there’s a couple that owns a pet, but it’s kind of a sensitive subject,” says Vonk. “It’s tricky to ask, ‘When your spouse died, how did your cat react?’ So people have probably been hesitant to do the research.”
How long do cats grieve?
Obviously, it depends on the cat and the situation, but in a 2016 study conducted in Australia and New Zealand, researchers found that cats and dogs exhibited behavioral changes after the death of a companion animal for an average period of less than six months.
In Vonk’s study, while some cats displayed increased attention-seeking and grief-like behaviors for weeks and months, the changes were most pronounced immediately after the companion pet’s death. “Less than six months is probably reasonable,” says Vonk. “I mean, even humans, even if you’re always carrying that grief with you, eventually you have to pick up your life and behave like normal again.”
What should you do if your cat is grieving?
The best cure for your cat’s grief is probably you. “Trying to spend more time interacting with them,” Vonk says. “If you can, get them interested in play, give them their favorite treats and let them smell things that smell like their companion that’s gone, so they still have that kind of familiarity.”
Some animals might be helped by the addition of a new pet to the home, but that very much depends on the individual. “A younger animal might respond well to a new companion because they’re missing someone to play with,” Vonk explains, “but for an older cat who’s set in their ways, that could be difficult.”
Do other animals grieve too?
While there have been widespread reports of mourning-like behaviors in elephants, whales, giraffes and other animals, actual research on the subject is limited—”partly because it’s just so challenging to understand how animals conceptualize things like death without language,” says Vonk. An Italian study of dogs published in 2022 did find that some dogs reacted to the death of a companion animal with changes in their playing, sleeping and eating behaviors, similar to the feline response in Vonk’s cat study.
But there is still much research to be done. Vonk is already involved with separate studies about how zoo animals and horses react to the death of a companion animal. “We definitely want to ask more questions about how different species of animals respond,” she says. But the bottom line is that there’s likely more going on than we realize.
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At Reader’s Digest, we’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. For this story on cat grief, Cynthia Sanz Carstens tapped her experience as a longtime journalist and editor covering pets, specifically cats, and various lifestyle topics. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Jennifer Vonk, PhD, professor of psychology at Oakland University
- Applied Animal Behaviour Science: “Is companion animal loss cat-astrophic? Responses of domestic cats to the loss of another companion animal”
- Animals: “Owners’ Perceptions of their Animal’s Behavioural Response to the Loss of an Animal Companion”
- Science Rep: “Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) Grieve Over the Loss of a Conspecific”
- National Wildlife: “When Animals Grieve”
Originally Published: August 29, 2024
