Do your cats exhibit "Birth order" behaviors?

rang_27

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I've noticed lately that my cats exhibit some of the same behaviors that are associated with birth order in human children. This makes me wonder if I'm alone in this, or if this is normal. It also makes me thing, I'm probably treating them differntly causing them to exhibit these behaviors.

Their 'birth order", they are not related, but the order I adopted them in does coinside with the order of their ages.

Levi & Jordan are the "oldest" at 5 & were adopted together.
Isaac is the "middle child" at 4
Maggie is the "baby" at 3

Levi is probably the only one I don't see the birth order traits in. He is sweet and gentle not at all a leader. Jordan on the other hand has always been a leader is a tuff guy who likes to be in control and needs lots of attention. Isaac is the typical middle child. Always jealous of the older boys and a lack of confidence that seems to come out as agression. He definatly acts like I do not pay enough attention to him, but when I try he pulls away. Maggie the baby (and only girl) is the drama queen. She expects to get her way all the time, and when she doesn't watch out. When the boys pick on her she screams and crys like they are killing her even when she starts the fight. She expects to always get her way and when she doesn't look out she's going to throw a fit. (for example I didn't feed her fast enough this morning and when I turned away she nipped the back of my arm) Anyone else see these type of behaviors in their cats?
 

goldenkitty45

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Nope - Ling is about a year older then Charlie, but Charlie is top cat - mainly due to him being the male and also Oci's tend to dominate as a breed characteristic.
 

mews2much

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My Boss cats have always been Coco and Meeko even when we had males.
Oreo is smaller then all of them and they seem to all be scared of her except Coco. She growls and hisses over toys and hinks she is the boss of the toys. Coco comes running and stops it even though she is 16. Oreo is a very small cat so that could be why she is that way.
 

whiteforest

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Mine do in a sense that Ramsay [who is 2 years older] rarely wants to play with Gus. He would rather play with his own toys, and if Gus decides to play with it Ramsay decides he doesn't want it anymore. If Gus jumps on Ramsay, Ramsay will hiss at him, BUT he also takes good care of Gus grooming him and what not. Gus, being the baby is super, is super jealous and if he sees Ramsay getting pettings, Gus smushes he way to the middle. Gus also likes to be on our lap or get carried around, whereas Ramsay is happy to sit next to us but is "too cool" to be seen on our lap.
 

aswient

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The top cat in this group is Molasses he's 10 years old and the oldest. All 8 of my other cats love Mo. They know he's the top in the pecking order. The youngest female happens to be the smallest and she gets chased by most all of the others, I think it has to do with the fact that Lele always use to spit at them first before they even bothered with her, I think she new she was the smallest and probably figured "well let me annoy them before they annoy me" I guess she brought that on herself.
 
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