cats are less intelligent then rats...

[motif]

at least I got that impression. I had in the past 3 pets rats and I can say never met more intelligent animal, they learn very quickly. Once been reprimanded about something don't repeat this anymore etc. If they do they do it just for teasing looking right into your eyes

Cats i can say don't give a damn about what they've been told

 

[presto]

Get a couple more rats, let them breed in your home - and THEN see how well they listen to you...

 

[arlyn]

I guess I've been lucky, in 30 years of being solely responsible for my own cats, I've never had one that misbehaved.

Their claws are all there, and so is my furniture, they've never touched anything they weren't allowed to.
They come when they are called (except Spaz, she's deaf now) and they sit on command.

Having owned cats, dogs, rats, mice, gerbils, hamsters, and rabbits, I can say that they are all equally trainable, the thing is, you cannot take a training method that works for one species, and apply it to another.
This is most especially true of cats. My secret to training my cats has always been to make them think it was their idea in the first place.

 

[strange_wings]

In nature, the prey animal tends to be less intelligent than the animal that preys upon them. The reason for this is that the cat has to be able to catch the rat to eat.
That said rats are very clever and can easily be trained, often through food motivation. This is natural to them, they'd have to forage in the wild.

Cats on the other hand aren't easily trained unless it's something they want to do or unless you fool them into thinking it was their idea. This doesn't mean they're less intelligent, just that motivation is different.

 

[mommysugar]

I would like to see a link to the study you read that proves this theory.

I taught my cat to beg, play dead and to high five me! Can you teach rats this? Can you teach your rat to use a specific place to urinate and do their business?

And what was your point anyway? You prefer rats to cats?

 

[ducman69]

Trainable is different than intelligence though, and there are different ways of thinking which are just influenced by what would help them survive in the wild.

Dogs are original stock from wolves, and a pack requires developed social skills and a hierarchy, which people can exploit by setting themselves as alpha for obedience. Dogs are thus highly trainable, but not necessarily more intelligent than other creatures.

Cats are more solitary (less developed social skills) and can go for long periods without food or water, being originally desert animals, and so it can be more challenging to motivate a cat to follow your instructions and their thought processes revolve more around their niche of locating and ambushing small prey.

You can train a cat pretty well though, but more based on convincing them its in their own best interest, and being creatures of habit, once ingrained should stick. Age is a big factor though. "Can't teach an old dog new tricks" kindof applies to cats as well, but look up clicker training for tips.

 

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by Ducman69

being originally desert animals

It's currently accepted that cats started to be domesticated some 12-13 thousand years ago in the Fertile Cresent region. Why again was it refer to as the Fertile Cresent region where agriculture started?

 

[ducman69]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

It's currently accepted that cats started to be domesticated some 12-13 thousand years ago in the Fertile Cresent region. Why again was it refer to as the Fertile Cresent region where agriculture started?

True, but thats still mostly an arid environment, once you get away from the large rivers. That includes Egypt for example (cat lovers extraordinaire), and while especially with irrigation they had really fruitful crop yields (fed not just themselves but the Roman empire with their grain), outside the flood plains the area is mostly desert.

The closest wild relatives to the domesticated cat are the arabian sand cat and african wild cat, both desert species from that region as well. And it explains why cats are so well adapted to tolerate high and low temperature extremes (the region gets very hot at day and very cold at night due to the low humidity) and low water need adaptations (very concentrated urine).

 

[luvmyparker]

Originally Posted by Arlyn

I guess I've been lucky, in 30 years of being solely responsible for my own cats, I've never had one that misbehaved.

Their claws are all there, and so is my furniture, they've never touched anything they weren't allowed to.
They come when they are called (except Spaz, she's deaf now) and they sit on command.

Having owned cats, dogs, rats, mice, gerbils, hamsters, and rabbits, I can say that they are all equally trainable, the thing is, you cannot take a training method that works for one species, and apply it to another.
This is most especially true of cats. My secret to training my cats has always been to make them think it was their idea in the first place.

TIPS PLEASE???

Haha, Parker is the only of our three that listens fairly well. (Sami is too old to care about anything, so I guess she doesn't count) I can't teach Buddy anything! He is the most defiant cat I've ever met

I do think most animals are very intelligent...just each in their own ways.

 

[lauren_miller]

It is a misconception that because an animal is easily trained it is smarter than another animal. Your cats just don't give a crap. It's pretty normal.

My cats are clicker trained and they know a variety of behaviors. I can't make them do anything they don't want to do. I can request they perform something that I've taught but when it comes down to it, if they don't feel like doing it, they won't. Does that make them smart or stupid? I think it makes them pretty smart.

 

[cosabella]

What a strange thread on a cat forum. My little guy is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he's the cutest and most lovable little dumpling ever.

I never really bothered asking myself if he was smarter than a rat because he's a cat and he's good at being one. The first day I brought him home from the shelter, he used the litter box. I never litter box-trained him. He knows when I'm in a bad mood and want to be alone. He'll just sit quietly near me and let me be.

When I open the drawer where his toothbrush and toothpaste are kept, he dashes away and hides. When I open the pantry where his treats are kept, he comes running and start rubbing against me.

He's cat smart. Not a rat person at all and even if they were as smart as Sir Isaac Newton, I still wouldn't want one.

 

[mrblanche]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

In nature, the prey animal tends to be less intelligent than the animal that preys upon them. The reason for this is that the cat has to be able to catch the rat to eat.

This is why one scientist has said we should be very careful about meeting any extraterrestrial aliens. In any biology, generally carnivores rise to the top of the food chain, AND the top of the intelligence pyramid.

Why?

"Because it doesn't take much intelligence to sneak up on a blade of grass."

 

[amberthe bobcat]

Originally Posted by motif

at least I got that impression. I had in the past 3 pets rats and I can say never met more intelligent animal, they learn very quickly. Once been reprimanded about something don't repeat this anymore etc. If they do they do it just for teasing looking right into your eyes

Cats i can say don't give a damn about what they've been told

Just because your rat won't repeat something when reprimanded, does not mean they are more inteligent. Cats have a mind of their own. They don't need anyone or anything to tell them what or what not to do. But I know first hand, just how inteligent cats are. I have a lockout gate between my kitchen and laundry room. This serves as a lockout area to prevent escape for my wild cats. This lockout door has a latch on the inside with heavy gauge wire on the inside. Silly me, thought the latch itself was good to prevent them from getting inside the laundry room, that has the main door that we enter and exit the home. The bobcats know how to put their paw through the wire, turn the latch and open the gate. They learned how to do this by watching myself enter that room. So I had to put a clip on the latch. You have to put your hand through the wire, release the clip and then turn the latch to open the gate. Yes, the cats have tried to open the gate and I am sure they would have done so by now, if they had paws like our hands. But in truth, no animal is really more inteligent that the other. An animal's inteligence is based on their needs. Sadly today, I see the human animal losing a lot of inteligence. We depend way to much on our government and eletronic gadgets to think for us.

 

[ducman69]

Originally Posted by mrblanche

This is why one scientist has said we should be very careful about meeting any extraterrestrial aliens. In any biology, generally carnivores rise to the top of the food chain, AND the top of the intelligence pyramid.

Why?

"Because it doesn't take much intelligence to sneak up on a blade of grass."

I feel smarter than vegetarians already. *sneaks up on my bacon swiss hamburger*

 

[elayman]

Originally Posted by motif

at least I got that impression. I had in the past 3 pets rats and I can say never met more intelligent animal, they learn very quickly. Once been reprimanded about something don't repeat this anymore etc. If they do they do it just for teasing looking right into your eyes

Cats i can say don't give a damn about what they've been told

If you are talking about cognitive abilities and mental function similar to humans (tool use, categorization, problems solving, language, etc), the only traditional pets that match up well against that standard of intelligence are probably apes and parrots. Pet rats are inquisitive, intellectual foragers but they are not necessarily more intelligent or adaptive than cats simply because they are more co-operative or do things that are useful to us. This is a shortfall in human worldview, not in animal intelligence.

If a cat is asked to navigate a maze and fails to complete it in the allotted time, do you say they are a lacksidasical failure ? They will sit down and wash instead or they will investigate the nearby alley.

Being opportunists, investigating every blind alley make sense to the cat - after all, who knows where prey might be hiding in the real world? Cats are less hunger motivated than rats and more specialized to remember a single location. Having learned that prey (or cat food) is usually to be found in a particular location, cats will return to the location.

The rat advantage on maze tasks stems from a superior ability to combine scent, visual and kinesthetic cues to adapt to complex spatial niche environments. Completely on their own terms and incomparable to either us or cats. Probably similar to a ground squirrel that relies mostly on sight, sound, and scent but brainer, more cuddly and with a much higher emotional intelligence.

 

[motif]

Originally Posted by miauw12

You'll have to understand that you don't ever really own a cat. They listen to you and most times they exactly understand what you want - and then they do willingly the opposite. Cats will never bow to anyone. They don't change their behaviour they change yours towards them.

so basically they are ignorant and stubborn?

not good attribute either...

 

[presto]

Originally Posted by motif

so basically they are ignorant and stubborn?

not good attribute either...

Yeah, like people! Doesn't mean they're not intelligent - just species typical.

 

[violet]

For heaven's sake, everyone, please stop feeding this troll.

 

[minka]

Originally Posted by mommysugar

I taught my cat to beg, play dead and to high five me! Can you teach rats this? Can you teach your rat to use a specific place to urinate and do their business?

Yes, you can teach your rats all of this and more.

 

[carolina]

This person is a troll