Frequency-dependent food selection by the domestic cat, Felis silvestris catus

Church, Stuart Christopher (1994) Frequency-dependent food selection by the domestic cat, Felis silvestris catus. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

Preference for common food types ('apostatic selection') has been demonstrated in a wide variety of predators, and numerous mechanisms have been proposed to account for such selection. However, there are fewer examples of preferences for rare food types ('anti-apostatic selection'). In this study, frequency-dependent food preferences of farm, rescue shelter and cattery (laboratory) cats were examined using nutritinally defined artificial foods.

Initial experiments, designed to investigate the effect of spatial availability on selection, demonstrated that groups of farm and cattery cats tended to preferentially select the rare food types in 9:1 mixtures of two types of food pellet. Although simple mathematical models suggested that a component of this selection occurred purely as a result of variation between individual cats, further experiments on rescue shelter and cattery cats revealed that selection by individuals was also anti-apostatic. Individual rescue shelter cats consistently showed stronger anti-apostatic selection than cattery cats. This result was attributed to differences between the foraging experiences of the two groups.

Experiments were also conducted on farm and cattery cats to examine the effect of temporal availability on food selection. Farm cats showed increased preferences for food types which had not been available to them for either (a) one day, or (b) seven days prior to preference testing. Under similar conditions, cattery cats showed only weak preferences for temporally rare food items. However, when foods were manipulated such that they were no longer nutritionally complete, cattery cats also displayed a clear preference for rare foods. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that anti-apostatic selection occurs when there are benefits to a mixed diet.

These experiments may offer some insight into the success of the feral domestic cats in urban areas; although obligate carnivores, they appear to possess the behavioural flexibility to select a reasonably balanced diet from nutritoinally variable resources such as pig swill or household waste.

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