Your cat’s favorite activities are probably sleeping, eating, and batting your face at odd hours. But you might be surprised to learn that fetch, an activity long associated with dogs — could also be a crowd favorite among cats, too.
A new study out this week in the journal PLoS ONE by researchers from Purdue University and the University of Pennsylvania found that cats are much more prone to play fetch than we give them credit for. The study surveyed tens of thousands of pet owners to better understand how prevalent fetch is among cats and why cats play fetch.
Between 2015 and 2023, the authors administered an online survey to over 8,000 cat owners and over 74,000 dog owners. The surveys included questions about playing fetch with their respective cats. The results showed that 41 percent of the cat owners said their cat would sometimes, frequently, or always chase after and retrieve an object. This far exceeded previous estimates. While cats of all breeds play fetch, the authors observed that it was most prevalent in Burmese, Siamese, and Tonkinese cats.
These findings help illuminate the larger question of why cats fetch, as well as why fetch might be more common in dogs than in cats. The researchers outline how in a game of fetch, many steps comprise a round. Within those steps, there’s a great deal of overlap with species-specific hunting behaviors. For instance, it's common for cats to carry their prey in their mouth.
Researchers still don’t know why cats and dogs fetch, but they have a few theories. Fetch could be a form of object play, in which the action is a rehearsal for hunting. It could also have been a behavior that humans selected to breed for in their animals during domestication. Just as well, fetching could be a type of social play; humans could be teaching it during training sessions.
