Cats want to play fetch, study finds

Scientists have found that nearly half of all domesticated cats would also chase and return objects to their owners. It is generally accepted that around 80% of dogs would play fetch with their owners, but this study shows that cats are also willing to play as well.

In a study of over 8,000 cat owners, Purdue University researchers studied whether cats would show the behaviour more commonly found in dogs. Over two-thirds of dog owners said that their pets would fetch items but the surprise for the researchers was that 41% of cats enjoyed it as well.  

“Fetching was reported in 40.9% of cats and 77.8% of dogs,” the researchers of the new paper noted. “In cats, fetching was correlated with play and activity. In dogs, fetching was correlated with overall trainability. In both cats and dogs, being female, older, living with (other) dogs, and having health problems decreased the likelihood of fetching.”

This follows a study from December 2023 in Nature that found that felines showed specific fetching behaviour even when they were never explicitly trained to. This led researchers to wonder if it was a natural part of a cat’s behaviour and not one that needs to be taught through repetition.

The data from 2015 and 2023 found that cats raised indoors were more likely to play fetch and that breeds including Burmese, Siamese, and Tonkinese were more likely as well. Purdue’s Mikel Delgado who led the study said that it is still a mystery why it was more common in dogs however.

“The greater prevalence of fetching in this population could be due to a founder effect, genetic drift, or be the result of increased local selection pressures for the tendency to engage in fetching behaviour in this region of the world,” the researchers noted.

The researchers believe that this has more to do with predation than hunting, and that for a cat, it has its roots in more primal behaviours.