Posted                

quote:

---

Originally posted by Emily Windsor-Cragg:
I have a mother cat. She is white and her name is Vanilla.

Since we moved to the forest where there's lots of room, she has delivered no less than three litters of kittens.

Five each time.

Each litter has two or three "REDS" (actually, they're gold in color), one "Calico" and two "GREYS." And Nillie is NOT color-blind!

She hates the Greys, sloughs them off as soon as she can. I get them so they don't starve, and I have to bond with them and feed them every couple of hours for --usually-- two to three weeks after Nillie gets tired of mothering.

The REDS always have her total attention, since they're the closest to her own color. However, they're much larger than the Greys, suck all her milk dry, and they're dumb as doorknobs!

Nillie's grown kittens of the Red variety are the largest cats I have ever encountered ... reaching 10-15# in weight within six months, the size of a canine spaniel.

The GREYS are persistent; but it's the Calicos that are intuitive, intelligent and take initiatives like trying unfamiliar foods, investigating odd and strange places and taking on THE DOG!

They also have different food preferences.

The REDS only drink milk; they have nothing to do with "Kitten food" prepared in anyway whatsoever.

The GREYS will try to eat anything that isn't nailed to the floor.

The Calico is finicky. She drinks lots of milk, but she samples all the other stuff.

Apparently, these preferences affect how the Mother feels about her kittens, and she prefers the kittens who cooperate with her milk producing cycles. She excludes any kitten at four weeks of age who >BITES< her ... which leaves me, Grandma, to the task of feeding ... every two hours for a couple of weeks until unfamiliar foods become routine.

Again, Race is much more than skin deep; and herein lies a predicament for Society: how to educate and socialize consistently but identify and entrain individuals for excellence in skills in which each social component excels.

This is the typical problem that colonialism faces each location it tackles.

Emily

---

Emily;
very interesting but then why not selection by color in animals as well as in humankind ?
Of course I somehow think this has more to do with nature where as imn humankind it can be by nurture,or lack thereof. Very interesting post

--------------------
"He has told you O mortal,what is good;and what does the Lord require of youbut to do justice and to love kindness ,and to walk humbly with your God."Micah 6:8

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by Emily Windsor-Cragg:
Again, Race is much more than skin deep; and herein lies a predicament for Society: how to educate and socialize consistently but identify and entrain individuals for excellence in skills in which each social component excels.

This is the typical problem that colonialism faces each location it tackles.

Emily

---

Posted                   

quote:

---

Originally posted by Emily Windsor-Cragg:
Please get your priorities in order. Thanks.

---

Posted                

quote:

---

Originally posted by Boogie:
My dog Boogie (the pooch I named myself after) was scared of black dogs. All other dogs were seen as playmates - but if he saw a black one he'd cower behind my legs.

---

When will people learn that dogs are just not mature enough to watch The Omen unsupervised

My rescue cat mothered all her 57 varieties of kitten equally, black, white, bi-colour and full tortoiseshell. It is possible for a cat to give birth to a litter fathered by more than one male so could it be that she rejects some on the basis of the father? Just guessing here...

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bob Two-Owls:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Boogie:
My dog Boogie (the pooch I named myself after) was scared of black dogs. All other dogs were seen as playmates - but if he saw a black one he'd cower behind my legs.

---

When will people learn that dogs are just not mature enough to watch The Omen unsupervised

My rescue cat mothered all her 57 varieties of kitten equally, black, white, bi-colour and full tortoiseshell. It is possible for a cat to give birth to a litter fathered by more than one male so could it be that she rejects some on the basis of the father? Just guessing here...

---

Posted                   

quote:

---

Originally posted by Emily Windsor-Cragg:
Again, Race is much more than skin deep; and herein lies a predicament for Society: how to educate and socialize consistently but identify and entrain individuals for excellence in skills in which each social component excels.

---

Posted                   

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Actually it is usual for litters to be fathered by more than one male, since each kitten is from one mating. So a cat who has a litter of 5 kittens has had five matings, with one cat or 5.

---

Never knew this. You learn something new everyday!

--------------------
Irish dogs needing homes! http://www.dogactionwelfaregroup.ie/ Greyhounds and Lurchers are shipped over to England for rehoming too!

Posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Actually it is usual for litters to be fathered by more than one male, since each kitten is from one mating. So a cat who has a litter of 5 kittens has had five matings, with one cat or 5.

---

Posted                    

quote:

---

how to educate and socialize consistently but identify and entrain individuals for excellence in skills in which each social component excels.

This is the typical problem that colonialism faces each location it tackles.

---

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Emily Windsor-Cragg:

The mania around sterilizing animals just goes over the top while corporations do more damage in a minute than a loose cat can do in twenty life-times.

Please get your priorities in order. Thanks.

Em

---

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hairy Biker:
and confined to your house

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by Moo:
You classify the kittens into groups according to your perception, and you notice that the mother treats the members of these groups differently. However, you have no way of knowing what the mother's criteria are.

---

quote:

---

On average, it took about 1550 tries before each cat would finally learn to pick the colored item to get their treat (presumably at this point they just got tired of the experiment, so started cooperating just to make it all stop). The real leading theory as to why it took so long for cats to learn this is simply that color doesn’t really factor into the daily life of a cat, in terms of being important. Thus, their brains, while able to distinguish between many colors, aren’t really used to doing so...

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by Moo:
I recently re-read a book by James Herriot where he reported that some ewes reject one of their twin lambs and lavish care on the other. A human being cannot tell the basis of the choice. Animals are somewhat like people, but we can't tell how they think and feel.

Moo

---

Posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Emily Windsor-Cragg:
The REDS always have her total attention, since they're the closest to her own color. However, they're much larger than the Greys, suck all her milk dry, and they're dumb as doorknobs!

Nillie's grown kittens of the Red variety are the largest cats I have ever encountered ... reaching 10-15# in weight within six months, the size of a canine spaniel.

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by Golden Key:
Re the upthread mention of cats presenting dead gifts to humans:

I've never owned a cat, but I cat-sat some hunting cats. Their gifts to me were clearly a great honor. I just figured it was a cultural difference.

---

Posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Taliesin:
It never crossed our minds to wonder what impact the colour of the cats fur was having.

---

But now you know!

--------------------
"Consequently nothing is of greater importance to a person than knowing what the truth is." Swedenborg

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Taliesin:
I read half the OP and thought, whoever wrote this is a fruit cake. Then I looked at the author.

---

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Anselmina:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Actually it is usual for litters to be fathered by more than one male, since each kitten is from one mating. So a cat who has a litter of 5 kittens has had five matings, with one cat or 5.

---

Never knew this. You learn something new everyday!

---

Posted                       

quote:

---

Originally posted by QLib:
I've told that Tortoiseshells are nearly always female and Gingers (Reds) are nearly always male - is there any truth in that?

---

Posted                

quote:

---

Originally posted by North East Quine:
My son claims to have been partially reared by the cat.

---

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by QLib:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Anselmina:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Actually it is usual for litters to be fathered by more than one male, since each kitten is from one mating. So a cat who has a litter of 5 kittens has had five matings, with one cat or 5.

---

Never knew this. You learn something new everyday!

---

Yes, I thought Calico Cats only existed in nursery rhymes. I guessed they were what we in Britland call tortoiseshell, and GoogleImages seems to confirm this. I've told that Tortoiseshells are nearly always female and Gingers (Reds) are nearly always male - is there any truth in that?

I have to say that fatuous analogies based on what exists in nature (actually pets) through to racism in humans are, in my experience, responsible for getting a lot of otherwise quite harmless folk mixed up in extremely ugly political ideologies. Conversely, and equally fatuously, I might dispute the comments about multi-national corps on the grounds that you rarely see someone in a suit wandering about with a dead fledgling blue tit in his/her mouth.

---

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Barnabas62:
IME, cats are a law unto themselves. Dogs do submission. Don't think cats do. They seem to be more into exploitation.

Dogs have owners. Cats seem to have a greater capacity for giving their "owners" the runaround. Not sure if we actually "own" our cats; the boot seems to be more on the other foot!

---

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Golden Key:
I wonder if different colors have different smells to cats? Maybe there's something about red fur that smells bad?

Or maybe she remembers their father and didn't like him???

Just thinking out loud!

---

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Druff:
Cats cannot be racist, they have no Mens Rea.

---

Posted                   

quote:

---

Barnabas62: But those instincts still look like "we're in charge, suckers! Now get on with the stroking and the feeding while we just s-t-r-e-t-c-h!"

---

Posted                    

quote:

---

Originally posted by Barnabas62:

But those instincts still look like "we're in charge, suckers! Now get on with the stroking and the feeding while we just s-t-r-e-t-c-h!"

---

Posted                       

Absolutely true. I cannot presume to know the basis for her choices--which to nurture and when or why to exclude and reject.

There is news! Gramma [here] nursed the three grey ones back to life and health with goats' milk laded with sweetening. Oh they loved that!

So, yesterday I reunited the litter, and Mama gladly accepted them all: groomed them all, nursed them all.

But I still have to separate the two colors because the "Red" ones are so much larger than the tiny Grey ones--and they fight--it's too risky for the tiny ones, especially for "Sugar" who had a couple of epileptic seizures and I nearly lost her.

This experience is truly instructive! So yesterday I took a digital image of Mama with "Patches" the Calico, but the light was dim so it came out ALL dark red, no details showing.

I brought up the image, reduced the color and added Light (50%), and "Patches" shows up as fluorescent GREEN. Green? Bright irridescent green. I have no explanation for that either.

Every day is a learning experience for Gramma here.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Moo:
You are assuming that you understand how the mother cat perceives her kittens. I think that is a very big stretch.

You classify the kittens into groups according to your perception, and you notice that the mother treats the members of these groups differently. However, you have no way of knowing what the mother's criteria are.

I recently re-read a book by James Herriot where he reported that some ewes reject one of their twin lambs and lavish care on the other. A human being cannot tell the basis of the choice. Animals are somewhat like people, but we can't tell how they think and feel.

Moo

---

Posted                      

quote:

---

Originally posted by Emily Windsor-Cragg:
This experience is truly instructive! So yesterday I took a digital image of Mama with "Patches" the Calico, but the light was dim so it came out ALL dark red, no details showing.

---

quote:

---

I brought up the image, reduced the color and added Light (50%), and "Patches" shows up as fluorescent GREEN. Green? Bright irridescent green. I have no explanation for that either.

---