Levels of understanding cat body language of Cat owners in Türkiye
Abstract
The aim of this study was to reveal how much the expressions cats show using their bodies are understood by their owners. A face-to-face survey was conducted on 1,459 cat owners between the year of ages 18-65 and living in seven regions of Türkiye. The participants were determined from people who come to animal hospitals or pet clinics and have cats at home, and these people participated in the survey voluntarily. When the distribution of the participants according to regions is analysed, the highest participation was from the Central Anatolia Region with 42.83%. The age group with the highest participation was the 18-25 age group. Among the questions in the survey, the ones with the highest percentage of correct answers were “Extremely Terrified” and “Disgusted,” while the question that received the most incorrect responses was “Anxious”. The rates of correct responses were nearly identical for both women (48.95) and men (48.03%). Among the participants of the survey, only one person answered all questions correctly. The region with the highest percentage of correct answers is Central Anatolia. Kruskal-Wallis test was performed in order to reveal the difference in the correct answers about the body language of cats according to age. Cat owners are not sufficient to understand the body language of cats and for this reason, they need to be informed and trained by experts on the body language of cats. When the literature review was conducted on the understanding of cat body language by cat owners, no other study covering the whole of Türkiye was found.
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