wu@uwmacc.UUCP (peter wu) (03/22/86)
*** A few articles back somebody mentioned that his wife stick her fingers with food in a cat's mouth and got chewed on. What I like to know is exactly how good a cat is in distinguishing human parts from food. Is this a born instinct or does it have to be taught to recognize fingers? I always tried to be careful when hand feeding a cat or just playing with it after I touched some food. So far, none of the cats I played with had mistaken my fingers for food even though some will lick the food off my fingers. I suppose if my whole finger is 'wrapped' in tuna the cat will probably bite in. But I like to know how much food on the finger is safe and how much is not. And, does the cat not bite my fingers because my fingers don't smell like food or is it because it knows fingers are part of the person who is feeding it and therefore should be respected? peter
kanner@tymix.UUCP (Herb Kanner) (03/23/86)
In article <2052@uwmacc.UUCP> wu@uwmacc.UUCP (peter wu) writes: >*** >A few articles back somebody mentioned that his wife stick her >fingers with food in a cat's mouth and got chewed on. > >What I like to know is exactly how good a cat is in distinguishing >human parts from food. Is this a born instinct or does it have to >be taught to recognize fingers? It goes both ways. My first cat bit my finger to the bone when I extended a finger toward it. This conditioned me for some years, but all my cats since then have knwon the difference between food and a finger. -- Herb Kanner McDonnell Douglas (TYMNET) ...!hplabs!oliveb!tymix!kanner