Confused Kitten

I often wonder what behaviors are instinctive and what behaviors are learned. I know there has been much research done on these topics, but I am not familiar with what has been found out about cat behavior. Earlier this evening, I was sitting outside with the strays that I feed. The one I call Mama Cat, who had kittens in March and is pregnant again, was lying by my front door after having her dinner, and the one I call Hairy, because of his long hair, was also sitting by the door but on the other side of the mat. One of Mama Cat’s offspring from March came around, had some food, and then decided he wanted some milk. He and his siblings have been eating solid food for quite some time now, so I was a little surprised by this. I expected Mama Cat to hiss at him since that’s been her standard response whenever her kittens want to play and she wants to be left alone. Instead she let him lie down and start suckling (I don’t know if there was anything to drink or if this is simply a comforting behavior for the 4-month old kitten).

My neighbor arrived, and when he got out of the car we started chatting. This startled the kitten a bit, and he got up and sat on the mat, between Mama Cat and the Hairy one. When he realized that the situation was not threatening, he decided to go back to what he’d been doing. Except this time, he went to Hairy instead of to Mama Cat. Needless to say, Hairy was not happy to have a kitten trying to nuzzle his belly and he hissed, sending the kitten running. This both amused and confused me.

Really the only similarity between Mama Cat and Hairy is that they are both black cats. Mama Cat is short-haired, while Hairy has long hair, as mentioned earlier. Most importantly, Mama Cat is a female, and Hairy is an un-neutered adult male. And even if they were very similar and of the same sex, wouldn’t the kitten know who his mother was? He’s already 4 months old, and it’s very clear that he’s male. I’d think that at this age, and with his sex so clearly defined, he’d know which cats were male and which cats were female. Or maybe he does know, but doesn’t necessarily understand that male cats can’t produce milk. Perhaps it was simply momentary confusion. Or just wishful thinking. I don’t know what happened there, but it made me laugh. And it got Hairy crankier than he was earlier (he’s a very cranky cat). Cats are weird creatures, but they are very entertaining to observe.