No, it is not April Fools Day. There is plenty of evidence after research, that cats can be left-handed or right-handed. I know, it should be left or right-pawed. There is a term for this and it is called pawedness! I kid you not. Not only do felines apparently have a favourite or dominant paw, but male and female cats seem to favour one over the other. Research, (yes, people with very good degree qualifications, do this for a living and to date, there have been over 30 such scientific studies undertaken), shows that female cats prefer to be right-pawed whilst male cats go for left-pawedness.
The figures for all this are as follows.
Female Cats:
Right-Pawed 52%
Left Pawed 27.1%
No Preference 20.9%
Male Cats:
Left Pawed 52.3%
Right Pawed 30.8%
No Preference 16.9%
He Does Not Care
In all studies, a total of 1,484 cats were tested. Other results showed that overall, 75% of cats have a preference for a dominant paw leaving 25% who showed no preference. How did this measure up to humans? I am glad you asked. Humans showed only 1% had no preference.
So, why does this preference exist at all? It seems that left-handiness may be down to the level of testosterone in the body. That is why men are more left-handed than women. Evidence to back this up came when female cats were given additional testosterone. This resulted in some of them changing to prefer using their left paw.
Finally, I have purposely not told you how to test your cat for left or right preference. This is because I do not want to earn the wrath of your moggy who probably just wants to be left alone to eat, sleep and occasionally hunt with either paw.
John Pullen 