Assessing how cats cope with the housing and husbandry at shelters is an important part of maintaining good animal welfare. There are non-invasive methods to assess how cats cope with their environment. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of the behaviours used in an extended Stress Assessment protocol for cats to detect stress. Looking at which behaviours are salient and possible to observe accurately, and which correlate with time until adoption. The study was carried out at a non-governmental medium sized cat rescue shelter in Midwestern USA. The shelter had a no-kill policy with screening of cats before intake from county shelters. The observed cats were either group-housed in five rooms (n = 70) or singly housed in double cages (n = 13). Observations were carried out during both morning and afternoon sessions, during which two 1-min observations recorded if cats performed any of 85 behavioural elements (BEs). Time at shelter and if cats were declawed or not were collected from shelter records after the observations. Statistical analysis of the BEs that best predicted the total time at shelter was calculated using the Survival Analysis based on the Cox proportional hazards regression model using a stepwise regression analysis separately for each scoring. The median time at shelter for group-housed cats was 26 days (IQR = 6–54) and for single-housed cats 29 days (IQR = 7–97). In total, 24 % of the BEs (20 of 85) were never recorded, however there were significantly more BEs recorded in group-housed cats (63 BEs) than in single-housed cats (49 BEs, p < 0.05). The survival analysis found 16 unique BEs to predict “Short time at shelter” (14 BEs in group-housed, two in single-housed), 14 were positively correlated meaning that they increased the chance of early adoption and two were negative meaning that they decreased the chance of early adoption. The survival analysis also calculated “Long time at shelter” and found 14 unique BEs where 12 BEs were in group-housed cats and three BEs were in single-housed cats. Seven of these were positively correlated meaning that they decreased the chance of early adoption, whereas seven were negatively correlated meaning that they increased the chance of early adoption. The conclusion is that the extended Stress Assessment could be used to detect BEs indicating stress of cats at shelters, and that there are BEs that can predict shorter time at the shelter. However, further investigations could help reduce the number of BEs needed.

评估猫如何应付庇护所的住房和饲养是保持良好动物福利的重要组成部分。有非侵入性方法可以评估猫如何适应其环境。这项研究的目的是调查在扩展的压力评估协议中用于猫检测压力的行为的可靠性。查看哪些行为是显着的并且可能被准确观察，以及哪些行为与采用之前的时间相关。这项研究是在美国中西部的一个非官方的中等规模的猫营救助所进行的。该避难所实行不杀人政策，对猫从县避难所进食前进行筛查。观察到的猫要么成群饲养在五个房间（n = 70）中，要么单独饲养在双笼中（n = 13）。上午和下午都进行了观察，在此期间，如果猫执行了85种行为元素（BE）中的任何一项，则记录了两个1分钟的观察结果。观察后从避难所记录中收集避难所的时间以及是否对猫取缔。使用基于Cox比例风险回归模型的生存分析，对每个得分分别进行逐步回归分析，使用生存分析计算出最能预测避难所总时间的BE的统计分析。群居猫的庇护所中位时间为26天（IQR = 6–54），单身猫的庇护所中位时间为29天（IQR = 7–97）。总体上，从未记录过24％的BE（85个中的20个），但是，成群饲养的猫（63个BE）记录的BE明显多于单只猫（49个BE，p <0.05）。生存分析发现，有16个独特的BE可以预测“庇护所的短暂时间”（14个BE属于集体居住，两个BE属于单居），其中14个是正相关的，这意味着它们增加了早期采用的机会，而两个则是负面的，这意味着它们减少了早期采用的机会。生存分析还计算了“长时间在庇护所中”，发现了14个独特的BE，其中12个BE在成群饲养的猫中，三个BE在单笼猫中。其中七个是正相关的，这意味着它们减少了早期采用的机会，而七个是负相关的，这意味着它们增加了早期采用的机会。结论是，扩展的压力评估可以用于检测指示避难所中猫的压力的BE，并且有BE可以预测避难所中的时间较短。然而，