Buckeye the cat snapped this photo of his pal Brutus. Purina Friskies
Purina Friskies recently undertook a brilliant study to find out what cats do all day when they're home alone. They fitted 50 indoor cats with collar cameras to get a cat's eye view of the world.
The digital cat-cams snapped a still photo every 15 minutes. By combing through the piles of photos, Purina animal behavior scientist Dr. Jill Villarreal was able to draw some surprising new conclusions about how our kitties fare when they're left to their own devices.
(You can see the photos here.)
Before the study, most of the cat's owners expected lots of pictures of beds, Villarreal told Paw Nation. After all, cats sleep all day, right? Think again. "Although they do spend 8 to 16 hours [per day] asleep, when they're active and up, they're active and up -- and seeking out sensory stimuli within the home," Villarreal said.
That wasn't the only myth that the undercover kitties debunked. "There's still that belief out there that cats are asocial and prefer to be solitary," Villarreal said. "What the cat-cam study showed was they actually have active social lives."
The cats didn't just hang out with their feline housemates. They also spent a lot of time with dogs and even bunnies. "If they grow up together, they see other animals as friends," Villarreal said.
The cats spent nearly 12 percent of their time hanging out with other animals, versus six percent sleeping and five percent playing with toys.Their hands-down favorite activity? Looking out windows -- something the cats did for more than 21 percent of their time!
Villarreal says the study offers clues about how to make your home even more stimulating for cats. "It seems like they're seeking novelty and variety," she says. "Now that we know cats like variety, we can provide it in the home."
She suggests hiding several small food bowls around the house so that the cat has to work a little to find his lunch. She also recommends mixing up his toys. Give him furry mice for a few days, then a catnip tow for a while, then maybe some bottle caps or other random objects that only a cat could love.
Villarreal also recommends giving cats a treat-dispensing ball for them to wrestle with while you're away. Change up the flavors of the food inside the ball to keep your cat guessing."There were a lot of pictures of them stalking and playing around that way," she explained. "If we gave them a treat ball, it would be a fun way for them to explore their food and have a multi-sensory experience."
"Now we have a glimpse into the cat's world," she added. "I think we underestimated what the cat was doing during the day. From a cat's perspective, they're seeing a world full of excitement."
Kinda makes us look at our furry friends a little differently.
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