What cats do when we're not looking

F

Fraggle Rocker

Staff member
According to a study by Purina and reported in the Washington Post on December 4, fifty domestic cats were fitted with collar-mounted cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes while they were left alone indoors. To everyone's surprise, their time was allocated as follows:
  • 22% Looking out of windows
  • 12% Interacting with other pets
  • 8% Climbing on furniture or on facilities provided for climbing
  • 6% Watching TV, computer screens or other media
  • 6% Hiding under tables
  • 6% Sleeping
  • 5% Playing with toys
  • 4% Eating food or looking at it
Contrary to their popular image, cats spend very little time sleeping when we're not around. But what also surprised me was adding up these percentages and discovering that the top eight "activities" account for only slightly more than two-thirds of their time. What strange things are they doing in tiny doses during the rest of their day? I'd really like to see the rest of the list!
 
Lol, "looking at food" :)

I've always wondered this as well, but I'm sure one of my cats would 99% sleeping.
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
According to a study by Purina and reported in the Washington Post on December 4, fifty domestic cats were fitted with collar-mounted cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes while they were left alone indoors. To everyone's surprise, their time was allocated as follows:
  • 22% Looking out of windows
  • 12% Interacting with other pets
  • 8% Climbing on furniture or on facilities provided for climbing
  • 6% Watching TV, computer screens or other media
  • 6% Hiding under tables
  • 6% Sleeping
  • 5% Playing with toys
  • 4% Eating food or looking at it
Contrary to their popular image, cats spend very little time sleeping when we're not around. But what also surprised me was adding up these percentages and discovering that the top eight "activities" account for only slightly more than two-thirds of their time. What strange things are they doing in tiny doses during the rest of their day? I'd really like to see the rest of the list!
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I'm not surprised at the list actually. I guess my cats just don't behave any different whether I'm around :)
And why would they really..?

As for the other third: mostly running around hysterically :D (out of playfulness), grooming, inspecting territory (the house), going to the litter box, trying to open doors, lying down while not sleeping, demolishing potted plants, and just randomly walking around and to and from all the activities.
And is eating other live animals (flies, spiders, etc.) included in eating food? :p
 
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i suspect that it only took a short while for the cats to figure out the moments at which the photos were snapped and the intervals between photos. i am curious to know what they were doing between the moments at which the photos were taken.
 
parmalee said:
i suspect that it only took a short while for the cats to figure out the moments at which the photos were snapped and the intervals between photos. i am curious to know what they were doing between the moments at which the photos were taken.
Click to expand...


Playing poker with the dog..and taking him to the cleaners...poor guy..can't recognize a bluff.
 
  • 0.1% listening to ipod and your sensual songs

ipods.jpg
 
Well male cats are likely to be licking there Balls I have seen this first hand when we had a cat.
 
The sleeping stat looks seriously wrong which raises questions about the accuracy of the other stats. I don't know why this study should be inaccurate as it would seem to be a rather simple study to create. The cats being up all night when people are sleeping and sleeping in the day time when people are up might make cats seem to sleep more than they really do.

Washing themselves is definitely a major activity.

Walking around the house takes time. Getting petted or positioning themselves between the people and whatever the people are looking at in the apparent hope of being petted takes time.

I had a cat that liked to look at herself in the mirror.

Is playing with the shower curtain the same thing as playing with toys?

Smelling stuff is another common activity of cats.
 
Enmos said:
And is eating other live animals (flies, spiders, etc.) included in eating food?
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I didn't design the study but if I did I would certainly call that "hunting," which is a much different activity from eating out of a bowl. Domesticated cats exhibit a phenomenon called "neoteny," which is a regression to the psychology of kittenhood. We pick them up, feed them, and basically treat them like their mother would, so they regress and enjoy it. That's how you get a solitary hunting species to behave like a pack-social species and make friends with other cats and other animals.

Hunting is adult cat behavior. Eating food provided by momma is kitten behavior. Big difference.
parmalee said:
i suspect that it only took a short while for the cats to figure out the moments at which the photos were snapped and the intervals between photos.
Click to expand...
How? This is the digital age, there's nothing to click in a spy camera like they were using.
nirakar said:
The sleeping stat looks seriously wrong . . .
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Why? The whole point of this experiment was to find out what cats do when we're not watching. Have you observed your cat for hours through one-way glass???

(And the little sucker didn't know you were there?;))
The cats being up all night when people are sleeping and sleeping in the day time when people are up might make cats seem to sleep more than they really do.
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Yeah. Now dogs, they do sleep a lot.

I've always said that the biggest difference between dogs and children is nap time. You say "nap time" to two kids and they immediately run off screaming in twelve different directions, and will continue screaming and pounding on the walls for the first fifteen minutes of the alleged "nap." But you say "nap time" to your dogs and they will be flat on the bed before you even get there, and won't move or make a sound until you get up.
Is playing with the shower curtain the same thing as playing with toys?
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I don't see why not. From the cat's point of view there's no important difference.
 
What would the numbers look like if you either opened the windows, or provided an unrestricted portal outside.
 
that list surprises me. Our cats always seem to be sleeping.
Our cats also bat their food out of their dish and eat it off the floor. What's up with that?
 
Fraggle Rocker said:
According to a study by Purina and reported in the Washington Post on December 4, fifty domestic cats were fitted with collar-mounted cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes while they were left alone indoors. To everyone's surprise, their time was allocated as follows:
  • 22% Looking out of windows
  • 12% Interacting with other pets
  • 8% Climbing on furniture or on facilities provided for climbing
  • 6% Watching TV, computer screens or other media
  • 6% Hiding under tables
  • 6% Sleeping
  • 5% Playing with toys
  • 4% Eating food or looking at it
Contrary to their popular image, cats spend very little time sleeping when we're not around. But what also surprised me was adding up these percentages and discovering that the top eight "activities" account for only slightly more than two-thirds of their time. What strange things are they doing in tiny doses during the rest of their day? I'd really like to see the rest of the list!
Click to expand...
First I want to say that I loved the title of this thread since it immediately made me think of the philosophical issue of what reality is when there are no observers, but in this case reality was cats.
My immediate second thought is that both cats and humans would probably be horrified to see what humans do when cats are not watching them. IOW if you and you cat could see the %ages of time spent on your activities, I think you would both be horrified - if cats really cared about such things. Dogs certainly would be horrified by everyone but outdoormen, etc.

I want to know how the researchers knew the cats were 'hiding' under the tables. I can imagine this being obvious, but I still would like to know their criteria.

I would love to know what outdoor cats did with their time. I think the indoor cats' activities would turn out to be shadows of the outdoor activities.
 
parmalee said:
i suspect that it only took a short while for the cats to figure out the moments at which the photos were snapped and the intervals between photos. i am curious to know what they were doing between the moments at which the photos were taken.
Click to expand...

pry trying to get that dang camera off their necks...
 
Orleander said:
that list surprises me. Our cats always seem to be sleeping.
Our cats also bat their food out of their dish and eat it off the floor. What's up with that?
Click to expand...

My cats stalk their toys. It's hysterical. I rarely catch them doing it.

This recent picture of my two cats seems to confirm, at least anecdotally, what Fraggle posts.

img1459a.jpg


~String
 
i think my cat would be 30% going in and out of the house hoping his catfood would magicly refill everytime he comes inside..
 
superstring01 said:
My cats stalk their toys. It's hysterical. I rarely catch them doing it....
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our youngest cat (Skittles) loves to play with the ring that comes off the gallon milk jug. Every once in a while I'll have my bedroom door shut and the ring will come flying in under it. A few seconds later I see this paw poking around under it. Then the yowling begins. :rolleyes:

Or at 3 am she will start playing fetch with herself by flinging a ball down the stairs, running to go get it, and then coming back up to do it all over again.
 
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