Anxious cats; Contrary to many people’s beliefs that a cat’s body-smelling body can relax a cat in its absence, it does not relieve cats of stress.
According to new research, anxious cats do not relax with objects that smell like their loved ones, and these reminders can even cause them to become more restless in the absence of their owner.
Most domestic cats have a strong relationship with their caregivers and their presence seems to reassure cats; But unlike human babies, cats do not accept odors alone instead of the people they come in contact with, according to Kristen Vitale of Unity College in Maine. He says:
The sense of smell is an important sensation for cats and is related to their social behavior; But in our study, objects that smelled like cat owners had no effect on reducing stress . This odor may even make things worse for some cats.
Cat owners are sometimes told to put one of their clothes in front of their cat when they have to separate it from their cats and put it in a storage area. To see if it really worked, Vitale and his colleagues asked 42 cat owners to bring their cats and what they smelled of (such as shoes, socks, pajamas, or blankets) to an unfamiliar experimental room.
Each cat owner sat in the middle of a two-meter-wide circle on the floor, while their cat was allowed to roam freely throughout the room. Then the cat owner would leave it alone. Cats then experienced one of two states. For some, the owner would return them and then leave them alone again with the fragrant object. For others, there was an object first and then the cat owner returned after the cat was left alone for a while.
Most cats showed signs of bonding with their owner, and when their owner returned to the room, they would rub themselves on him and meow nervously in the absence of their owner; But no matter what state the cats experienced, they usually did not pay attention to the smelly object and did not behave more calmly when they were alone with that object.
In fact, 38% of cats made more noise when there was an odorous object in the room than when they were alone. Many cats would be less relaxed in the presence of their owner, even if they were first given an odorless object as an alternative. According to Vitale, the reason may be that cats need more comprehensive social interaction with their owners. “Things like heat, touch, and communication through sound can all be important,” he says.
Findings from a new study show that cat owners are better off not leaving their cats alone with their scents. Instead, if the cat needs to experience a new environment or other stressful situation, its owner can try to be physically present with the cat if possible.
The findings are published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science .
