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Cats Prefer to Get Free Meals Rather Than Work for Them, Study
- PaulHoule 5y agoCats find it meaningful when social activity accompanies feeding. They play with the mouse not just because they're hungry but because they're lonely. They love to play with you to get fed for the same reason. My two house cats are trained to tap (cat 1) or headbutt (cat 2) to get fed. Both of them will do the special behavior even if they have food. I don't expect them to "feel it" from solving a puzzle, but I think they relish having a social interaction. It's easy to train a cat this way if you pick a behavior that they occasionally do spontaneously. Cat 1 might be a Russian Blue which does that, headbutting is much more generic and that's why we trained Cat 2 to do that. Cat 3 in the barn likes to bite people, which is NOT a behavior we want to encourage however.
- quantified 5y agoInteresting. I’ve found them to be attracted to play that involves motion, didn’t know that playing with the mouse in any way social. As a whole, given a chance, they’re certainly social animals. That said, “serve me” seems to be the work they prefer to put in to get their chow.