Dec 11, 2023 21:00:00

Experts explain 'Do laser pointers have a negative impact on cats' mental health?'

Laser pointers are popular as cat toys, and videos of cats desperately chasing laser pointers are often seen on social media. Experts explain whether playing with this laser pointer has a negative impact on cats' mental health.

Are Laser Pointers Bad For Cat's Mental Health? A Vet Reveals the Truth
https://www.inverse.com/science/laser-pointer-cat-toy-mental-health

Laser pointers can help attract your cat's attention and encourage exercise, but your cat may not feel satisfied after playing with it. For a cat to play with a laser pointer is 'like smelling your favorite food, but never being able to eat it,' says Dr. C., a doctoral student in veterinary medicine at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay. Florencia Barrios Fernandez, student and research assistant.

Cats are predators that hunt for food in the wild, and they like to catch their prey. 'Hunting is the best experience in the world for cats,' said Fernandez. According to Fernandez, hunting can even release euphoric endorphins in cats' brains. However, since hunting reaches its climax with catching and killing prey, Fernandes describes a laser pointer with no physical prey as ``something like a ghost that teases cats.''

A 2022

paper published in an applied animal welfare science journal showed that playing with a cat with a laser pointer was associated with repetitive behaviors such as tail chasing and reflected light chasing. I did. In addition, it has been pointed out that if cats continue to fail in hunting activities while playing with a laser pointer, their anxiety may increase and undesirable behavior may occur frequently.

According to Fernandez, although it is rare, lasers can damage a cat's retina if they are shined directly into the eye. However, if you are using a military-grade laser pointer, you need to be more careful as it can also damage human eyes.

Cats have a strong image of hunting rodents, but according to Fernandez, cats hunt everything including insects to obtain protein. The success rate of cats' hunting activities is only about 40-50%, which is not very high. This is also why cats often spend most of their day hunting. The red dots shown by the laser pointer resemble protein-rich insects and help cats move quickly.

A 2021 study found that cats kept indoors are more likely to engage in play that mimics hunting than cats kept outdoors. Comparing outdoor cats and indoor cats, indoor cats seem to react more violently to artificial stimuli than to simulated prey. For example, indoor cats have been shown to pay attention to any prey that crosses their path, even though they don't have to worry about food. Encouraging this predatory behavior is critical to a cat's health. According to Mr. Fernandes, 60% of sick cats stop playing, pointing to a link between playtime and illness.

Fernandez explains that commercially available laser pointers can have a negative impact on cats' mental health, but with a few changes, laser pointers can be made into ``excellent cat toys.'' . Mr. Fernandes recommends ``guiding visible prey with a laser pointer'' and recommends using a laser pointer to guide cats to ``the cat's favorite toy.''

Fernandez also recommends playing in an open area to prevent cats from colliding with furniture while chasing the laser pointer. You need to control the pointer correctly.'

Another study has shown that visual stimulation is not necessarily bad. In an experiment in which cats living in shelters were shown a variety of images, cats that were shown animations spent about 30 minutes more sleep than cats that were not shown television or cats that were shown images of inanimate objects. It has been shown that it is 3 hours shorter, suggesting that it may lead to improved environmental enrichment .