This article from the NYT recounts a new study from PLOS One in which researchers tried to understand whether cats knew the scent of their staff as opposed to other cat owners and other people who didn’t own cats (click on screenshot to read, or find the original article archived here). The results are straightforward, and I’ll quote the NYT summary:
An excerpt:
Through referrals from friends and colleagues, the researchers recruited 30 cats and their owners to participate in the study. The cats’ owners captured their own scents by rubbing cotton swabs behind their ears, between their toes and under their armpits. Eight additional people who don’t own pets and didn’t know the cats’ owners were recruited to be “odor donors.”
Each of the study cats, in the comfort of its own home, was then presented with an array of test tubes containing the smelly cotton swabs from its owner, a stranger and a blank control. A camera mounted to the experimental setup recorded the cats’ reactions to the test tubes.
The cats spent more time sniffing the samples from the strangers than from their owners — an indication that the cats could recognize their owners’ scents and devoted more time to exploring the ones they’d never smelled before.
While this finding might seem like common sense, it’s “a very important piece of information,” said Dr. Carlo Siracusa, an associate professor of animal behavior at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine who was not involved with the study. “This is how science works. You need to prove everything.”
Dr. Uchiyama and his colleagues further analyzed video recordings of the cats sniffing the test tubes and observed the cats predominantly using their right nostrils to smell the strangers’ test tubes, regardless of where the tube was placed within the array. These findings seemed to corroborate previous studies of other animals, including dogs, which also led with their right nostrils when exploring strange scents.
“The left nostril is used for familiar odors, and the right nostril is used for new and alarming odors, suggesting that scenting may be related to how the brain functions,” Dr. Uchiyama said. “It is likely that the right brain is preferred for processing emotionally alarming odors.”
. . .[Dr. Uchiyama] also remarked on the logistical feat of designing a study protocol deemed acceptable by its feline participants.
“I really commend this group of scientists for being successful in engaging 30 cats in doing this stuff,” Dr. Siracusa said. “Most cats want nothing to do with your research.”
The nostril difference is interesting; I know of know other species with two nostrils in which the nasal volutes have different functions. Could something like this be true in humans, too?
Click below to see the original article:
There’s one figure showing a cat (there should have been more!); here it is with caption from the paper:
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From Bored Panda we have “50 pictures of cats looking extremely annoyed“, and here’s a small selection (click on the headline to see them all):
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ScienceAlert tells us why we shouldn’t give milk to cats. Click below to read; I’ll add an excerpt:
An excerpt:
Farmers began to employ them as pest controllers. It was through this arrangement that cats and milk first became acquainted.
Before the commercialisation of pet food, cats were mostly fed scraps from the family table. Not much was known about their nutritional needs. In his 1877 book on cats, Scottish doctor Gordon Stables insisted cats need two bowls – “one for water and the other for milk” – and suggested porridge and milk as an excellent feline breakfast.
From these origins, cats and milk became further embedded in the collective zeitgeist through depictions of milk-loving cats in art, books, movies and cartoons. There’s even the classic trope of the scruffy street cat being rescued from the rain to enjoy a saucer of milk from a kindly stranger.
. . . . While it’s not surprising that cats and milk have persisted as an unquestioned combination, research now tells us cats shouldn’t be drinking milk at all.
Like all mammals, cats begin life drinking milk from their mother. But past kittenhood, milk is a completely unnecessary part of a cat’s diet.
After weaning (around 6–12 weeks of age), kittens stop producing the enzyme lactase, required to digest lactose in milk. For the vast majority of cats, this means they are lactose intolerant.
However, just like in humans, the level of intolerance varies for each individual based on how much of the enzyme their body naturally produces.
Don’t rush to give your kitten milk, though. Just because kittens can digest lactose doesn’t mean they should be drinking cow’s milk. Cats are much smaller animals than cows and, fittingly, the amount of lactose in the milk of mother cats is much lower than in cow’s milk. It’s best to let them drink from their mother or to get them a kitten-appropriate cat formula.
Lactose intolerance isn’t the only reason not to give your cats milk. Though rare, cats can also develop an allergy to milk or dairy.
. . . And if you’re thinking your cat is one of the lucky few that isn’t lactose intolerant, think again. Cats are very good at hiding discomfort because, in the wild, showing weakness would make them a target for predators.
If you absolutely must, opt for lactose-free milk or milk formulated specifically for cats, and keep it as a very occasional treat.
While it won’t upset their stomachs in the same way as regular cow’s milk, it still won’t offer your cat any nutritional benefit.
As for milk alternatives like oat, soy or almond milk? Any unusual additions to your cat’s diet are likely to cause digestive upset, so it’s best to avoid these as well.
I guess cheese and ice cream are out, too. 🙁
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h/t Merilee, Ginger K.
One of our cats won’t have anything to do with people food, even tuna, except for butter. If the butter comes out, he knows it, and is there reminding us. He gets a sliver, and that makes him content. Our other cat doesn’t care for it.
The article on lactose intolerance in cats contains inaccuracies. The lactose concentration in milk from dairy animals and cats is very similar. Small amounts of milk may not give cats diarrhoea (I think their owners would have noticed) from undigested lactose acting to pull water into the intestine. A final thought – has anybody actually checked whether providing lactose to adult cats might induce the production of lactase? In other words is the cessation of lactase production at weaning always irreversible? Oh, one final bit: many milk products, like hard cheese, contain very little lactose – it was all in the whey and probably fed to pigs. But then, how do pigs deal with the lactose?
When I was small, back in the dark ages of the 1960s, we fed our cat milk (and the dog loved chocolate!) Both lived to a great age. I suspect that a cat is smart enough to avoid milk if it gets abdominal pain from consuming it. Ours certainly never had diarrhoea from milk. Adult humans also lose lactase as we mature from infancy, but almost all of us still manage to consume milk without an issue, so I assume cats are the same.
Love the pictures of annoyed cats. I’ve seen all those faces in our own cats, except the first one. That cat looks like he’s about to take off!
Great Caturday roundup!
Some cats really like ice cream. My understanding is that cats like it for the cream which is, of course, fat. I read that they lack sweetness taste receptors, meaning they can’t even taste the sugar.
My kitty had an inordinate fondness for tuna. Nothing got his attention, or amped up his acceleration and top speed, like opening a can of vitamin “T”.
My cat could always recognize my scent even in left clothes.
My DOG, however…. next level.
I’ve read that dogs have 200M receptors (we have 2M) in their olfactory bulbs and watching “Aussie” on walks for 15 years I’d believe it. Every lamppost is like an internet bulletin board where all the local dogs leave their “messages”.
Amazing superpower I wish I had!
Star of the show Aussie: https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2020/06/10/photos-of-readers-93/
D.A.
NYC
My cat is like #38. I just can’t get myself to stop kissing her forehead. She doesn’t get it’s the physics of my brain.
Thank you Jerry, very interesting. I have two 16-year-old Burmese cats, Siti and Obama. Both cats like cheese and Siti likes plain yogurt. I give them a little bit occasionally. I don’t eat ice cream so they have never tried it.
One of our cats loved butter and cheese. I suggested a House Rule that whoever fed her those foods had to clean up the vomit that inevitable followed within 10 minutes. As a result, she was dairy-free. I can certainly relate to liking foods that don’t like me.
I’ve seen cat face #2 plenty of times. As for giving my cats milk, I only did so once in a while and I never witnessed them getting sick from it. My main concern with it was the extra calories. I’ve always done my best to keep my pets lean as that usually translates to a longer life with fewer trips to the vet. My question is, what are the cats smelling when they cling to your shoe and pant’s leg and pant as though they’re aroused?