The Cat Behavior Answer Book - Arden Moore [4]
Diving into Dreamland
Q I love watching my cat sleep. He moves a lot and even makes little squeaking sounds at times. His legs quiver and his whiskers move. Is he dreaming?
A Cats do dream, but we can only speculate on the subject matter. It might be that your cat is reliving the brilliant capture of a wayward fly buzzing near a sunny window or a particularly speedy sprint down the hallway. Perhaps he is recalling with amusement how he charmed that final piece of broiled tuna off your dinner plate and into his own bowl.
We do have scientific evidence that cats dream. As with humans, feline sleep falls into two types — REM (rapid eye movement, which is when dreams happen), and non-REM (deep sleep). You will know your cat is in REM sleep because he is apt to twitch his legs, wiggle his whiskers, and subtly move his eyes behind his closed eyelids.
FELINE FACT
Cats are champion sleepers, but bats and opossums actually log more zzzzs. Those animals average 20 hours of sleep each day.
Studies using electroencephalograms (EEGs) to read brain activity in sleeping cats have indicated that cats are in the REM sleep stage for about 30 percent of their sleeping time and that their brain wave patterns during REM are similar to ours. In comparison, we spend about 20 percent of our sleep time in the REM stage (although human babies spend up to 80 percent in REM).
When cats are not dreaming, they are in the deep sleep phase. This is the time when the body goes to work repairing and regenerating bones and muscles and bolstering the immune system to fend off disease. The only movement you can detect during this sleep stage is the quiet up and down of breathing.
The Five Feline Senses
Q I know my cat, Cleo, hears much better than I do. She can be in a deep sleep on the second floor but will scoot down the stairs when she hears me opening the refrigerator door. That’s where I keep her favorite treat — small pieces of broiled chicken. By the time I open up the lid of the container, she is affectionately rubbing against my leg. But sometimes Cleo doesn’t seem to notice a toy mouse when it is right under her nose. When it comes to the five senses, how do cats compare with people?
A You’re right that cats can hear much better than humans. If I whispered that fact in one room while you and Cleo were in another room, I would bet the mortgage that Cleo would pick up my words and you wouldn’t. In fact, cats hear even better than dogs. They can hear sounds in the ultrasonic range, that is, at very high frequencies.
Sound is caused by vibrations, and the number of vibrations produced per second is called “frequency.” Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz), with one hertz equal to one vibration per second. Cats can hear up to 100,000 Hz, compared to dogs at between 35,000 and 40,000 Hz and humans at up to 20,000 Hz.
Why can cats hear so much better than we can? First, take a look at the design of the feline ear. Those cone-shaped wonders can rotate like mini satellite dishes to hone in on sounds. With their ability to pick up higher frequencies, cats can detect the squeaks of a trespassing mouse in the house far faster than we do. Now, let’s run down the four other senses and see how we stack up against our feline friends.
THE NOSE KNOWS. Cats learn about their environment by sniffing out facts. They pack about 200 million odor-sensitive cells in their nostrils, compared with our paltry 5 million. The feline nose does more than sniff out food morsels on the kitchen floor. Cats use their noses to communicate with other cats. Each time a cat rubs his scent glands from his head or paws on an object, he is leaving a feline business card for other cats to sniff and interpret.
TOUCHY-FEELY. Cats rely on their whiskers and paws to scout out their surroundings. You may be surprised to learn