Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Voge obamb here It's hard to say whether a human wielding a laser pointer or a cat chasing the light is having more fun. While you sit chuckling on the couch twitching that six dollar device around in your hand, your cat is experiencing real moments of heroic desperation as she leaps over the ottoman and scrambles up the wall after that tiny speck of light she's never able to catch. It's great exercise for indoor cats,
But why do cats find this activity compelling? First starters, cats are attracted to anything that allows them to stalk prey, even just for play. We spoke with Dr Stephanie Bourne's wheel and animal behavior specialist at the Cummings Veterinary Medical Center at Tufts University. She said the laser simulates the movement of prey, so it attracts the cat's tension and gets the cat to chase and pounce on it. It is certainly a play behavior in young cats and maybe
in older indoor cats as well. However, it may also be an abrant expression of the predatory behavior. That is, if you will hijacked by the laser movement. Wild Cats, feral cats, and even your sweet spoiled indoor outdoor kittens who sleeps under the covers with you are all single minded, solitary predators. They're wired to spend a significant portion of their waking outdoor hours stalking their food, and since indoor cats are often woefully understimulated in this regard, playing with
a laser satisfies that predatory urge. But it's just a moving point of light, insubstantial and obviously not a mouse. Cats know that right. For many cats, the laser pointer is compelling in a way that makes you wonder if you too are at the same party. Well, in some ways you're probably not. We also spoke with Dr John Bradshaw at the University of Bristol School of Veterinary Science
and author of the Trainable Cat and Cats Sense. He said it's unlikely that cats perceived the light from a laser pointer in the same way we do, because in several ways their eyes work differently to ours. We both have eyes that point forwards, giving us similar abilities and perceiving how far away something is, but the similarities pretty much end there. According to Bradshaw, although cats react strongly
to the red dot produced by a laser pointer. It almost certainly doesn't have anything to do with the color. That's because cat eyes are not sensitive to the color red, so they most likely see the dot of light as white or yellow. But cats are more sensitive to movement than we are because their eyes connect to their brains differently than ours. Bradshaw said, I suspect this is the
main attraction of the pointer for the cat. The movement is really exciting, and even when we think we're holding the pointer steady, the slight tremble in our hands probably generates enough movement to keep the cat interested. So a laser pointer interests kitties obviously because it gives them something to pelling to hunt and play with. But some that are in arians think laser playtime might be psychologically taxing for a cat, as it has them constantly chasing after
something they'll never be able to catch. Some vets say this can lead to neurosis, which can lead to symptoms like over grooming, but Bradshaw thinks not. He said, I don't agree that using a laser pointer to amuse your cat will make it neurotic. Cats hunt their toys all the time, and the fact that they never actually succeed in killing any of them doesn't seem to do the cat any harm. There may be a few cats that become obsessed with laser pointers, and for those it would
probably be best to ration their exposure. But for the average Maggie, a few minutes of chasing a red dot around the apartment should simply provide some of the mental and physical stimulation the indoor cats especially need. Boyne's Wile agrees that the main concern should not be what you're using to exercise your indoor cat so much as whether you're doing it at all. She said, insufficient stimulation is
a serious problem for indoor cats. Cats are highly territorial, solitary hunters that spend much of their day's foraging for small prey animals. I'm not advocating letting them outside to be killed by predators are hit by cars, but I do advocate managing their environment as one does any captive wild animal, so that they have the opportunity to do
what they've evolved to do. What does that entail A Boyin's while explained regular opportunities for predatory play and exercise, feeding with foraging toys, safe opportunities to monitor wildlife from window seats, plenty of vertical space, and hiding spots should all be part of a cat's environment. Cats are not, or rather should not, be, low maintenance pets. To keep a cat requires effort and understanding to be able to
provide a satisfactory life in an indoor context. I think that laser play can be included in an overall plan of enrichment. Today's episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. From one, there's lots of other stimulating topics. Visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com, and for more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.