Whisker fatigue causes stress and overstimulates their senses. Using a flat bowl or plate will relieve this issue and allow your cat to eat all their food without stress.

You can also search for “whisker fatigue” bowls specifically made for cats.

More info

  • marmo7ade@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    182
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Not all feline vets think whisker fatigue is a real condition or cause for concern. Dr. Cathy Lund of City Kitty, a feline-only veterinary practice in Providence, R.I, questions the validity of whisker fatigue. While a cat’s whiskers do serve as very sensitive tactile sensors, she does not believe contact between whiskers and objects causes stress in cats.

    Yea, me too. The article is based on inference and opinion. You actually have no idea what your cat thinks about whiskers touching the bowl.

    That said, stress, for whatever reason, is a real issue of concern for cat owners and vets, Lund says.

    No one is doubting this. The amount of stress this puts on that cat is what is doubted.

    • UhBell@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Not every cat responds the same, or at all, to stress on their whiskers. Just like people, cats have varrying tolerances to stimulus.

      Anecdotally, my cats would not finish their food in narrow bowls but do now that they eat from flat bowls.

      • TheActualDevil@sffa.community
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I can add my own anecdote to this one. One of my cat’s is fine with any bowl because he’s just very food motivated and will do anything to get to his food at feeding time. The other one, when using a more narrow bowl, would often stop eating normally and scoop out the food with a paw. Once I switched to wide flatter bowls, she scarfs it down without pause. It was clearly bothering her.

        While cats vary in their preferences and tolerances, it bothers me that so many people just scoff at this idea. We’re caretakers for cats and should do our best to make their lives as reasonably comfortable and enriching as possible. And just because a cat is fine with touching things with their whiskers in some situations doesn’t mean they’re cool with it in others. Cats are often happy to have you scratch behind their ears, but only when it’s invited.

        And come on, bowls are cheap. It’s not that big of an inconvenience to get them a bowl that could be more comfortable, even if they’re tolerating it now.

    • pizza_rolls@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      So far the only actual study we have on this says it’s not a real thing. Sure, some cats have different preferences but it’s not like you are torturing your cat with normal bowls and need to run out and buy special ones.

      https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1098612X20930190

      If you’re feeding your cat an infinite supply of dry food without a feeding schedule you have bigger things to be concerned about than whisker fatigue.

      • ramplay@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        As an ad libitum cat feeder, 0 issues so far. They eat when they’re hungry

        • pizza_rolls@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          7
          ·
          1 year ago

          It’s well documented it veterinary literature, you can believe the studies or not 🤷‍♀️. It’s not like it kills your cat instantly, you just deal with diabetes kidney or urinary issues in the future. Not sure why someone would not try to prevent that.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      This applies to pretty much every article about animals…it’s just humans putting human stuff on animals for the sake of humans. :/

      • IDatedSuccubi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It happens often in media, but real scientists don’t rely on what they think animals think, instead using objective data like brain activity scans, heartbeat rates etc, often presenting pure data without a conclusion on what they think the animal feels. Those studies will then come to media, where the interviewed scientists will give their thoughts on how they interpret the results, even if it’s obvious that the animal likes/dislikes something. These also exist in media.

        Edit: I also want to add that many things are straight up visibly harming the animal and you don’t even need any conclusions. For example if you house a hole-dwelling spider without enough substrate to dig, it will stop eating. This has been confirmed many times, by many owners. It doesn’t matter if it makes them uncomfortable or they feel pain from it, or they are cold, etc, because we know that they stop eating, and that’s a good enough signal that something’s bad.