CATS PREFER FREE MEALS OVER WORKING FOR FOOD
Unlike most pets, residential felines prefer consuming free of charge to exercising a simple challenge to obtain their food, scientists record.
Provided an option in between free food and carrying out a job for food, most pets will perform a job. This is called contrafreeloading and has been known since the 1970s.
But residential felines are various, inning accordance with the new study provided today at an online meeting of the Pet Habits Culture.
"IT WASN'T THAT THE CATS NEVER USED THE FOOD PUZZLE, THEY JUST USED IT LESS, ATE LESS FOOD FROM IT, AND TYPICALLY WOULD EAT FROM THE FREELY AVAILABLE FOOD FIRST."
Scientists offered 18 house felines an option in between a food challenge and a tray of free food. Felines consumed more from the free tray and invested more time on the free food, they found.
"It had not been that the felines never ever used the food challenge, they simply used it much less, consumed much less food from it, and typically would certainly consume from the freely available food first," says coauthor Mikel Delgado, a postdoctoral scientist at the College of California, Davis Institution of Veterinary Medication.
That makes felines an exemption compared with rats, mice, gerbils, birds, canines, and monkeys, and various other pets both wild and residential that have been evaluated throughout the years.
Although contrafreeloading has been known for almost half a century, there's still no solitary concept to discuss it.
"There are various concepts about why pets might contrafreeload, consisting of monotony in captive atmospheres, promoting all-natural foraging habits, and producing a feeling of control over the environment and outcomes," Delgado says.
It is also unclear why felines do not do it—perhaps because it doesn't mimic all-natural searching habits, she says.
Felines can and do use food challenges when various other food isn't provided, however. Food challenges can provide an important enrichment task for residential felines, inning accordance with previous research by Delgado and associates.
Resource: UC Davi
