Cats have a reputation for being difficult animals. However, our expert explains that they are not capricious. It’s like saying a toddler is throwing a tantrum. It doesn’t make sense. It’s about unresolved emotional states. “, says Nayla Cherino Parra**, a veterinarian interested in the emotional states of animals, and director of the veterinary practice Les 9 fountains and founder of the Laboratory Acunature. For our expert, if cats are demanding, it is without intentionality and without the desire to manipulate and often because there is a good reason behind it!
Cat’s Food Whim: Really?
Cat owners often talk about their cat being fussy when it is difficult to feed. In reality, there are rational explanations. Nayla Cherino Parra gives us an example: your cat refuses to eat the kibble in its bowl and asks (sometimes very insistently!) for more.
The kibble that has been in the bowl for a few hours has lost some of its smell when exposed to the air. The kibble in the bag has more odor, and in addition when you pour kibble into your pet’s bowl, you trigger the Pavlov reflex, that is to say a reflex that triggers appetite. ” explains the veterinarian.
Another example: a cat that refuses to eat its usual kibble or pâté but willingly eats canned tuna. You see this as a whim, but no! When a cat has rhinitis or coryza, which is common in these animals, it may refuse to eat its usual food because it no longer smells it – and a cat eats when it smells. On the other hand, tuna is more fragrant and it will eat it because it smells its food. It is just responding to the fact that it no longer smells a particular food. “, Nayla Cherino Parra reports.
Cat tantrums: the role of the reward circuit
Behind this behavior that we associate with a whim in humans, we actually find a scientific explanation: the activation of the reward circuit. Our expert gives us an example: your cat insistently asks you for milk as soon as you open your refrigerator if you have already given him some.
“Milk contains lactose, a sugar that is very addictive for cats. They will ask for it because it causes a release of pleasure in their body. “, explains the veterinarian. This activates the immediate reward circuit with the production of pleasure hormones.
The same thing happens when your cat absolutely wants to be with you on the couch and be petted. This is not a whim either, but an emotional approach. The cat feels positive emotions because his/her owner is here and now with him/her and he/she also feels the pleasure of his/her master/mistress. Here again, we are in the pleasure: this gives the animal a hormonal discharge of pleasure with the production of dopamine and endorphins. ” says Nayla Cherino Parra. She emphasizes that cats are constant in their insistent demands, but they do not throw tantrums unlike us who really do because we always want something else in addition once our desire is satisfied…
**Author of Live well yourself, to live well with others and with the planetEditions Publiwiz, 2019 On sale on the site Acunature and the podcast Emotional Resolution (ER) with Animals
Source: www.topsante.com
