Your Cat Probably Prefers Your Company Over Food
March 26, 2017 2:27 PM   Subscribe

Probably. We're not in the guarantee business here. (via) Please note that cats in this study were tested after being deprived of food, toys, awesome scents and people for only a few hours. Further study is required to confirm any changes in categorization, motivation and general niceness after longer periods of deprivation.

All my cats have been really affectionate. This study does not surprise me. YCMV.
posted by maudlin (46 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
Right up until the point when you are no longer the company, but the food.

My wife and I have long joked about getting eaten by our cats, to the point where we kind of believe it will happen.
posted by yhbc at 2:41 PM on March 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


My cat totally prefers my company over food, inasmuch as he's really affectionate and talkative and friendly and frankly annoying, until I feed him.
posted by parm at 2:43 PM on March 26, 2017 [13 favorites]


It only took a couple of days for our girl cat to completely abandon me for the company of Mr hippybear who had been away working for a couple of years. He came back; now she barely notices me. Until it's dinner time.
posted by hippybear at 2:46 PM on March 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


After years of living with several dog scientists and their subjects, I have just rented the perfect environment for a longitudinal case study of cat behaviour that I'm planning on starting this year. I hope to replicate the author's findings and if a suitable opportunity arises, I will post evidence of my progress.
posted by iamkimiam at 2:51 PM on March 26, 2017 [12 favorites]


dog scientist, you say?
posted by AFABulous at 3:11 PM on March 26, 2017 [6 favorites]


Cats have individual personalities, and some are exceptionally grumpy--but still, all of the cats I've co-existed with have been pretty insistent on hanging out with the human at all times. My current trio are not particularly interested in food, so their preferences are not conditional on forthcoming noms.
posted by thomas j wise at 3:22 PM on March 26, 2017 [7 favorites]


My cat is curled up asleep right here on my lap. I'm writing this via the PlayStation, which is much less efficient than my laptop but frees up said lap. He loves his evening snuggle and climbs up next to me with the expectation of prioritisation and that the lap will be cleared .
posted by biffa at 3:33 PM on March 26, 2017 [10 favorites]


My cat liked food OK, but he mostly liked to eat it when I was around to watch him do so. I guess that's a stimuli two-for, huh.

(He also really wanted me to watch him poop and tell him he was a good boy afterwards. He was a good boy, although a good boy with some attachment issues, I think.)
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:34 PM on March 26, 2017 [10 favorites]


deprived of food [...] for only a few hours

I assure you the Feline Review Board would not approve this degree of cruel deprivation. It's a well-known fact that cats routinely starve to death as soon as they can see the bottom of the bowl, or in fact a bowl that is completely full but not of the food they want at that moment.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:35 PM on March 26, 2017 [56 favorites]


My cat likes food so much sometimes she eats it twice!
posted by srboisvert at 4:03 PM on March 26, 2017 [15 favorites]


As someone who had complete disdain for cats (my imaginary response to Julie Klausner's book "I Don't Care About You Band" was "I Don't Care About Your Cat") but changed my mind big time after ending up living with a cat in two separate situations (both excellent cats - one was like a wary dog who secretly loved me and one was like someone having a bad trip at a festival), I think cats get a bad rap. Everything they do is seen through a manipulative lens. What if you applied the same standards to human companionship? Your partner cuddles up to you on the couch - "she's just looking for warmth". They greet you warmly when you get home from work and talk to you in the kitchen as you're cooking dinner - "she's just looking for food". It's dogs you have to watch out for. They have the best lobbyists. Don't underestimate the power of Big Dog.
posted by kersplunk at 4:17 PM on March 26, 2017 [51 favorites]


I have a cat who demands to be petted while she eats.
posted by maggiemaggie at 4:41 PM on March 26, 2017 [31 favorites]


I feel this thread needs -a lot- more photographic evidence of such affection. Just sayin'
posted by longdaysjourney at 4:58 PM on March 26, 2017 [4 favorites]


Sure, they'll take the company, but I bet if the researchers provided them with "favorite hiding place in the back of the closet" they'd take that.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:03 PM on March 26, 2017


I have a cat who demands to be petted while she eats.

I THOUGHT THAT WAS JUST MY CAT!! I am used to the whole being-led-to-an-empty-bowl-so-I-can-refill-it, but not before this particular cat had I encountered the being-led-to-a-full-bowl-so-he-can-be-pet-while-he-eats.
posted by FiveSecondRule at 5:12 PM on March 26, 2017 [10 favorites]


Sure, they'll take the company, but I bet if the researchers provided them with "favorite hiding place in the back of the closet" they'd take that.
That'd be a distant fifth or sixth in my house. It's one of those things that every cat's gotta have, but it'll be a cold day in hell when I can't find the hidden cat with a couple of shakes of the dry food container. And that's on the rare occasion where they're not either hanging out on top of something together, or following me around.
posted by wotsac at 6:10 PM on March 26, 2017


I feel this thread needs -a lot- more photographic evidence of such affection. Just sayin'

My being at the computer usually results in cats, as seen here--where, appropriately enough, I was trying to read Metafilter.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:16 PM on March 26, 2017 [22 favorites]


Just this morning, I recorded some significant data regarding one feline's preference for sleeping on or near his humans.
posted by meese at 8:55 PM on March 26, 2017 [5 favorites]


I have three cats and they will inevitably collect in whatever room I'm in. Actually this behavior just makes me want MORE cats, because after you've been woken up covered in three cats all you can think about is how nice it would be to wake up covered in four. And then you foster a fourth cat, and it indeed is nice. And then you foster a fifth cat, and the experience is even nicer . . . and it's all downhill from there.
posted by Anonymous at 9:03 PM on March 26, 2017


Cats are sort of exponential animals. One cat, two cats... But then 3 cats is a LOT more cat. And four cats... that's a shit ton more cat! I've never lived with more than 4, but I've been at places with a lot more... and can't imagine.
posted by hippybear at 9:06 PM on March 26, 2017 [6 favorites]


Cats are sort of exponential animals. One cat, two cats... But then 3 cats is a LOT more cat. And four cats... that's a shit ton more cat! I've never lived with more than 4, but I've been at places with a lot more... and can't imagine.

Really? I've found that to be the case with dogs, but not with cats. Actually, I've joked that it's really easy to see how people become cat hoarders because after you have three cats, what's a fourth? And once you have seven cats, what's an eighth? And really, who can tell the difference between the fourteenth and the fifteenth cat?

The most cats I've ever had in one place was eight. That was mainly difficult because there were four different areas of sequestration because one of them was going through its two-week isolation period and two of them couldn't get along with the other cats. Plus I had a horde of strays that I was caring for in my backyard. Now, if all the cats were in one location it would've been much easier to care for them, but as it was that was a cat overload. When I had five cats who were all happy to intermingle it was much less of a problem.
posted by Anonymous at 9:13 PM on March 26, 2017


I have a new baby and a new kitten and they CLEARLY both believe they are in the same category. The baby constantly tries to eat the kitten's toys and the kitten tries to play with the baby toys. The kitten believes it is her divine right to sleep in the baby's crib, with the baby, and to lounge on the changing table. She also tries to jump in the stroller luggage basket so she can go with us on walks. The baby waves toys around to get the kitten to come play with her. The kitten will drop cat toys next to the baby to get the baby to wave them around (which she does NOT do with my older kids who are clearly better at playing kitten games; she clearly believes the baby is her equal). They helpfully try to share food with each other. They consider it a victory when they manage to fall asleep cuddling (which is not allowed as the baby is still too small to shove off the kitten if she misbehaves).
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:20 PM on March 26, 2017 [32 favorites]


MetaFilter: It's dogs you have to watch out for.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:32 PM on March 26, 2017 [5 favorites]


I'm on the hippybear side - I've got four and I couldn't imagine going to five.
posted by wotsac at 10:12 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


A few days ago our cat led our son out of his room for what he thought was a trip to the kitchen to hear her complaints about the shocking lack of cat food in her bowl. Instead she headed for her favorite spot in front of the fireplace and flopped down so she could heat up her belly AND get petted.
posted by gamera at 10:33 PM on March 26, 2017 [17 favorites]


This seems true for my cat. I used to travel for a lot of my job, a work week at a time. When I'd come home, the first thing I'd do, of course, was feed kitteh. (She's had been fed by others while I was gone. I'm not a monster.) But after putting her food down, she'd still cry. For like a long time. And I'd be like "OMG kitteh. Your food is RIGHT THERE." Like she was too​ hyped up to even see the thing she was begging for, or something.

Until one time, out of desperation for her to stop fricking crying, I picked her up. She stopped. I held her for 5 minutes. She got down and ate the damn food. I felt awful. All that time, she actually wanted attention more than food, when I got home. So..... Maybe I'm a monster after all.

She forgave me. We're good now. The end.
posted by greermahoney at 11:58 PM on March 26, 2017 [29 favorites]


YCMV indeed. Our cat is affectionate, but in his own peculiar way. He likes to be patted in passing, but for more serious snuggle-time he prefers being picked up and held like a baby and being cuddled for a couple of minutes. He will not sit in anyone's lap, but prefer to sit in the sofa close to, but not touching, them.
posted by Harald74 at 12:25 AM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Cats are sort of exponential animals. One cat, two cats... But then 3 cats is a LOT more cat.

I accidentally a cat when he showed up at my apartment building. I already had a 10 and a 15 year old. It was waaay more cat, in large part because he was a young intact male who didn't give a flying fuck about the other two. He's slightly better behaved now but it's still a lot of cat.
posted by AFABulous at 12:53 AM on March 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


All three cats
posted by AFABulous at 12:56 AM on March 27, 2017 [10 favorites]


The study was comparing effectiveness in conditioning -- which is very interesting to me. My current cat, unlike prior cats, is amazingly responsive to petting/interaction for conditioning. We're together most of the day, every day, but even so she comes running at every little moment in my routines when I tend to pet her. I can just lean back in my desk chair in a certain way and she'll know I'm about to get up, and even if she's asleep in the closet, she'll come right out to see me. And she will almost always come running when I call her.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:18 AM on March 27, 2017 [4 favorites]


I feel this thread needs -a lot- more photographic evidence of such affection. Just sayin'

Here's Panther - the one I compared upthread to someone having a bad trip at a music festival. If I sat down he'd hop straight on my lap. If I was lying down he'd climb up on my chest and slowly stretch his paws out so they were touching my face, or touch his nose against mine. If I was away for a few hours and he was outside he'd always be waiting for me on the bin when I came back. On Saturday mornings we'd let him into the bedroom and he'd get crazy excited. I learned he'd had an abusive owner and he was very nervous and jumpy, and he needed lots of physical contact to calm down and feel secure.

Here's Panda ([YT], [YT]) who was bigger, younger, and more doglike. His affection definitely wasn't food-related, because I wasn't the one feeding him - he was my flatmate's cat. Whenever I came home after spending the night somewhere else he'd be there waiting for me when I opened the door, and would jump up on me like a dog. He'd lick me like a dog would too.
posted by kersplunk at 4:06 AM on March 27, 2017 [7 favorites]


I have a cat who demands to be petted while she eats.

I've seen this before, and my cat is similar: he's a social eater. He likes me being around when he eats, preferably hand-feeding him his kibble while also petting him with the other hand:P He also sometimes paws at me when I'm eating. At first I thought he was begging for my food, since he's always shown a curiosity/interest in whatever I'm cooking even when he doesn't want to eat it himself. (I think related to that thing cats do where they like to smell your breath to see what you've been eating when you come home from being away somewhere.) But one day I was kind of annoyed by it and went and got his own food bowl and put it on the chair next to me, to reinforce that he had his cat food and I was eating my people food. And he happily ate away at his own food for a little bit while I was eating my food. He just wanted us to have family dinner together.

(He didn't wait for me to finish eating before leaving the table, of course. It's not exactly a reciprocal relationship.)
posted by eviemath at 6:37 AM on March 27, 2017 [11 favorites]



I have a cat who demands to be petted while she eats.


I do too, but I brought it on myself. He wasn't eating much for awhile, then start refusing different kinds of food. I finally found one that he would eat, but I had to pet him and talk to him in soothing tones to get him to eat the full amount. Now he'll eat half of it, stop, and look at me expectantly.
posted by AFABulous at 7:40 AM on March 27, 2017 [6 favorites]


Those little furballs! Cats are great.
posted by JHarris at 7:58 AM on March 27, 2017


My cat definitely cares more about attention than about food. He loves standing/sitting on his people. He'll paw at you if you're looking at him but not petting him. And we just got back from a 6 day vacation and he's been practically glued to our laps. He's always enjoyed laying on a person's chest when we're in bed, but since we got back he's even finding a way to balance on me if I'm laying on my side.
posted by misskaz at 8:09 AM on March 27, 2017 [7 favorites]


I know someone with eight cats. They're partitioned into two four cat tribes and each tribe has a separate space they get herded into, then allowed out when the other tribe is closed up.

There's much competition, and so, so very much pee.
posted by Death and Gravity at 8:33 AM on March 27, 2017


I can see how cat ... collection becomes a problem. My cousin has six. (Sasha, Silas, Cuddles, Snuggles, Maggie, Sprinkle) I do not want a house that smells that much of cat pee, so I have two. Currently the two are Ungrateful Bastard and Kobayashi Maru. When one dies, I will get another but the house has a max cat capacity of 2.
posted by which_chick at 8:47 AM on March 27, 2017 [4 favorites]


Tommy the Cat started sleeping and cuddling in my bed as soon as he noticed I had started keeping kitty treats in my nightstand.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:38 AM on March 27, 2017


I have a cat who demands to be petted while she eats.

I had one of those! Steve was always a scrawny little tabby, but one time she had to stay in the vet hospital for a few days after surgery, and the techs said she would only eat for them if they petted her. They kept her in the office during the day instead of in the kennel, so they could pet her every time they walked through.

When they discharged her, the tech came out into the waiting room after us and said, "Remember, she's a stimulated eater! Pet, pet!"

She put on enough weight that her crooked little stripes finally started to line up.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:52 AM on March 27, 2017 [3 favorites]


I do not want a house that smells that much of cat pee, so I have two.

For one giddy moment, I thought you had bought a second house, just for your cats.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:04 AM on March 27, 2017 [18 favorites]


Once I went on a road trip for about a little over a week. I had folks coming in to feed and check on the two cats through my trip. The friend who was doing weekend work noticed a HUGE difference in the less-sociable cat across the two weekends - she made the shift from "oh, hi human, you won't see me again" to "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH". But the best part was when I came home. The friend happened to be there, so I guess the cats missed that I walked in the door until one of them was sauntering past me in another room glanced over at me, looked away and then *literally* did a double take and made a big leap from the floor up onto my chest.
posted by rmd1023 at 10:12 AM on March 27, 2017 [17 favorites]


I recently started a new job, which has meant leaving earlier and getting home later. In order to foil my departure, ninja kitty steals all my shoes while purr-chirping. If that doesn't work, she hops onto the chair I use to put on my shoes.

When I get home, though, the first thing both cats do is dash out the door and into the hallway for a random amount of time. When they trot back in, it's directly to one of the French doors that opens onto the patio. "No don't pet me just let me out kthxbye." Not doing this in a timely fashion has been known to cause episodic cat death (no worries he magically resuscitates as soon as the door is opened).

They're both cuddlebugs.
posted by fraula at 11:44 AM on March 27, 2017 [9 favorites]


Meet Senor Bucklepants, AKA Buckley the Lovebug. He does this ALL the TIME.

Yeah, he's totally into the food, particularly if it's tomato based. But the head love...he needs it to survive.
posted by teleri025 at 1:56 PM on March 27, 2017 [4 favorites]


I had a lovely white cat for 21 years (sorry, no pics!), and as I was single most of the years I owned her, she would come running to me when I came home from work. This was a cat whose sole mission in life was to sit on (any) human's lap.
I moved to Seattle and was staying at a short-term apartment/hotel while my stuff got here. I would come home, and...nothing. She'd be sacked out on the bed, and just look up as if to say "Oh, it's you. hm"
When I went to check out some of the housekeeping staff were at the desk, and they said "Oh, you're the person with the wonderful cat! We just love her, etc" Turns out housekeeping and the desk staff were taking their breaks in my apartment to pet the cat. So when I came home - well, she just didn't need me, she clearly had "people" during the day.
posted by dbmcd at 2:22 PM on March 27, 2017 [11 favorites]


Senor Bucklepants is terrific! And that's such a great story dbmcd!

Cat threads are basically about 50% of my will to live right now.
posted by JHarris at 4:38 PM on March 27, 2017 [6 favorites]


Currently the two are Ungrateful Bastard and Kobayashi Maru.

These are maybe the perfectest cat names ever.
posted by meese at 11:48 AM on March 28, 2017 [5 favorites]


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