YSK: Cats don't like their whiskers touching their food bowl. This is why they beg even if food is still left at the bottom.
YSK: Cats don't like their whiskers touching their food bowl. This is why they beg even if food is still left at the bottom.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
This applies to pretty much every article about animals...it's just humans putting human stuff on animals for the sake of humans. :/
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.
A vet weighs in on this whole thing and goes over a study that was done on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLrI0eprVr8
TL;DW it's mostly marketing and fear mongering. Your cat doesn't care and even with completely natural behaviors (like oh I don't know, squeezing into prey burrows and clamping their muzzle around mice) they get their whiskers compressed all the time. Whiskers are touch receptors so the idea that they can't be touched is kind of silly.
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It's funny: The linked article up top briefly brings up that some vets question it, but then immediately turns around and acts like it's a foregone conclusion.
Yeah, cats are just assholes
That really depends on the cat. Mine don't care whatsoever.
True; every cat is different.
They're all cats (I like cats).
I have a whisker friendly dish and my cat still does this. My cat just likes company when he eats and he’ll meow at you to come join him. He digs in as soon as I sit down with him at his bowl. Just a little weirdo butt.
Not really weird. It's a survival thing. He wants you to watch over him while he's vulnerable and eating.
Yeah one of our 2 cats seems to enjoy eating more with company so most of the time I'll stand there and be lookout for him so he's comfortable.
My cat will come and tap me a couple of times with his paw to get my attention, then wander to his food bowl. He just wants me to pet him while he eats. It's the cutest thing.
No, whisker fatigue is mostly a myth. Like just put some thought into it for a moment, do cats care when their whisters touch stuff when they are lying down or sleeping? Do they care when they squeeze into a tight space or lay in a tiny box? Does your cat rub its face on anythingnand everything it gets the chance to? Then why would only thr bowl cause whisker fatigue?
Listen you, stop being so anti-science. This common sense business is getting way out of hand.
My cat likes to invert her spine into a kind of gel substance and then stick her face down the side of the bed between the wall.
I am fairly sure that she is perfectly happy with having a whiskers compressed, what she's not happy about is having less food.
My cat likes it when I cup my hand and cover the front of her face like a hand mask. Not sure why, but it definitely presses on her whiskers a bit and she doesn’t seem to mind either.
Tactile interaction is a really important part of social bonding for cats.
I think that's it as well. My cat has never had to worry about not having any food available, but will act like she's dying of hunger the second her bowl is less than half full. To get her to eat the last half all I have to do is shake the kibble box next to the bowl.
While whisker fatigue is in debate, it's true some cats are weird about touching the bowl. I personally feed the cats on the same plates I eat from and they get water from a fountain. But I have known many cats who were fine with a bowl too. I think the main thing is the material of the receptacle. Some plastics can hold bacteria that makes their lil faces break out. :(
I also use the same plates we use, but they would still ask for me to throw out the food and serve a new batch everytime (I don't actually throw out the food but 'recycle' it).
Hehehe this is the way
This is my experience, too. We've had a lot of cats (many rescues), and some really do have problems with the deeper bowls, while most others don't. We got some shallow bowls years ago, and those work well. We tried just using small plates, but a lot of cats will push the food over the edge and make a mess, so some sort of rim is important for us.
Then there is my cat who stuffes half of his body in a 5cm diameter pudding container just so that he can reach the very last drop of it. Then wonders why he is stuck and as soon as I save him from his pudding prison he does the same again.
cats have autism don't ask me to explain 💅
My cat still acts like her bowl is empty even though it is flat, so I'm skeptical.
I also have a 'flat' bowl. My cat isn't happy with her food until I put some of her food on the floor and watch her eat for a couple of minutes. She is the boss... apparently.
I started feeding my cat out of a pie dish because I was worried about this and I think it prevents it.
And it had the added benefit of making it look like my cat just polished off an entire pie all by himself when he’s done eating.
And it had the added benefit of making it look like my cat just polished off an entire pie all by himself when he’s done eating.
This is the real life pro tip
If I served food on a plate, I’d be serving food on the floor.
A small mat under their food and water (kept separate due to other instinct cats have) is an easy way to keep things cleaner.
We tried separating the food and water.
The cat just went to where the water was and howled. We'd show her the new spot, shed drink, and do the same thing in 20 minutes.
Just moved it back, less howling and she still drinks.
I put it in a very shallow dish and then put that dish inside a shallow (and heavy) old baking tray.
The lip of the tray catches the kibble from falling outside of it and the heaviness makes it hard for her to move it.
And now I don’t feel bad about getting new, lighter pans because the old one is still getting used.
😮 So THAT'S why they will beg for food even if the bowl isn't empty!
While true, my theory is that they might also want something else. I use a plate and sometimes she'll just beg for more anyway even if half of what I gave her is still in the bowl, I'll give her a tiny bit of something else and she'll go eat that instead lol
my theory is that they might also want something else.
I keep about 4 different kinds of food around for our cats. I have three auto-feeders in different parts of the house each with a different foot and dispense schedule. That way the cat has some choice about what they are eating, and there's a bit of environmental enrichment where they can eat in different places.
I also hide little piles of cat treats in various locations around the house. Keeps the cats curious and exploring to see if they can find something good to munch.
There are multiple reasons a cat could be begging for food while some is left, whisker fatigue is just the most common and misunderstood.
We use small plates for our cats. It doesn't stop them from begging for more food even though they still have food.
Yeah, I learned about this as a child, since my cat would put her paw into the cat bowl and pull pieces of dry food out to eat on the floor.
I started putting her food on a plate and no more food was pulled to the floor.
The kitten I have now plays too rough and breaks all his whiskers off, so he doesn't mind the bowl. But he'll also get a plate if he mellows out.
For dry food, if you put it in small (4-5cm dia.) cups they WILL reach in to grab the kibble and will eat one at a time.
This is a great way to de-chonk.
I have a cheap 'food maze' that is essentially this but also with some covers that slide or hinge. I started just putting food so it's visible but after a few tries my cat figured out there are hidden treats, too. Cats are curious, so they enjoy the hunt, too!
Or, if your cat is a fat, clever little shit, she will jam her paw in deep and then yank all the kibble out so she can binge on it and then barf on the carpet.
[OT] I just googled "de-chonk" and now I with that someone named their gym "Human Dechonking Centre".
PHYSICAL FATNESS
better to give regular feedings in measured amounts imo but that's not possible for everyone
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Don't forget knife, fork, and a napkin.
Red wine or white wine?
My cat yells at me like I'm a criminal even when the bowl is fucking full. Where is your god now?
My old cat used to do this, because I’d feed her and then walk away. But once I started sitting with her she started to eat a lot more.
It’s not necessarily that your cat wants extra food: sometimes they just feel vulnerable while eating (especially as they get older) and want someone they trust watching over them.
My cats dgaf.
My cat only eats out of wide bowls for this reason!
She has wet food too, not all dry :)
How about dogs? My Maltese doing exactly the same thing. :D
hot dogs
Is this also why my cat drinks from the far side of the bowl?
Yes, and also they have a hard time seeing water. They prefer wide, shallow dishes for both food and water.
they have a hard time seeing water
When my cat was a tiny kitten learning to drink from a bowl he would always dip his face in too far and get a nose full of water, causing him to sneeze. He learned to always dip his paw in the water first to see where the surface is before putting his face in. He still does it every single time. It's pretty cute.
Sometimes moving water, too - and some are funny about material I think!
My current cat won't drink from metal bowls, and loves a water fountain most.
Meanwhile my cats will literally lick the bowl after all the food is gone
I... actually always thought that my cat didn't like stale food, and that the stuff on the bottom of the bowl had just been breathed on with hot, wet cat breath enough times that he thought it was disgusting.
I'm going to try a wider bowl and see how that goes.
cat didn’t like stale food
That's a thing too. Dry food in bags has more odor than food that's been sitting out for a while. The fats in food left out in the open air will eventually go rancid too, but that takes a long time and shouldn't happen if you're cleaning the bowls periodically.
Tell that to my cat who's preferred drinking vessel is a small cup she's gotta stick her face into
Same with some dogs, especially those with long snout hair, even if they also have whiskers.
Huh. That explains some things. I thought my cat was just picky.
Use a plate, got it.
Sorry, but this is pseudo-science bullcrap akin to healing crystals. Whisker fatigue is just some BS a mom group on Facebook came up with to sell products. It has zero scientific backing and frankly I would appreciate not spreading false information like this here. Leave that garbage on reddit
My cat will only eat from a bowl when there is Amethyst and Rose Quartz crystals arranged to promote calmness, love, and emotional healing. It is literally science.
Looks like its real but potentially exaggerated. https://schertzanimalhospital.com/blog/whisker-fatigue-in-cats/
Ranting on a soap box without providing any evidence is very "reddit" of you.
This is called whisker fatigue. Try to pick food bowls designed to alleviate this. You'll want a design that's wide and shallow. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08L97TF8S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00 I ordered these last year and my baby boy will happily finish his food to the very bottom of the bowl. If your cat's eating from their usual bowl just fine, then you don't need to go out of your way to get them special bowls or anything. Every kitty is different and has different needs!
I did need to know this! Maybe I'll buy my cat a flatter bowl to eat off.
Threads like this are great!
Not for infromative purposes, but as a reminder how whipped and nonsensical cat owners can be.
I never noticed until I got my own cats though. Used to be a dog person, through and through. Still am, but now I also love my cats.
Now like dogs, they are individuals so there are adjustments needed but let me just list all that I do with my cats that works amazing for them...
- ad libitum food, 2 cats, 4 bowls. 2 always full with dry food, 2 always full with water. (Now there's actually also two massive dog water bowls they have additional access to)
- Night time crates; when we go to bed, they go to bed. No fuss, they are crate trained just like our 3 dogs.
- Never outside without a harness/leash. These are pets, and unlike dogs which are easily contained with chains or fences cats are not. Its unethical and plain wrong to let your cat out to kill birds and encroach on others property. Barn cats are another tough topic, I won't touch on cause that's a situation. But irrelevant anyways since these are house cats.
These 2 cats are healthy af, not overweight and well they eat and drink well.
I'll add, I grew up with ad libitum dog feeding too. That said my 3 dogs currently are on a 2 meals a day regiment. This is purely due to the fact we have some overly food motivated breeds who will fight and we need to have them seperate when food is involved in any capacity (their food and food in general)
This rant just to say, cat owners very often come off as the type that try to sell chunks of gypsum and amethyst to heal your woes.
