Whisker Stress by RL cats

[Kayleigh McMillan]

In my search for whisker shapes to eventually make a suggestion to kittyCatS on this forum I came across an article which informed about whisker stress.

I was surprised at first cats have whiskers above their eyes and behind their fore paws too.
It has been so long ago I had a cat that I completely forgot about it.

I was shocked to read how sensitive a cat's whiskers are and that they actually experience pain by eating from a food bowl as their whiskers touch the sides of it.

I remember my youth cat was kinda picky with eating or that was at least what I took from his behaviour.
He used his paw to take food out of his food bowl so he could eat it on the floor.
My mom was not ammused by this behaviour as the floor got dirty that way when he did that with his non dry food.
If we only knew he did that because he experienced pain by eating from a bowl as his whiskers were touching the sides of it.

In the article I read they advise to preferable serve cats on a flat plate over a bowl.
They described what a painful adventure it is for a cat to eat from a bowl and that if the cat is very hungry that he eats from the bowl till the point he can't bare the pain anymore.

This all made so much sense in relation to my cat's behaviour I tought to share it here.
We all love our KittyCatS! and most certainly our real cat(s) if we have them so I thought people wanted to know this for sure

The article about whisker stress and why those whiskers are so sensitive In depth underneath:
http://consciouscompanion2012.com/2013/0...er-stress/

[jwenting Resident]

sounds fishy. My RL cat always sticks his head in pitchers of water despite having a flat bowl of water sitting on the ground that's kept fresh and full where he can drink out of without his whiskers touching anything...

If whiskers were so sensitive that touching anything would cause pain, cats would never have survived hunting for small game in dense undergrowth either...
And of course they'd be instantly skocked by pain the moment they rub against your leg or arm, or when they are hunting and catch something that flops or bounces around in their jaws.

Of course whiskers are sensory instruments, so there is sensation when they brush against something, but I seriously doubt that sensation is pain.

[LibGwen Resident]

A small number of people can't bear to be tickled, whereas most people either find it amusing or are indifferent. So maybe most cats are fine with eating from a bowl, some even go around sticking their heads into things for fun, and a few would prefer to avoid it.

This raises the question, "Do cats who dislike eating from a bowl go around sticking their heads into other things?" If yes, then something else is the real issue.

[Tad Carlucci]

After some research:

1) It's supposedly a real thing.

2) The ONLY symptom is that the cat knocks food out of the bowl instead of putting its head in and eating,

3) It appears to have appeared as 'a thing' when special food bowls appeared to 'solve' the problem, rather than simply using a shallow bowl or plate.

4) There does not seem to be ANY reputable discussion of the matter (ie., no peer-reviewed articles; all source articles lead, by reference, to marketing for specialized bowls).

Methinks this is yet another case of consumer marketing creating a syndrome for a new product ...

[Malayaa Resident]

Interesting article! I have 5 RL cats and will try switching their food bowl (which is already pretty shallow and wide) to a flat plate, to see if there are any changes....Their bowl is up on the dining table so the dog doesn't get into it, and there is always scattered kibble on the table...(OK I don't use the dining table it is officially the cats dining area lol)

[Kayleigh McMillan]

Not sure if it is a marketing stund it could be.
It may or may not be a real problem.
When I read it I figured everyone has some flat/ plate china to see if their cats prefer that over a bowl why I don't really see the marketing trick here.
If I had cats I certainly wanted to try this just to be sure but that may be me.

I've looked in the Dutch Google if I could find related issues there and I found multiple sources which did not lead to a commercial platform/ solution.
But more like in a format "did you know" and 10 facts about cats.

[Tad Carlucci]

US Google most of the articles are 'have you heard' things, too. Those that cite references point to the same site, which is basically an anecdote about one person noticing their cat kicked food from the bowl to eat it, and stopped when they switched to a plate.

Discounting all the personal sites, blogs, etc., what I was left with was several manufacturers selling special kitty bowls for the problem.

The only other site I found in the first few hundred hits was Purina. And, guess what, their citation was back to that original blog post.

I scanned a few more pages, but the Google search had devolved simply 'cat' and 'whiskers' by that point so I stopped.

Nowhere did I see any research papers, or even any vet discussions, about the subject.

My thinking is, yes, it's real. No, it's not common. And the solution is simple: if cat kicks the food out of the bowl before eating, switch to a shallow bowl or plate; but don't waste your money on the specialized products.

As for here, our cat eats from a small deep metal dog-food bowl, up on a table (when she's not actually snitching real dog food from the dog's bowl). When it's time to eat, she chows down and barely lifts her head from the bowl. Her main complaint about eating is that we have her on fixed rations .. so she's always saying, "Can't you see I'm STARVING, here!"

[Kayleigh McMillan]

(09-10-2015 03:52 PM)Tad Carlucci Wrote:  US Google most of the articles are 'have you heard' things, too. Those that cite references point to the same site, which is basically an anecdote about one person noticing their cat kicked food from the bowl to eat it, and stopped when they switched to a plate.

Discounting all the personal sites, blogs, etc., what I was left with was several manufacturers selling special kitty bowls for the problem.

The only other site I found in the first few hundred hits was Purina. And, guess what, their citation was back to that original blog post.

I scanned a few more pages, but the Google search had devolved simply 'cat' and 'whiskers' by that point so I stopped.

Nowhere did I see any research papers, or even any vet discussions, about the subject.

My thinking is, yes, it's real. No, it's not common. And the solution is simple: if cat kicks the food out of the bowl before eating, switch to a shallow bowl or plate; but don't waste your money on the specialized products.

As for here, our cat eats from a small deep metal dog-food bowl, up on a table (when she's not actually snitching real dog food from the dog's bowl). When it's time to eat, she chows down and barely lifts her head from the bowl. Her main complaint about eating is that we have her on fixed rations .. so she's always saying, "Can't you see I'm STARVING, here!"

I totally agree wasting money is not needed at all
Lolz on the last piece of your post about your cat!
I just love them by this sort of behaviour xD

[Devilness Chant]

I think I agree with what jwenting said. I have two cats that are like night and day. My female doesn't seem to mind when her whiskers get in the way of getting her head scratched. (her fave scratching spot lol)

But my male always moves his head around so that I am scratching his neck and doesn't seem to like anything near his face.

She will bury her head in a dish to eat and doesn't mind when the food get low. But he will bug me to fill it back up. Maybe that is why some cats act like their starving when the bowl gets a little low.

I don't think it's pain so much as maybe discomfort. Or an annoyance. He does stick his head in things, but maybe he is too preoccupied with what's in those places to notice his whiskers bothering him. Like when you try to distract a child while taking off a bandage or whatever.

Either way, I thank you for posting this Kay. It gave me something to think about, and I won't laugh at my boy when he is bugging me to fill his half empty dish back up. lol

Sorry it was Libgwens post I was thinking of when I wrote this. How some don't like to be tickled and so forth. lol quick edit

[jwenting Resident]

well, my cat has a regular kitty bowl for his food. Yeah, he sometimes kicks a few bits out but he never eats those afterwards.
And they're ALWAYS the same ones, so it's probably just him kicking the stuff he doesn't like out of his bowl.
He may move stuff around in the bowl with his paws, but wouldn't you if you had a soup plate, had to eat with your mouth only and no spoon and the best bits are of course right at the spot where you can't easily reach them?