Keep an eye on kitty with a “cat cam”
Keep an eye on kitty with a “cat cam”
What do cats do when their owners are away? There was one way to find out — "cat cams."
Fifty house cats were given collar cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes. The results put a digital dent in some human theories about catnapping.
Based on the photos, about 22 percent of the cats' time was spent looking out of windows, 12 percent was used to interact with other family pets and 8 percent was spent climbing on chairs or kitty condos. Just 6 percent of their hours were spent sleeping.
"What surprised me was how active the cats were. I believed my three cats were sleeping during the day," said Jill Villarreal, an animal behavior scientist who collected the data for Nestle Purina PetCare's Friskies brand of cat food.
The 777 photos studied by Villarreal showed the cats looking at a television, computer, DVDs or other media 6 percent of the time and hiding under tables 6 percent of the time.
Coming in at 5 percent was playing with toys; eating or looking at food finished at 4 percent.
Will the cats get movie cameras next? "We are in the think tank now," Villarreal said.
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- Posted on December 4, 2009
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There is one problem with the cameras the cat may not be looking at what the camera is seeing. Anyway, I am surprised that only 6% was sleeping.I understand that 22% was looking out windows though that I believe.
Wow i would have thought cats spent at least eight hours sleeping. Before my cat ran away i used to be able to find him in the exact same spot under the coffee table every day.
I liked your story because my cat goes off and we don.t know where she goes because we want a cat camera. and where did you get it??? and how much did it cost???
that is plum dumb we waste money in the usa to build little cameras that takes pictures of people doing everyday activites we need to come up with somthing better like feeding the poor.
I wish I had a cat cam on my outside cat so I could see where my cat goes when hes not at home. I think that the cat cam is a good idea. I wonder where I could buy one
That is so cool that the cat wears a cat cam I think it is interrelating but why would a cat wear a cam that is the weird part about it.
This is so weird. I've always wanted to know what my cat did when I had one. i really did think it only slept, but to think that it may have done other things is pretty cool.
that's really weird!!!!! if i was a cat i would not want that big thing hanging on my neck all day. i don't want people watching me on my every move.
I like kitties, they are so adorable. I have one and I do agree that they should make a cat cam. When I let my cat out, she comes in the middle of the night. I want to see what she was doing and where she was.
So amazing!!!! I always wondered what my doggy did while I was away. It would be cool to have one and see what my doggy did while everyone else was away or not in the house. I want one. Does it work for dogs???