Evaluation of whisker stress in cats

Abstract

Objectives The aim of this study was to determine if cats fed from a commercially advertised whisker-friendly dish vs their normal food dish would spend more time at the food dish, eat more and drop less food. Methods Forty indoor cats were enrolled in the study. Owners fasted their cats for 12 h and fed them their normal measured amount of dry food in their normal dish. Owners filmed their cats eating for up to 5 mins, and measured how much food was eaten and dropped from the dish. Owners then switched to feeding their cats from a whisker-friendly dish for a 7-day transition period. Following this transition, owners were instructed to fast their cats for 12 h and then feed them their normal food from the new dish and film them eating, as previously described. The following day the owners offered food in both dishes to determine their cat’s preference. Results No evidence was found that eating from the whisker-friendly dish increased the amount of time spent eating ( P = 0.8), decreased the amount of food dropped ( P = 0.9) or increased the amount of food eaten ( P = 0.7). The estimated probability for the cats to prefer the whisker-friendly dish was 0.74 with a 95% confidence interval. Conclusions and relevance Cats fed from a whisker-friendly dish did not spend more time eating, drop less food or eat more food in a 5-min period. Some cats appeared to prefer the new whisker-friendly dish over their normal food dish. Overall, food dish-associated whisker stress did not affect the eating habits of the study cats.