Unlike other animals, the phenomenon known as “counter-loading” does not apply to domestic cats. A team of cat behaviorists tested for the first time whether domestic cats ( Felis catus ) living in homes would perform this counterload, which is the animals’ preference for working for food.
The researchers found the exact opposite for cats. They found no strong evidence of counterload; cats preferred to eat the food that was freely available without additional effort (contrary to what happens with dogs, pigs, giraffes, jungle birds, mice, monkeys, bears, pigeons, goats, etc).
“We presumed that cats would charge against the clock in the home environment when given a choice between a food puzzle and a tray of similar size and shape. We also hypothesized that more active cats would be more likely to counterload, ” the experts explain.
Easy food = lazy?
However, the experiment with domestic cats, in which they were offered a puzzle with food or a food tray, left no room for doubt:
“It’s not that the cats never used the food puzzle, but rather that the cats ate more food from the tray, spent more time on the tray, and made more initial decisions to approach and eat from the tray instead of the puzzle,” he clarifies. Mikel Delgado, from the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of California.
This strange unwillingness to work for food does not necessarily indicate that it is a lazy species , they say.
“Just because they don’t like it doesn’t mean they don’t like it. It is also unclear why cats prefer to carry freely. The food puzzles used in the study may not have stimulated their natural hunting behavior, which generally involves ambushing their prey . “
Referencia: M.M. Delgado et al. Domestic cats (Felis catus) prefer freely available food over food that requires effort. Anim Cogn, published online July 26, 2021; doi: 10.1007/s10071-021-01530-3
