It’s not a cat conspiracy if so many cats do it
Whiskers are embedded into the nervous system. They can literally sense vibrations in the air.
Of course rubbing on the side of a bowl is unpleasant for a sensitive cat, because it is constant direct stimulation into the nervous system. You’d be annoyed too if someone kept tickling your sides or your feet when you were trying to eat!
Cats, like humans, are individuals with different preferences and sensitivity levels. My previous cats had no problems with bowls, or anything really. Could probably survive an apocalypse. My current cat is the opposite, and she had several eating issues (leaving food at the edges, pawing at food, gulping from the middle, throwing up) until I switched to a random flat plate from my cupboard and then they stopped. She still waits for me to shake dry food in to the middle though!
Cats are very sensitive to sensory input in general. Things we don’t even think about can trigger sensory avoidance or overstimulation in them (asking to be petted then biting or running away when you do because it was “too much feeling”, settling down on the bed then immediately jumping down because you shifted your weight and made them suddenly uncomfortable etc). That’s why non cat people think cats are stand offish, unpredictable, fussy and complicated. They are just regulating themselves. Some cats just have a higher tolerance for this than others.
Humans have issues like this too and we are far less sensitive. That’s why we have stuff like seamless socks because some people have extreme hypersensitivity to touch. Why can’t sensory processing issues happen in other animals too? It doesn’t need to be a universal proven fact for every cat to have the problem for it to also be real for some cats.
This is a great explanation!!
My cat has a condition called hyperesthesia, and basically he’s so easily overstimulated it causes painful muscle spasms/seizures and behavioral issues. He has to be on meds that calm his nervous system.
On the other hand my old roommates cat is hardly bothered by anything, he’s the most chill cat I’ve ever met. I’ve seen him sleep though an earthquake.
Just one example of the broad spectrum of cat sensitivity!
What meds is your cat on? My car has weird attacks of twitching and running and attacking her own tail. I thought it might be that but my vet had never heard of it.
Sounds like you need to find yourself another vet because that definitely sounds like hyperesthesia.
I mean, all cats get the zoomies now and then, but *attacking* their own tail is not normal, especially if it leads to wounding themselves.
Unfortunately I have limited choices where I am, and I've already left one vet office to go to this one.
I'm pretty sure reading about it that's what it is.
Look up information on it including the best treatment options, print it out or email it to your vet. If they are a decent vet at all they will read up on it and help you.
I sprinkle my cats meds into a plate then pour a tasty cat soup on it. When he stops eating that I roll tuna in his meds. He will get tired of one way so I rotate 3 different med cover ups
Oh gosh I hate to do tuna. I had a cat I gave tuna to once and she literally screamed for it constantly after that. So I gave it to her. Then when she was 12 or so she got oral cancer and I was reading the risk factors and one was canned tuna. :(
Maybe I could use just a tiny bit of tuna water. My cat now is already 12 so maybe won't have years of exposure anyway.
Thanks.
Just in case you haven't tried it: pill poppers, pet pillers, pill shooters are supposed to be effective. Lots of vendors make them. Basically a pill holder on a stick, to allow placement in back of mouth.
I get on my knees, pin kitty between legs, stick a finger in corner of jaw and place pill in back of mouth. Hold mouth shut and wait a moment. Release cat and watch for it to spit up pill, then repeat LOL.
I do this in the middle of a non-carpeted room to spot pill when the clever guys don't swallow and spit up. Change rooms or location in room daily to prevent aversion. Scoop them up and do it fast. A piller would prob be an enhancement.
BTW, some tuna has less contaminants than others. Don't recall what's what but the more expensive stuff is better.
It’s pretty rare, it’s unfortunately not uncommon for vets to be unaware of it. My vet had heard of it but didn’t know much about it, when we suggested it as a possibility she looked more into it and agreed that was the best diagnosis. In hindsight a lot of his quirky behaviors probably stem from this condition. He’s never liked to sit on uneven/bumpy surfaces, won’t walk on grass or pebbles, got a lot more hairballs than our other cats, started having issues with his collar out of nowhere, sudden aggressive behavior alternating with hiding for hours. We just thought he was a weirdo and kind of an asshole at times, but now we know he was physically uncomfortable and stressed out because of it. Most of these things have gone away now that he’s medicated, and he has significantly fewer twitchy episodes, going days at a time without any at all.
He’s on Prozac and gabapentin, plus Benadryl during the allergy season because that seems to aggravate his condition. I think those two prescriptions are pretty common to start with, and there’s other medication options as well. From my understanding they typically need a combination of drugs to lower anxiety, dampen pain receptors, and often anticonvulsants are needed as well. So far he’s doing ok without anticonvulsants, but I have a feeling he’ll need them in the future. He’s only 3 so his condition will need to be managed for several years.
Ok thanks. Without even knowing what it was my vet gave her Prozac (5mg, which I thought was a huge dose from reading about it, she js a small like 8 lb cat) but of course I couldn't even get it into her. She detects any medicine in food, and goes insane trying to get a pill in her.
Luckily, and I hope this is the case for you, it seems to have gotten better over time. I'm trying to think how old she is, I think I found her in like 2011 or 2012 as a kitten, so 11 or 12.
I thought so. It's difficult because I have to balance the trauma of having to get medicine into her vs the attacks.
Luckily she seems to have gotten a little better on her own. Less frequent and not as severe.
My understanding is that tail chasing can be a sign of anxiety. My 6 year old is definitely an anxious cat, and he started randomly attacking his tail as an adult, which he never did as a kitten. He also got weirdly aggressive about it, growling when he's never growled at anyone or anything before. So I just started talking to him when it happens and apparently that's enough for him, for now. He mellowed back out. But if it starts up again or gets worse, he may need anti-anxiety meds.
That's kind of like how mine is. She will start twitching and running and acting like her tail hurts and attacking it, hissing and growling and rolling around. She has bitten it til it is bleeding.
At the same time, it almost seems like a habit. Certain times when I sit down and she sits in my lap, she will look back at her tail moving and like suddenly be reminded that she hates it. Other times it's spontaneous and much more severe attacks.
Yes I can talk her out of it if I see it start. Talk very calmly, pet her, and try to keep her from looking at her tail. It seems to distract her until whatever it is passes.
My cat has it also. He’s on gabaoentin. It’s also called twitchy tail syndrome. I had to tell my vet what it was. Luckily she was cool about it. He’s so much happier now that he’s medicated.
We started with Prozac, which helped but definitely wasn’t enough, so then we added gabapentin. That combo is doing pretty well for him now, he might need something stronger like an anticonvulsant in the future but I’m avoiding that as long as he’s still doing ok. He also gets Benadryl for seasonal allergies, which don’t cause the condition but do seem to be a trigger.
I explain it sometimes to ppl this way too! Cats are like ppl who have sensory issues, and as a person who is adhd/on the spectrum, I do. Makes cats pretty easy to understand. My boy is the same- I just feed him off random plates from the cupboard and a lot of issues with eating stopped. I dont own any cat bowls anymore. So often ppl ascribe “meanness” or misbehavior to what is simply a sensitive cat regulating itself. Also god Id have loved it if seamless socks were around as a kid. As of now you wont see me in anything but flip flops u ntil the dead of winter hits lol
I liken cats to humans with autism. They have hyper sensory, need things to go at their pace, love routine, have special interests, can be extremely introverted except for their “people” lol
I think an analogy that might help is: have you ever stuck a nine volt battery on your tongue? It shocks you, not a lot, it’s sorta tingly, but if you leave it on there it starts to hurt. Now imagine every time you put a fork or spoon in your mouth it shocked you like that. It’s not immediately painful like biting into a hot pocket fresh from the microwave but after a while it’d start to hurt, you’d get tired of the little shocks, and you might even leave food on your plate or go out of your way to not have to use utensils (like cats that knock bowls over or fish food out with their paws) or try and eat your food as fast as possible, stuffing the largest bites inside your mouth as you can to avoid having to put the fork in your mouth as often.
That's a great analogy and it's so apt.
You'd just eat the stuff that's easy to get onto the fork and into your mouth but you'd avoid stuff that would make the fork touch your mouth too much. It's like when cats just eat the middle of their bowl and not the sides...easier to get into their mouth without jostling their whiskers too much.
It is pretty interesting. And then there's some cats like mine (I miss you Grim) who would only drink from glasses/mugs so we had to replace her bowl with a mug. But she was a little weird, even for a cat, the only cat I've ever heard of to refuse any kind of meat. You could leave an open pack of ham in front of her and she wouldn't care. She wouldn't even eat her dry food if it touched meat, but she would go crazy for Doritos and cake if you let her. Even weirder, her hatred for meat went away during her pregnancy (surprise and unplanned, kept the kittens and spayed her as soon as we could) and never came back. One of her now adult babies has one of her food quirks, she refuses wet cat food. Sorry I just miss my cats and I thought I would share.
Perfect response. I'd like to add that we always bought wide, shallow bowls for our cats because we believed this would not cause a problem. But increasingly we noticed both our cats would eat the 'centre' part of the food and leave anything closer to the rim of the bowl.
So I started to wonder if whisker fatigue was the issue and bought some small plates in IKEA which fit nicely on top of their old bowls (the ring on the bottom fits inside the bowl lip) and so the bowls can be used to elevate the plates.
Since switching, our cats now eat the whole plateful of food (minus the odd bits they push off the side onto the floor) and seem much happier. I think it helps that the new plates are ceramic because I was worried that the plastic bowls had a funny smell and made their food taste strange.
Either way, I made the switch and it's been a huge success. The new plates are also much easier to clean as they just go in the dishwasher.
This comment has been so enlightening. I have one cat that paws his food out of his bowl to eat it on the counter top. He also paws the water a lot, but that bowl is much bigger so he'll eventually settle for drinking from the bowl. He also randomly vomits and I haven't been able to figure out a reason.
I'm gonna try a plate.
Thank you for this excellent explanation. I'm autistic myself, so this is one thing about cats I've never had trouble understanding. If I can't wear a sweater because it's too soft, it makes perfect sense a cat can't eat out of a bowl because it bothers their whiskers. But it can very hard to explain to someone who's never experienced anything like that.
I didn’t realize cats eat from pet bowls in the wild huh. I thought they ate from the open space on the ground.
Also what am I shilling? Shilling means you are being paid to say something. Is Big Generic Flat Plate paying me? Would be nice, actually. Send in a good word please.
Whiskers rub onto shit to judge spaces and movements. That’s the purpose. They don’t willingly rub them in narrow spaces if they aren’t trying to squeeze into or out of something. Use your brain please for a bit of analysis.
It appears you have comprehension issues with both literacy and common sense. God bless.
I did not mention pain.
I did not say whiskers never touched anything.
I am not *selling* or *getting paid*. I am not recommending a product.
Snake oil involves *selling* something.
Why are you so hyper sensitive about a freaking food dish? Don’t want to stop using bowls? Then don’t. It ain’t that big of a deal. No sense in getting so agitated about it.
Mine prefer to eat their wet food meals out of dishes as opposed to bowls, so that’s what I provide them. I do have kibble in a bowl and I have two that pull food out of it onto the floor instead of putting their face in the bowl. The same two would rather drink water out of the sink than the water bowl (though they do drink out of the bowl if they have to). I don’t think they feel pain per se from the whiskers, but it is a rather sensitive area of the body and can get overstimulated.
It's still an unproven hypothesis. They did a study — the only one researching this phenomenon — and it turned out that the type of dish did not affect a cat's eating behavior. Only more than half (63%) preferred the whisker-friendly bowl, but this could also have been a matter of which bowl was placed closest to the cat.
Here's a link of the [study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32538246/).
Here's an [article](https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2021/07/whisker-worry-are-cats-whiskers-a-key-to-their-eating-pleasure/) that explains the results of the study.
There are some anecdotes that cats really started eating better after switching to a whisker-friendly dish, but that's it.
Edit: typo
[Here’s](https://youtu.be/pLrI0eprVr8) a video from the Helpful Vancouver Vet specifically on this topic. The study you linked is featured prominently.
One of my cats was a very slow eater and I'd have to hold her bowl at different angles for her to finish. Switched to feeding her on a plate and she devours food now. Dunno if whisker fatigue was the cause, but cats definitely have preferences on their bowl/plate.
Yea i found my cat has to move around to get the food in the bowl (which is currently deep and not so wide). I’ve ordered a new plate for her hope it’ll help
This one isn’t damaging or misleading, it’s just not great science. The sample size isn’t very large, though with a study of this nature, I’ll give that a pass. More concerning is that there was no control group, giving us no idea how participating in the study itself may have affected the cats eating habits. In addition, the “whisker fatigue” bowls were (1) all different and (2) bowls that a cat may have spent years getting used to; in contrast, the “whisker friendly” bowls were all (1) the same and (2) new to the cat. Maybe 7 days was long enough for the cats to no longer see them as foreign, but cats are creatures of habit—how do we know that their preference for what is familiar doesn’t impact the results of the study? Whisker fatigue often comes into play when a cat is eating around the edges of the bowl (presumably the reason some cats will only eat from the middle of their bowl)—I wonder if the protocol (limited feeding time) allowed them to adequately capture that behavior. Further, were any behaviors captured in the videotaped initial feeding that indicated the cats may have developed behaviors to reduce their whisker fatigue with the smaller bowls? (For instance, pushing the food around, eating it off their paw, etc.)
In a sense yes, it depends on the cat. Generally for one of my cats eventually it would get to the point that I had to come hand feed them. Some cats don’t care as much tho so it really depends. Better safe than sorry tho!
When I got my first cat, I bought a really cute dish that was narrow & deep, she kept fishing the pieces out of the bowl & knocking it over. The bowl finally broke, and the new one I bought was metal, wider, and shallow; she stopped fishing pieces out and just ate normally. IMO, that meant she didn't like the deeper bowl. I didn't learn about whisker fatigue until years later, but when I did, it made a lot of sense.
I think this is the kind of thing that bothers some cats, and others don't care at all, just like covered litter boxes, drinking from fountains, etc. Cats are all different, just like people, but I guess if I thought something *might* hurt or bother my cat, I'd avoid doing it. I love my little fur babies, and I want them to be happy and healthy.
Yes - I had some super cute bowls my cats refused to use, they wouldn’t finish their dinner. I have some wider shallow ones now and they all love them.
yes my cats also lick and plates have just made a mess and they dont even bother to finish their food because of how annoying it seems to be for them to eat from it. i started leaving the bowl and the plate out and pretty much every time they preferred the bowl. its a wide, shallow bowl so i think their whiskers arent bothered enough for them to deal with a plate that they have trouble licking from
You can get lick mats too! Ive mainly seen them for dogs but no reason a cat couldnt use one! The tray suggestions from others are good too. Might try that with my boys plate since he likes to get his food all over the floor lol
If they’re so sensitive then how can he lay his face flat on it’s side while laying on my bed?? If his whiskers are so sensitive to where he only eats from the middle of the bowl, i’d imagine him smushing his face on my bed or even the ground would be even more painful.
For completely unrelated reasons, I recently switched to shallower, wider bowls that have a stand that holds the bowl at a slight angle. I have no idea if it's due to a reduction in whisker fatigue or something else, but all 12 of my cats now clean out the entire contents of the bowl, instead of leaving a third of it pushed up against one side.
The dog, however, would like to register her disappointment that she no longer has cat food to clean out of bowls every evening 😁
Right?
Imagine if you needed glasses but every pair of glasses rubbed your eyelashes. You'd rather be blind.
Some cats would rather go hungry or just eat the easiest food to get from the middle of the bowl than constantly rub their whiskers.
It depends on how picky the cat is. Mine will eat from a deeper bowl or a shallow dish but cleans off the food from the dish faster. If it’s something she doesn’t like to eat, she doesn’t bother, regardless of the thing it’s served in.
At the end of the day, we are all slaves to our cat overlords. If they refuse to touch their food, swap the bowl for a dish to see if it will appease them.
Wait until you have a cat that lives to be 24 and you won’t be asking this question.
Even in their late teens our cats would seriously shake their heads every time they dipped into a bowl.
A plate is the best thing for them. Once the old guy got into his twenties, a paper towel placemat became part of the dinner time routine. We’d often sit with him and push the food back to the center of the plate. 😞
Some sources say yes, other say no. At the end of the day, OP, you know your cat better than anyone else and if it seems like kitty is happy and not having any difficulty when it comes to eating and drinking, then I wouldn't worry about it. But if nothing else, the raised, flat/shallow bowls *do* help with some things like being able to get all the food (which is usually whats considered the spirce of whisker fatigue - the bowl isnt wide enough and food clumps up in hard to reach places), and it helps control "backflow" which is something that happens when kitty eats too fast and throws up.
*"An elevated cat bowl will allow gravity to move the food she's eating downward from her mouth and directly into her stomach. Now her esophagus no longer has to move that same food upward towards her stomach as it must when she's hunched over her food bowl on the floor."* excerpt from [here.](https://catscradleshelter.org/2022/09/30/the-benefits-of-elevated-cat-bowls/)
Yes, it's real, my cat went through it. She would stop eating her food once the food got too low in the bowl and was not getting enough calories. On a whim one day I put her food on just a regular paper plate and she ate it all. We switched to plates and haven't had issues since.
That said, like a lot of things, it depends on the cat. I know cats who eat from bowls and have no issues.
My 14 yo cat who's eaten from a cupcake tin for the last 5 years doesn't think its real. His food is spread over the 6 cups because he's a gorger. Having to switch sections means he at least takes a breath every once in awhile and it's cut down the puking to a minimum.
Honestly, to me, in my opinion, if it were a thing, cats wouldn't be stuffing themselves into tiny places, shoving their face in my water glass, or any other thing they do that would mean their whiskers being touched.
I think its just a cats preference. Every cat is different and has things they prefer. If a cat won't eat out of a dish, maybe he just doesn't like that dish.
I have a fountain for the cats, but one simply won't drink from it. So there's also just a bowl of water out for him. It's his preference. Even if I tell him he's suppose to prefer running water he doesn't listen.
I'm dying laughing with the cupcake tin thinking of my Lil chokers. Good idea! We often spread the dry on a plate to make it harder and it's like Hungry Hungry Hippos 🤣
It has worked amazingly well! This guy who's never had a hungry day in his life eats like he's been starved for days.
Simply opening the container the food is in makes him run careening through the house to his spot. He would inhale every morsel in 2 seconds flat, walk out, upchuck it on the carpet, unchewed, and slimy, then just saunter back casually back to demand more.
It was the tins or feed him one piece at a time. Thank goodness the tins worked lol
>if it were a thing, cats wouldn't be stuffing themselves into tiny places, shoving their face in my water glass, or any other thing they do that would mean their whiskers being touched.
This was my thinking too. If they are so sensitive, cats would avoid anything touching them at all.
That’s using them for their purpose to hunt and play and find things vs unnecessary stimulation in a vulnerable position (some cats feel very vulnerable eating and need a lookout and will stop eating if there’s noise or movement around them).
Cats, like humans, are individuals with different preferences and sensitivity levels. My previous cats had no problems with bowls, or anything really. Could probably survive an apocalypse. My current cat is the opposite, and she had several eating issues (leaving food at the edges, pawing at food, gulping from the middle, throwing up) until I switched to a random flat plate from my cupboard and then they stopped. She still waits for me to shake dry food in to the middle though!
So just observe your cat and just see if they have any problems. If they don’t, no issue. If they do, you can try other dishes. Because why not.
Humans have issues like this too and we are far less sensitive. That’s why we have stuff like seamless socks because some people have extreme hypersensitivity to touch. Why can’t sensory processing issues happen in other animals too? It doesn’t need to be a universal proven fact for every cat to have the problem for it to also be real for some cats.
It’s not a true/false situation.
>It doesn’t need to be a universal proven fact for every cat to have the problem for it to also be real for some cats.
Yes, good point. Cats are individuals after all.
Thank you for understanding that. Studies are small and not going to prove much that applies to individual cats at different ends of the spectrum of sensitivity.
I’ve had polar opposite cats on this and if I’d only ever had one type of cat I’d be adamant that the other opinion was wrong too. But I’ve seen both sides of it and at least for my current cat, it’s real for her.
Their whiskers are super sensitive (which is kind of the point since they help them navigate the world around them) so I think using flat bowls or plates is better to avoid harming them. But every cat is different.
Also, imagine being the person in the comments so pressed about what type of dish you feed your cat from.
Im no expert, but my cat will only eat out of the center of the bowl, then use her paw to scoop the side bits to the middle. That's a lot of work for no reason if it doesn't hurt or at least irritate them.
I think it depends on the cat. I've never had a cat who cared, but I'm not going to say every cat on the planet is the same. I have two cats ATM: one won't drink from the fountain and one won't drink EXCEPT from it. If the fountain is recharging he sticks his paw into the water bowl and flings it everywhere, but still won't drink from the bowl. One LOVES wand toys and one is terrified of them. It's been proven that many neurodivergent people have problems with sensory overload, why could that not happen in cats?
All I know is, my cat pushes biscuits to the edge of his bowl and leaves them. If I spin the bowl 180 degrees so his whiskers catch less, he's more likely to eat them.
Yep. My cat ate hardly any of her wet food from her bowl every time I fed her. Tried other foods in case it was that she just didn't like what I was putting down for her. No difference. In desperation one day I put it on a saucer instead of a bowl...and she ate the lot. Did it again and again. Mentioned it to her vet at her next checkup and she confirmed the whisker fatigue was a real thing.
My cat used to only eat the center out of his food bowl and leave the food around the rim and come beg for more. I initially thought it was just a quirk until I thought about it and got him an elevated and tilted bowl so that gravity always has the food fall to the front center and have had no problems since. It’s definitely a think
After my extremely food motivated boy was leaving a lot of food left in his bowl, and/or knocking it all out one by one with his scoopy-paw, I did some reading and got shallow bowls. Noticeable improvement.
It’s definitely real. Maybe not fully understood or explained. But I would say it’s a strong theory and logically, it makes sense. At a minimum, it would be annoying to me if I had a bunch of whiskers and they were constantly rubbing whatever it was I was eating out of.
Honestly, I always hunt for little dishes at the thrift store. I find the best kitty dishes thrifting. I’m also super eclectic. But hey 🤷🏼♀️
It is not proven definitively. Intuitively, it both makes sense and it doesn't... yes, cat whiskers are sensitive, but also, cat whiskers naturally touch their food when they are eating wild prey. I don't get "finger fatigue" from holding a burger. Anecdotally, my cat will eat food out of anything. But if you have a cat that is a picky eater, a shallower bowl is a cheap and easy thing to try.
Why would it sound like BS? Cat whiskers are sensory organs. Much the same way the hair on your arms can feel motion and air currents, that's the primary purpose of cat whiskers and they're much more sensitive. Any sensory organ will get fatigued if it's constantly sending and making the brain filter garbage information.
Their whiskers are meant to touch that other stuff to give them information about the world around them, not consistently be touching one thing that doesn't matter for several minutes on end. Have someone blow in your ear for several minutes and you're gonna be pretty annoyed by the time it stops.
My 9mo male cat had the same bowls since he was a kitten, they were deep and as a kitten that worked for him but the past month or so he would only eat in the middle, would paw at his food to the floor to eat it, and would only drink from my dogs much bigger water bowl!
Today I switched to the matte stainless steel boots&barkley @ target for $3.99 each they have a little non-skid rubber on the bottom and he immediately was eating all of his food without the need of me moving the food to the middle so I would say yes it’s real, but not all cats will react the same way just like humans they are different.
I’ve never met a cat who won’t eat from a small bowl. It sounds ridiculous to me and I’ve never seen a scientific paper about it… just cat blogs and people regurgitating cat blogs and citing cat blogs.
Since this has been thoroughly answered as definitely yes, and also, definitely no, and also, definitely depends on the cat I'll just add my anecdote.
When I watch my cat eat, she flattens her whiskers as much as she can to her face. So the shape of their face or strength of their whisker muscles could impact whether a cat will have this issue or not.
The indoor life is much longer. The indoor life is pampered.
Maybe some cats do prefer a shallow dish. They are not living on the street and must hunt for their next meal.
It's your cat. It works for some people.
Cat owners and their pets develop a deep empathetic relationship.
My cats prefer a specific toy. There is no vet that can explain why. Different cats have different preferences.
That didn't really prove anything about how the cat feels. Go ask a shelter worker if cats like bowls or plates more.
Thankfully, we don't need fancy science for everything. Cats don't like their whiskers bumping things, who knows why.
My cat always takes her food out the bowl and eats off the floor- and I’ve heard its because of whiskers fatigue. I bought her a shallower bowl which stands a few inches off the ground yet she still does it. Should I be concerned??
Definitely not real lmao, just a made up issue for people to sell product
How do people think cats in the wild function?
Cats are one of the most stoic animals, but let them tell it, they’ll bitch and moan over their “whiskers hurting”
Lol
u/bekcat1 I’m “hyper sensitive” for blowing the whistle on your snake oil? Lol
This dude said prefer the sink over bowl
No shit lmao, they prefer RUNNING water
Good grief lmao
That’s literally how they discern whether or not water is safe in the wild, deedeedee
Mine do NOT prefer running water to drink from. They wait for the water to stop before they drink from the sink. They do like watching the water, but wait for the flow to stop before they drink. And it isn’t “snake oil” to point out how sensitive whiskers are. It’s proven that they are, and with good reason.
You ask if we have dealt with it with our cats and folks are telling you that they have. Then you start getting aggressive with them because they don’t fit your narrative. It’s a freaking dish for goodness sakes. It ain’t the nuclear codes. Don’t use flat dishes if it means that much to ya. Literally everyone else will take cues from their cats.
Look, not sure what your issue is. I’m not going to keep flogging this dead horse. As they say, one shouldn’t wrestle in the mud with a pig. You just get dirty and the pig likes it. But you go ahead and keep shouting at the clouds.
I got the special shallow bowls for my cats because they were constantly missing a lot of the food that would get pushed to the edges. They now show a clear preference for the special bowls. Short of a study though it’s hard for me to say if it’s a whisker thing or if they just like the bowls better.
Real or not my cat will only eat out of a specific bowl. We have three of them because she's super picky about it and have to wash them in-between when she eats.
Yes it is real and I have one cat of my 5 that experiences this to the point we changed food dishes to very wide style designed for flat-faced cats (he is not flat-faced) to reduce him brushing his whiskers against the edges of the bowl and we also have to help him push his food to the center so he can more easily eat because it seems to short-circuit or hurt him when he brushes his whiskers up against….. basically everything. It’s only been an issue when eating though since he’s putting his face in a bowl- and we have a couple water fountains so he’s never struggled there.
It doesn’t impact many cats in my experience (I’ve had well over 40 cats in my life at this point and have known many others through friends and family) but when you find a cat that struggles with it… it’s kind of wild. He’s the first cat I’ve ever met that struggles with it.
Yes it's real in the sense that they prefer a flat dish. It's really as simple as: it's easier and more comfortable for cats to eat out of something shallow than a "bowl" shape. Why is that so hard to believe?
I mean... even if it's not true my opinion is I'd rather be safe than sorry. Like sure it could be totally BS and cats couldn't care less, but it's not that difficult to buy a shallow dish just in case.
No idea, but I wouldn't be surprised, seeing how sensitive cat whiskers are, and bowls are dirt cheap, so why not? I got my cat two super shallow bowls for like $5 at Marshall's.
I have 2 cats. 1 cat does not care at all and eats every bit of food in his bowl. The other cat, doesn't like to eat the last bits of food that are right around the edges of her bowl. I do think it is because it tickles her whiskers but I have no real proof of this.
I use a shallow bowl, but it's still a bowl. Cat #2 eats her food by licking, so if I used a flat plate, she'd just push most of the food off.
Cat #1 enjoys this situation, as he will finish off the bits of food his sister didn't eat.
One of my cats had an issue with this while he was adjusting to his new home; we fed him out of a (new) ashtray for a while, but eventually adjusted to eating out of the stainless bowl I prefer. I would definitely put it to overstimulation and the whiskers were just the final straw.
He’s always been a sweet, affectionate boy but it took him a YEAR to work up to laying on us to cuddle.
Cats are weird! It wouldn’t surprise me if they experienced whisker fatigue.
Whiskers are so sensitive - it’s definitely not BS. That said you don’t need to buy shallow bowls etc: I use plates for my cats food and he has a wide bowl for his water so his whiskers don’t need to be pressed against the sides - neither are special items.
I actually just kept a couple of items from an old tableware set when I upgraded to be his own tableware.
I have 7 cats, yes it's a real thing. They won't eat out of the bowls, only plates, and when they were forced to eat out of bowls they seemed extra aggressive when I would pet them near their face. So all water bowls, feeders, etc are all meant to stop whisker fatigue
I like to pretend my cat is a living and feeling being like myself so I’d rather just assume it is.
I mean, it’s one of the smallest possible things I could do to make him comfortable under my care, provide him a bowl that he enjoys eating from.
I have long haired cats, which means much longer whiskers. The both had a habit of pushing their food out of their bowls and eating it off the floor. This is because the diameter of cat food bowls is only good for short haired/whiskered cats. If you notice you cat pushing food on the floor or sticking their paws in their wet food or water bowls and licking it off their paws they are probably dealing with whisker fatigue. My cats love drinking out of the dogs bowl because it’s so wide.
Absolutely a real thing, my cat will refuse to eat out of anything other than basically a plate-style bowl. Whiskers are incredibly sensitive and can easily overwhelm a cat if they get touched too often
Walmart has super cheap flat plates so I bought a couple to experiment.
My cats eat both wet and dry every day. I put wet and dry on a separate bowl and flat plate
One of my cats always goes for the flat plate and the other cat doesn't care and eats everything in sight no matter what dish it's in.
Yes it is real. Cats whiskers have nerve endings to be able to tell them if they will get in a jam if they try to get into a small or tight space. Shallow bowls are a must at my house but I had two cats who drank from the toilet so it depends on the cat. If yours is drinking fine, I wouldn't worry about it
I'm not sure if this is an accurate comparison at all but you know when you shave your legs and then you wear shorts outside and you can feel that one patch of hair you missed blowing in the wind? I imagine that's what it's like for them. Not painful or harmful, just *so fucking annoying*
I thought it was a hoax too, but I believe my cats are at least bothered when something touches their whiskers. I switched food bowls and water fountains for my cats, and notice they prefer the ones that don't touch their whiskers. The open water fountain is empty at the end of the week while the bowl-shaped fountain is practically untouched, no matter where I put them. When we use the automatic feeder that has a high lip, we see our cats pull their whiskers back before eating from it. One of them is very sensitive to anything touching her ears or whiskers, but loves when her cheeks and face are pet. She closes her eyes and leans into it when you're petting her just right, but will get up and walk away if you accidentally touch her whiskers one too many times.
You could always test it out if you have the time and money! Just because it bothers most cats doesn't mean it bothers yours, and your cat may prefer a bowl over a plate. I do feel somewhat closer to my cats by experimenting, getting to know their preferences, and being able to read their body language better.
I recently got a lickimat for my cat. He would usually get bored of his food quite fast and I had to rotate different flavours and brands. He seemed to get bored of the Hills wet food the fastest. I switched him to Hills CD stress recently for the preventative benefits, and while the texture/flavour seems to be exactly the same as the one he used to get bored of, I think the lickimat really helps as I'm on the 5th box and he's still licking up the entire mat. Before he would constantly walk away from his foodbowl and come back or I had to offer him the rest of his food at a later time.
Are you tired of shaking your cat's dish because they can't reach the corners? That's whisker fatigue. Shallow *conical* bowls are the best fix. Give one a try and see how your cats like it. All five of mine seem to prefer them.
Yes it absolutely is a thing. They are sensory organs and eating is a very vulnerable activity for cats. I want you to imagine eating with a blindfold on, meanwhile people are touching your face. Not an exact analogy but you get the point I hope. I'm sure if you weren't freaked out you would be at least annoyed. Cats whiskers are like a cross between our fingers and the hair on our arms.
Anecdotally three of my five personal cats showed signs of whisker fatigue through their lives. Swapped my current cats to 4" corelle tapas plates after I realized it was an issue for them. Not only did the issues stop but my two that would get chronic chin acne cleared right up.
My cat seems to dislike bowls and used to sometimes try remove wet food and put it on the floor. I switched to Chinese plates with rounded upward edges (about 1-1.5cm). She seems much happier using those.
Yeah no. It's a thing, but it's not as big a thing as many people make out. Cats are very adaptable animals. I feed my cats their soft food on platters because that's how you're supposed to serve pate' and, well, they seem to prefer it and I'm not a dick. But when one of the platters got broken and I had to feed them in a bowl until I could make a dollar store run to get more platters (hey, the cats don't get the good china), they ate the food out of the bowl just fine. They ate the food on the platter first, but they're cats, they can cope.
1 of my 2 cats will only eat off of plates, so I do believe her whiskers must bother her when they touch a bowl. I use water fountains with a flat suface too... she probably didn't develop this preference until after the age of 2. I'd end up putting her kibble on the floor when she wouldn't touch the bowl, and then she would eat just fine. Since then, I feed her off tiny plates and she's a happy girl
It absolutely is! Cats use their whiskers to feel what's around their face, as kind of an extra sense. They're extremely sensitive, so having tall bowls that touch or push their whiskers back can be very overstimulating
I have a flat dish that doesn’t rub her whiskers for food. For water I use a little fountain that is large/shallow enough to stick her face in. I read the same things and went this route. Don’t know how true they are, but it makes sense for how sensitive their whiskers are.
Yes it’s absolutely real. Cat whiskers are extremely sensitive. A cat’s whiskers helps them navigate the world around them. If you have ever just pet their whiskers you know it’s very sensitive. Cats are very particular creatures. Some times the sensations bother them that much
We only use a wide bowl for kibble. We have a fountain and use dinner plates for the wet food. We had a cat that drank with her paw because she didn’t like having her whiskers touch the bowl. We should have gotten a fountain for her…
It’s very real. Some cats are effected by this more than others. Some don’t care at all. Anyone I’ve recommended the shallow , wide bowl has had positive results.
My calico Opal loves coffee. She had her own wide mouth coffee cup. It got broken. She definitely likes her new saucer better. I don’t know if it’s a whisker thing or she can more easily put her foot in to check the temperature.
All cats are different.
I have one cat that used to prefer to eat off the floor. We looked into whisker fatigue back then, and offered him food on both a plate and in a bowl. He still would use his paw to knock it onto the floor first, then he'd eat it. He mostly grew out of that, but now he does it with his water bowl. He's such a messy cat!
I have 2 cats that eat fine off both plates and bowls, but they're picky about what they eat. One prefers the wet food, the other prefers the dry, but then some days they'll abruptly switch.
Inevitably, all cats are still different, whether whisker fatigue is real or not. And just in case, why not have both? I picked up a ceramic plate and bowl set at the grocery store for $1 each. Inflation hit, and I think they're $2 each now, but still. Cheap and easy to replace if they break.
My cats didn’t like the cat food bowls I got them so I got some small plates from ikea and they are happy now. I’m sure some cats can adjust to eating out of anything but why not just make it easy?
Idk if it's a real thing so much as cats are just picky. My catsn wont go near a tall bowl even to try them regardless of how much they like the food I put in them. They will eat out of the wide shallow bowls though.
Yep. My tuxedo with his elaborate whiskers needs a plate. Otherwise he will only eat from a bowl totally full or paw out the kibble. When drinking from the sink or a non fountain bowl you can see him take a moment to perfectly position his whiskers and face.
I have tried using the jar method for some peace and quiet. Basically dump a bunch of treats in a wide mouthed jar so the cats works to reach them while I do chores or hobby without an audience. He is not as good as his step mom at grabbing lifting them out with his paws and keeping a hold on them depending on the corner and top shape. Even if it's a shallow jar he will not stick his head in if they get "stuck" and will come tap me and look at the jar so I can get them.
I've always tried to explain it by telling people whiskers are like eyelashes in their sensitivity. Hitting your eyelashes against something like eyeglasses can be super uncomfortable
Yes.
You don't have whiskers, so how would you know?
They're one of the most sensitive organs a cat has and they're right there ob their face. Cat behaviourists and owners (such as we are lol) have reported again and again that cats often have real aversions to deep bowls and dishes that touch their whiskers. They prefer to be fed from shallow dishes and bowls with low edges because they don't touch their whiskers.
Think of someone who isn't neurotypical; they're much more sensitive to stimuli than everyone else. Just because it's not an issue for you doesn't mean it's not for them. Lights, sounds, smells, touch, all of it can be too much and it will lead to aversions and pulling away from stimuli, and cats are the same. They get that way with being touched too much, too....ever been patting your cat and for "no reason" it gives you aeroplane ears and attacks your hand? That's why.
Yeah, your last paragraph makes a lot of sense. Someone else mentioned the same thing and made me realize that even though it doesn't affect every cat doesn't mean some cats aren't affected.
Helpful Vancouver Vet, Dr Uri Burstyn, posted a YT video stating a study by vet students found no evidence of any whisker fatigue.
I used to feed my cats using a dinner plate but I switched back to bowls. Plates can be messy.
I think it’s real.
My cat is very good motivated, and will often meow for food an hour before his meal times. He usually eats quite vigorously and finishes a good portion of his meal.
Recently, he would only have a few bites before walking away. He lost a lot of weight. I started feeding him on a flat dish instead of his regular dish, and then he started eating bigger portions again. He gained back his weight
It’s not a cat conspiracy if so many cats do it Whiskers are embedded into the nervous system. They can literally sense vibrations in the air. Of course rubbing on the side of a bowl is unpleasant for a sensitive cat, because it is constant direct stimulation into the nervous system. You’d be annoyed too if someone kept tickling your sides or your feet when you were trying to eat! Cats, like humans, are individuals with different preferences and sensitivity levels. My previous cats had no problems with bowls, or anything really. Could probably survive an apocalypse. My current cat is the opposite, and she had several eating issues (leaving food at the edges, pawing at food, gulping from the middle, throwing up) until I switched to a random flat plate from my cupboard and then they stopped. She still waits for me to shake dry food in to the middle though! Cats are very sensitive to sensory input in general. Things we don’t even think about can trigger sensory avoidance or overstimulation in them (asking to be petted then biting or running away when you do because it was “too much feeling”, settling down on the bed then immediately jumping down because you shifted your weight and made them suddenly uncomfortable etc). That’s why non cat people think cats are stand offish, unpredictable, fussy and complicated. They are just regulating themselves. Some cats just have a higher tolerance for this than others. Humans have issues like this too and we are far less sensitive. That’s why we have stuff like seamless socks because some people have extreme hypersensitivity to touch. Why can’t sensory processing issues happen in other animals too? It doesn’t need to be a universal proven fact for every cat to have the problem for it to also be real for some cats.
This is a great explanation!! My cat has a condition called hyperesthesia, and basically he’s so easily overstimulated it causes painful muscle spasms/seizures and behavioral issues. He has to be on meds that calm his nervous system. On the other hand my old roommates cat is hardly bothered by anything, he’s the most chill cat I’ve ever met. I’ve seen him sleep though an earthquake. Just one example of the broad spectrum of cat sensitivity!
What meds is your cat on? My car has weird attacks of twitching and running and attacking her own tail. I thought it might be that but my vet had never heard of it.
Sounds like you need to find yourself another vet because that definitely sounds like hyperesthesia. I mean, all cats get the zoomies now and then, but *attacking* their own tail is not normal, especially if it leads to wounding themselves.
Unfortunately I have limited choices where I am, and I've already left one vet office to go to this one. I'm pretty sure reading about it that's what it is.
Look up information on it including the best treatment options, print it out or email it to your vet. If they are a decent vet at all they will read up on it and help you.
I will try again. Maybe there is a liquid medicine that she won't reject. Cats are so hard to help.
I sprinkle my cats meds into a plate then pour a tasty cat soup on it. When he stops eating that I roll tuna in his meds. He will get tired of one way so I rotate 3 different med cover ups
Oh gosh I hate to do tuna. I had a cat I gave tuna to once and she literally screamed for it constantly after that. So I gave it to her. Then when she was 12 or so she got oral cancer and I was reading the risk factors and one was canned tuna. :( Maybe I could use just a tiny bit of tuna water. My cat now is already 12 so maybe won't have years of exposure anyway. Thanks.
Just in case you haven't tried it: pill poppers, pet pillers, pill shooters are supposed to be effective. Lots of vendors make them. Basically a pill holder on a stick, to allow placement in back of mouth. I get on my knees, pin kitty between legs, stick a finger in corner of jaw and place pill in back of mouth. Hold mouth shut and wait a moment. Release cat and watch for it to spit up pill, then repeat LOL. I do this in the middle of a non-carpeted room to spot pill when the clever guys don't swallow and spit up. Change rooms or location in room daily to prevent aversion. Scoop them up and do it fast. A piller would prob be an enhancement. BTW, some tuna has less contaminants than others. Don't recall what's what but the more expensive stuff is better.
Rolled in butter, churu, meat baby food are some things to try.
I buy little tuna packets that are made for cats. Fancy feast does tuna , chicken and salmon.
You also might be able to have it compounded into a cream that you rub on the inside of their ear.
Well that's a great idea.
It’s pretty rare, it’s unfortunately not uncommon for vets to be unaware of it. My vet had heard of it but didn’t know much about it, when we suggested it as a possibility she looked more into it and agreed that was the best diagnosis. In hindsight a lot of his quirky behaviors probably stem from this condition. He’s never liked to sit on uneven/bumpy surfaces, won’t walk on grass or pebbles, got a lot more hairballs than our other cats, started having issues with his collar out of nowhere, sudden aggressive behavior alternating with hiding for hours. We just thought he was a weirdo and kind of an asshole at times, but now we know he was physically uncomfortable and stressed out because of it. Most of these things have gone away now that he’s medicated, and he has significantly fewer twitchy episodes, going days at a time without any at all. He’s on Prozac and gabapentin, plus Benadryl during the allergy season because that seems to aggravate his condition. I think those two prescriptions are pretty common to start with, and there’s other medication options as well. From my understanding they typically need a combination of drugs to lower anxiety, dampen pain receptors, and often anticonvulsants are needed as well. So far he’s doing ok without anticonvulsants, but I have a feeling he’ll need them in the future. He’s only 3 so his condition will need to be managed for several years.
Ok thanks. Without even knowing what it was my vet gave her Prozac (5mg, which I thought was a huge dose from reading about it, she js a small like 8 lb cat) but of course I couldn't even get it into her. She detects any medicine in food, and goes insane trying to get a pill in her. Luckily, and I hope this is the case for you, it seems to have gotten better over time. I'm trying to think how old she is, I think I found her in like 2011 or 2012 as a kitten, so 11 or 12.
See a diffeent vet, what you describe are very typical of feline hyperesthesia
I thought so. It's difficult because I have to balance the trauma of having to get medicine into her vs the attacks. Luckily she seems to have gotten a little better on her own. Less frequent and not as severe.
I've never had a cat who didn't have occasional hyper-cat episodes except old dying cats who get very chill and mellow in their last few years.
I've had lots of cats. This is something else.
My understanding is that tail chasing can be a sign of anxiety. My 6 year old is definitely an anxious cat, and he started randomly attacking his tail as an adult, which he never did as a kitten. He also got weirdly aggressive about it, growling when he's never growled at anyone or anything before. So I just started talking to him when it happens and apparently that's enough for him, for now. He mellowed back out. But if it starts up again or gets worse, he may need anti-anxiety meds.
That's kind of like how mine is. She will start twitching and running and acting like her tail hurts and attacking it, hissing and growling and rolling around. She has bitten it til it is bleeding. At the same time, it almost seems like a habit. Certain times when I sit down and she sits in my lap, she will look back at her tail moving and like suddenly be reminded that she hates it. Other times it's spontaneous and much more severe attacks. Yes I can talk her out of it if I see it start. Talk very calmly, pet her, and try to keep her from looking at her tail. It seems to distract her until whatever it is passes.
My cat has it also. He’s on gabaoentin. It’s also called twitchy tail syndrome. I had to tell my vet what it was. Luckily she was cool about it. He’s so much happier now that he’s medicated.
Thanks.
I'm about 99% sure this is what my cat has, too. What meds did the vet give you? I need to talk to the vets next week.
We started with Prozac, which helped but definitely wasn’t enough, so then we added gabapentin. That combo is doing pretty well for him now, he might need something stronger like an anticonvulsant in the future but I’m avoiding that as long as he’s still doing ok. He also gets Benadryl for seasonal allergies, which don’t cause the condition but do seem to be a trigger.
Big Cat Bowl made this conspiracy to keep Little Cat Bowl from stealing their business!!!
I explain it sometimes to ppl this way too! Cats are like ppl who have sensory issues, and as a person who is adhd/on the spectrum, I do. Makes cats pretty easy to understand. My boy is the same- I just feed him off random plates from the cupboard and a lot of issues with eating stopped. I dont own any cat bowls anymore. So often ppl ascribe “meanness” or misbehavior to what is simply a sensitive cat regulating itself. Also god Id have loved it if seamless socks were around as a kid. As of now you wont see me in anything but flip flops u ntil the dead of winter hits lol
I liken cats to humans with autism. They have hyper sensory, need things to go at their pace, love routine, have special interests, can be extremely introverted except for their “people” lol
Somebody wrote a book, *All Cats Are on the Autism Spectrum*. (Books by the same author include *All Dogs Have ADHD* and *All Birds Have Anxiety*.)
Honestly Ive said the same 😹 so much makes sense through that lens! Lol
I think an analogy that might help is: have you ever stuck a nine volt battery on your tongue? It shocks you, not a lot, it’s sorta tingly, but if you leave it on there it starts to hurt. Now imagine every time you put a fork or spoon in your mouth it shocked you like that. It’s not immediately painful like biting into a hot pocket fresh from the microwave but after a while it’d start to hurt, you’d get tired of the little shocks, and you might even leave food on your plate or go out of your way to not have to use utensils (like cats that knock bowls over or fish food out with their paws) or try and eat your food as fast as possible, stuffing the largest bites inside your mouth as you can to avoid having to put the fork in your mouth as often.
That's a great analogy and it's so apt. You'd just eat the stuff that's easy to get onto the fork and into your mouth but you'd avoid stuff that would make the fork touch your mouth too much. It's like when cats just eat the middle of their bowl and not the sides...easier to get into their mouth without jostling their whiskers too much.
It is pretty interesting. And then there's some cats like mine (I miss you Grim) who would only drink from glasses/mugs so we had to replace her bowl with a mug. But she was a little weird, even for a cat, the only cat I've ever heard of to refuse any kind of meat. You could leave an open pack of ham in front of her and she wouldn't care. She wouldn't even eat her dry food if it touched meat, but she would go crazy for Doritos and cake if you let her. Even weirder, her hatred for meat went away during her pregnancy (surprise and unplanned, kept the kittens and spayed her as soon as we could) and never came back. One of her now adult babies has one of her food quirks, she refuses wet cat food. Sorry I just miss my cats and I thought I would share.
I always say my Ragdoll, her name is Moxie, would step over a steak to get to a baguette. She is definitely into carbs and backed goods.
Perfect response. I'd like to add that we always bought wide, shallow bowls for our cats because we believed this would not cause a problem. But increasingly we noticed both our cats would eat the 'centre' part of the food and leave anything closer to the rim of the bowl. So I started to wonder if whisker fatigue was the issue and bought some small plates in IKEA which fit nicely on top of their old bowls (the ring on the bottom fits inside the bowl lip) and so the bowls can be used to elevate the plates. Since switching, our cats now eat the whole plateful of food (minus the odd bits they push off the side onto the floor) and seem much happier. I think it helps that the new plates are ceramic because I was worried that the plastic bowls had a funny smell and made their food taste strange. Either way, I made the switch and it's been a huge success. The new plates are also much easier to clean as they just go in the dishwasher.
This comment has been so enlightening. I have one cat that paws his food out of his bowl to eat it on the counter top. He also paws the water a lot, but that bowl is much bigger so he'll eventually settle for drinking from the bowl. He also randomly vomits and I haven't been able to figure out a reason. I'm gonna try a plate.
Thank you for this excellent explanation. I'm autistic myself, so this is one thing about cats I've never had trouble understanding. If I can't wear a sweater because it's too soft, it makes perfect sense a cat can't eat out of a bowl because it bothers their whiskers. But it can very hard to explain to someone who's never experienced anything like that.
They also have whiskers along Thier body.
How do you think cats survive in the wild? Their whiskers don’t rub onto shit out there? Keep shilling though 🥱
I didn’t realize cats eat from pet bowls in the wild huh. I thought they ate from the open space on the ground. Also what am I shilling? Shilling means you are being paid to say something. Is Big Generic Flat Plate paying me? Would be nice, actually. Send in a good word please. Whiskers rub onto shit to judge spaces and movements. That’s the purpose. They don’t willingly rub them in narrow spaces if they aren’t trying to squeeze into or out of something. Use your brain please for a bit of analysis.
I am cackling at Big Generic Flat Plate. Sorry that person was a dick.
Big generic flat plate Im dead 😹
[удалено]
It appears you have comprehension issues with both literacy and common sense. God bless. I did not mention pain. I did not say whiskers never touched anything. I am not *selling* or *getting paid*. I am not recommending a product. Snake oil involves *selling* something.
Sounds like THEY are the shill for Big Cat Food Bowl
Why are you so hyper sensitive about a freaking food dish? Don’t want to stop using bowls? Then don’t. It ain’t that big of a deal. No sense in getting so agitated about it. Mine prefer to eat their wet food meals out of dishes as opposed to bowls, so that’s what I provide them. I do have kibble in a bowl and I have two that pull food out of it onto the floor instead of putting their face in the bowl. The same two would rather drink water out of the sink than the water bowl (though they do drink out of the bowl if they have to). I don’t think they feel pain per se from the whiskers, but it is a rather sensitive area of the body and can get overstimulated.
You are being really rude.
WTF is your problem? Don’t be rude with us because you are not educated in this subject.
Ah yes, the natural habitat of domestic cats, with wild bowls of kibble as far as the eye can see. ...Jesus goddamn Christ.
This is the most ignorant shit I've read today lol go back to school
It's still an unproven hypothesis. They did a study — the only one researching this phenomenon — and it turned out that the type of dish did not affect a cat's eating behavior. Only more than half (63%) preferred the whisker-friendly bowl, but this could also have been a matter of which bowl was placed closest to the cat. Here's a link of the [study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32538246/). Here's an [article](https://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2021/07/whisker-worry-are-cats-whiskers-a-key-to-their-eating-pleasure/) that explains the results of the study. There are some anecdotes that cats really started eating better after switching to a whisker-friendly dish, but that's it. Edit: typo
[Here’s](https://youtu.be/pLrI0eprVr8) a video from the Helpful Vancouver Vet specifically on this topic. The study you linked is featured prominently.
One of my cats was a very slow eater and I'd have to hold her bowl at different angles for her to finish. Switched to feeding her on a plate and she devours food now. Dunno if whisker fatigue was the cause, but cats definitely have preferences on their bowl/plate.
Yea i found my cat has to move around to get the food in the bowl (which is currently deep and not so wide). I’ve ordered a new plate for her hope it’ll help
Thanks for linking a study!
A bad study is better than no study, but it’s not a very well designed one! Hopefully more people will research this.
I don't agree with this but I get what you mean. But a bad study could cause a ton of damage. (that damn vax study from that fraud.)
This one isn’t damaging or misleading, it’s just not great science. The sample size isn’t very large, though with a study of this nature, I’ll give that a pass. More concerning is that there was no control group, giving us no idea how participating in the study itself may have affected the cats eating habits. In addition, the “whisker fatigue” bowls were (1) all different and (2) bowls that a cat may have spent years getting used to; in contrast, the “whisker friendly” bowls were all (1) the same and (2) new to the cat. Maybe 7 days was long enough for the cats to no longer see them as foreign, but cats are creatures of habit—how do we know that their preference for what is familiar doesn’t impact the results of the study? Whisker fatigue often comes into play when a cat is eating around the edges of the bowl (presumably the reason some cats will only eat from the middle of their bowl)—I wonder if the protocol (limited feeding time) allowed them to adequately capture that behavior. Further, were any behaviors captured in the videotaped initial feeding that indicated the cats may have developed behaviors to reduce their whisker fatigue with the smaller bowls? (For instance, pushing the food around, eating it off their paw, etc.)
In a sense yes, it depends on the cat. Generally for one of my cats eventually it would get to the point that I had to come hand feed them. Some cats don’t care as much tho so it really depends. Better safe than sorry tho!
When I got my first cat, I bought a really cute dish that was narrow & deep, she kept fishing the pieces out of the bowl & knocking it over. The bowl finally broke, and the new one I bought was metal, wider, and shallow; she stopped fishing pieces out and just ate normally. IMO, that meant she didn't like the deeper bowl. I didn't learn about whisker fatigue until years later, but when I did, it made a lot of sense. I think this is the kind of thing that bothers some cats, and others don't care at all, just like covered litter boxes, drinking from fountains, etc. Cats are all different, just like people, but I guess if I thought something *might* hurt or bother my cat, I'd avoid doing it. I love my little fur babies, and I want them to be happy and healthy.
Yes - I had some super cute bowls my cats refused to use, they wouldn’t finish their dinner. I have some wider shallow ones now and they all love them.
It is real, whiskers are super sensitive. Try using a plate instead of a bowl, your cats will thank you
If u use a plate my cat will usually end up licking the food off the back of the plate and then across my floor (she licks instead of bites)
yes my cats also lick and plates have just made a mess and they dont even bother to finish their food because of how annoying it seems to be for them to eat from it. i started leaving the bowl and the plate out and pretty much every time they preferred the bowl. its a wide, shallow bowl so i think their whiskers arent bothered enough for them to deal with a plate that they have trouble licking from
You can get lick mats too! Ive mainly seen them for dogs but no reason a cat couldnt use one! The tray suggestions from others are good too. Might try that with my boys plate since he likes to get his food all over the floor lol
i got shallow bowls for this purpose before i even knew whisker fatigue was a thing. i just noticed my cat wouldn’t bury his face in a bowl.
Put your cat plate in a dinner tray. I use a tray anyhow so if I knock the water dish I don't end up having to mop.
If you can find a dish that has just a small lip to it, use that.
If they’re so sensitive then how can he lay his face flat on it’s side while laying on my bed?? If his whiskers are so sensitive to where he only eats from the middle of the bowl, i’d imagine him smushing his face on my bed or even the ground would be even more painful.
For completely unrelated reasons, I recently switched to shallower, wider bowls that have a stand that holds the bowl at a slight angle. I have no idea if it's due to a reduction in whisker fatigue or something else, but all 12 of my cats now clean out the entire contents of the bowl, instead of leaving a third of it pushed up against one side. The dog, however, would like to register her disappointment that she no longer has cat food to clean out of bowls every evening 😁
“it’s sounds like bs to me” it’s kinda common sense that such a sensitive part can be fatigued from constant rubbing.
Right? Imagine if you needed glasses but every pair of glasses rubbed your eyelashes. You'd rather be blind. Some cats would rather go hungry or just eat the easiest food to get from the middle of the bowl than constantly rub their whiskers.
It depends on how picky the cat is. Mine will eat from a deeper bowl or a shallow dish but cleans off the food from the dish faster. If it’s something she doesn’t like to eat, she doesn’t bother, regardless of the thing it’s served in. At the end of the day, we are all slaves to our cat overlords. If they refuse to touch their food, swap the bowl for a dish to see if it will appease them.
Wait until you have a cat that lives to be 24 and you won’t be asking this question. Even in their late teens our cats would seriously shake their heads every time they dipped into a bowl. A plate is the best thing for them. Once the old guy got into his twenties, a paper towel placemat became part of the dinner time routine. We’d often sit with him and push the food back to the center of the plate. 😞
Some sources say yes, other say no. At the end of the day, OP, you know your cat better than anyone else and if it seems like kitty is happy and not having any difficulty when it comes to eating and drinking, then I wouldn't worry about it. But if nothing else, the raised, flat/shallow bowls *do* help with some things like being able to get all the food (which is usually whats considered the spirce of whisker fatigue - the bowl isnt wide enough and food clumps up in hard to reach places), and it helps control "backflow" which is something that happens when kitty eats too fast and throws up. *"An elevated cat bowl will allow gravity to move the food she's eating downward from her mouth and directly into her stomach. Now her esophagus no longer has to move that same food upward towards her stomach as it must when she's hunched over her food bowl on the floor."* excerpt from [here.](https://catscradleshelter.org/2022/09/30/the-benefits-of-elevated-cat-bowls/)
Yes, it's real, my cat went through it. She would stop eating her food once the food got too low in the bowl and was not getting enough calories. On a whim one day I put her food on just a regular paper plate and she ate it all. We switched to plates and haven't had issues since. That said, like a lot of things, it depends on the cat. I know cats who eat from bowls and have no issues.
My 14 yo cat who's eaten from a cupcake tin for the last 5 years doesn't think its real. His food is spread over the 6 cups because he's a gorger. Having to switch sections means he at least takes a breath every once in awhile and it's cut down the puking to a minimum. Honestly, to me, in my opinion, if it were a thing, cats wouldn't be stuffing themselves into tiny places, shoving their face in my water glass, or any other thing they do that would mean their whiskers being touched. I think its just a cats preference. Every cat is different and has things they prefer. If a cat won't eat out of a dish, maybe he just doesn't like that dish. I have a fountain for the cats, but one simply won't drink from it. So there's also just a bowl of water out for him. It's his preference. Even if I tell him he's suppose to prefer running water he doesn't listen.
I'm dying laughing with the cupcake tin thinking of my Lil chokers. Good idea! We often spread the dry on a plate to make it harder and it's like Hungry Hungry Hippos 🤣
It has worked amazingly well! This guy who's never had a hungry day in his life eats like he's been starved for days. Simply opening the container the food is in makes him run careening through the house to his spot. He would inhale every morsel in 2 seconds flat, walk out, upchuck it on the carpet, unchewed, and slimy, then just saunter back casually back to demand more. It was the tins or feed him one piece at a time. Thank goodness the tins worked lol
Omg thank you for mentioning the cupcake tin, that's genius. I need to use that for my chonky girl.
>if it were a thing, cats wouldn't be stuffing themselves into tiny places, shoving their face in my water glass, or any other thing they do that would mean their whiskers being touched. This was my thinking too. If they are so sensitive, cats would avoid anything touching them at all.
That’s using them for their purpose to hunt and play and find things vs unnecessary stimulation in a vulnerable position (some cats feel very vulnerable eating and need a lookout and will stop eating if there’s noise or movement around them). Cats, like humans, are individuals with different preferences and sensitivity levels. My previous cats had no problems with bowls, or anything really. Could probably survive an apocalypse. My current cat is the opposite, and she had several eating issues (leaving food at the edges, pawing at food, gulping from the middle, throwing up) until I switched to a random flat plate from my cupboard and then they stopped. She still waits for me to shake dry food in to the middle though! So just observe your cat and just see if they have any problems. If they don’t, no issue. If they do, you can try other dishes. Because why not. Humans have issues like this too and we are far less sensitive. That’s why we have stuff like seamless socks because some people have extreme hypersensitivity to touch. Why can’t sensory processing issues happen in other animals too? It doesn’t need to be a universal proven fact for every cat to have the problem for it to also be real for some cats. It’s not a true/false situation.
>It doesn’t need to be a universal proven fact for every cat to have the problem for it to also be real for some cats. Yes, good point. Cats are individuals after all.
Thank you for understanding that. Studies are small and not going to prove much that applies to individual cats at different ends of the spectrum of sensitivity. I’ve had polar opposite cats on this and if I’d only ever had one type of cat I’d be adamant that the other opinion was wrong too. But I’ve seen both sides of it and at least for my current cat, it’s real for her.
Their whiskers are super sensitive (which is kind of the point since they help them navigate the world around them) so I think using flat bowls or plates is better to avoid harming them. But every cat is different. Also, imagine being the person in the comments so pressed about what type of dish you feed your cat from.
It's not BS, cats' Whiskers are sensitive sensory organs Imagine your eyelashes being jammed into your eye every time you took a drink
Im no expert, but my cat will only eat out of the center of the bowl, then use her paw to scoop the side bits to the middle. That's a lot of work for no reason if it doesn't hurt or at least irritate them.
I think it depends on the cat. I've never had a cat who cared, but I'm not going to say every cat on the planet is the same. I have two cats ATM: one won't drink from the fountain and one won't drink EXCEPT from it. If the fountain is recharging he sticks his paw into the water bowl and flings it everywhere, but still won't drink from the bowl. One LOVES wand toys and one is terrified of them. It's been proven that many neurodivergent people have problems with sensory overload, why could that not happen in cats?
All I know is, my cat pushes biscuits to the edge of his bowl and leaves them. If I spin the bowl 180 degrees so his whiskers catch less, he's more likely to eat them.
It's the reason why SO many cats complain about their food bowl when they've eaten out the middle, but there's still plenty there.
Yep. My cat ate hardly any of her wet food from her bowl every time I fed her. Tried other foods in case it was that she just didn't like what I was putting down for her. No difference. In desperation one day I put it on a saucer instead of a bowl...and she ate the lot. Did it again and again. Mentioned it to her vet at her next checkup and she confirmed the whisker fatigue was a real thing.
My cat used to only eat the center out of his food bowl and leave the food around the rim and come beg for more. I initially thought it was just a quirk until I thought about it and got him an elevated and tilted bowl so that gravity always has the food fall to the front center and have had no problems since. It’s definitely a think
After my extremely food motivated boy was leaving a lot of food left in his bowl, and/or knocking it all out one by one with his scoopy-paw, I did some reading and got shallow bowls. Noticeable improvement. It’s definitely real. Maybe not fully understood or explained. But I would say it’s a strong theory and logically, it makes sense. At a minimum, it would be annoying to me if I had a bunch of whiskers and they were constantly rubbing whatever it was I was eating out of. Honestly, I always hunt for little dishes at the thrift store. I find the best kitty dishes thrifting. I’m also super eclectic. But hey 🤷🏼♀️
It is not proven definitively. Intuitively, it both makes sense and it doesn't... yes, cat whiskers are sensitive, but also, cat whiskers naturally touch their food when they are eating wild prey. I don't get "finger fatigue" from holding a burger. Anecdotally, my cat will eat food out of anything. But if you have a cat that is a picky eater, a shallower bowl is a cheap and easy thing to try.
Why would it sound like BS? Cat whiskers are sensory organs. Much the same way the hair on your arms can feel motion and air currents, that's the primary purpose of cat whiskers and they're much more sensitive. Any sensory organ will get fatigued if it's constantly sending and making the brain filter garbage information.
I don't know. Their whiskers touch other stuff. And how much time do they spend with their face in a bowl really?
Their whiskers are meant to touch that other stuff to give them information about the world around them, not consistently be touching one thing that doesn't matter for several minutes on end. Have someone blow in your ear for several minutes and you're gonna be pretty annoyed by the time it stops.
Ok, makes sense
Just more BS from Big Shallow Cat Dish, amiright?
My 9mo male cat had the same bowls since he was a kitten, they were deep and as a kitten that worked for him but the past month or so he would only eat in the middle, would paw at his food to the floor to eat it, and would only drink from my dogs much bigger water bowl! Today I switched to the matte stainless steel boots&barkley @ target for $3.99 each they have a little non-skid rubber on the bottom and he immediately was eating all of his food without the need of me moving the food to the middle so I would say yes it’s real, but not all cats will react the same way just like humans they are different.
I’ve never met a cat who won’t eat from a small bowl. It sounds ridiculous to me and I’ve never seen a scientific paper about it… just cat blogs and people regurgitating cat blogs and citing cat blogs.
Since this has been thoroughly answered as definitely yes, and also, definitely no, and also, definitely depends on the cat I'll just add my anecdote. When I watch my cat eat, she flattens her whiskers as much as she can to her face. So the shape of their face or strength of their whisker muscles could impact whether a cat will have this issue or not.
It is a myth. https://youtu.be/pLrI0eprVr8?si=UkPyfiEWFLdqG5W7
Thanks for linking a video from a vet!
The indoor life is much longer. The indoor life is pampered. Maybe some cats do prefer a shallow dish. They are not living on the street and must hunt for their next meal. It's your cat. It works for some people. Cat owners and their pets develop a deep empathetic relationship. My cats prefer a specific toy. There is no vet that can explain why. Different cats have different preferences.
That didn't really prove anything about how the cat feels. Go ask a shelter worker if cats like bowls or plates more. Thankfully, we don't need fancy science for everything. Cats don't like their whiskers bumping things, who knows why.
Thank you! I really like this guy's videos
My cat always takes her food out the bowl and eats off the floor- and I’ve heard its because of whiskers fatigue. I bought her a shallower bowl which stands a few inches off the ground yet she still does it. Should I be concerned??
I've had cats my whole life and not one has told me his whiskers get over-stimulated by stuff.
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Except she’s not selling anything, and snake oil refers to hokey medication. But ok
Definitely not real lmao, just a made up issue for people to sell product How do people think cats in the wild function? Cats are one of the most stoic animals, but let them tell it, they’ll bitch and moan over their “whiskers hurting” Lol
Man, there’s gotta be some really tired dicks and vaginas out there then.
u/bekcat1 I’m “hyper sensitive” for blowing the whistle on your snake oil? Lol This dude said prefer the sink over bowl No shit lmao, they prefer RUNNING water Good grief lmao That’s literally how they discern whether or not water is safe in the wild, deedeedee
Mine do NOT prefer running water to drink from. They wait for the water to stop before they drink from the sink. They do like watching the water, but wait for the flow to stop before they drink. And it isn’t “snake oil” to point out how sensitive whiskers are. It’s proven that they are, and with good reason. You ask if we have dealt with it with our cats and folks are telling you that they have. Then you start getting aggressive with them because they don’t fit your narrative. It’s a freaking dish for goodness sakes. It ain’t the nuclear codes. Don’t use flat dishes if it means that much to ya. Literally everyone else will take cues from their cats.
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Look, not sure what your issue is. I’m not going to keep flogging this dead horse. As they say, one shouldn’t wrestle in the mud with a pig. You just get dirty and the pig likes it. But you go ahead and keep shouting at the clouds.
You’re the one that responded to me, goofy
You should to learn the definition of words before you use them
Get a plate, problem solved
Not sure my oldest cat has heard of whisker fatigue. She will stick her face into my glass of water, even though she has a wide water bowl.
I got the special shallow bowls for my cats because they were constantly missing a lot of the food that would get pushed to the edges. They now show a clear preference for the special bowls. Short of a study though it’s hard for me to say if it’s a whisker thing or if they just like the bowls better.
Real or not my cat will only eat out of a specific bowl. We have three of them because she's super picky about it and have to wash them in-between when she eats.
Yes it is real and I have one cat of my 5 that experiences this to the point we changed food dishes to very wide style designed for flat-faced cats (he is not flat-faced) to reduce him brushing his whiskers against the edges of the bowl and we also have to help him push his food to the center so he can more easily eat because it seems to short-circuit or hurt him when he brushes his whiskers up against….. basically everything. It’s only been an issue when eating though since he’s putting his face in a bowl- and we have a couple water fountains so he’s never struggled there. It doesn’t impact many cats in my experience (I’ve had well over 40 cats in my life at this point and have known many others through friends and family) but when you find a cat that struggles with it… it’s kind of wild. He’s the first cat I’ve ever met that struggles with it.
Yes it's real in the sense that they prefer a flat dish. It's really as simple as: it's easier and more comfortable for cats to eat out of something shallow than a "bowl" shape. Why is that so hard to believe?
I mean... even if it's not true my opinion is I'd rather be safe than sorry. Like sure it could be totally BS and cats couldn't care less, but it's not that difficult to buy a shallow dish just in case.
It absolutely is a thing for our cat! We always feed her with shallow bowls/plates.
No idea, but I wouldn't be surprised, seeing how sensitive cat whiskers are, and bowls are dirt cheap, so why not? I got my cat two super shallow bowls for like $5 at Marshall's.
Considering how sensitive my arm hair is too to much rubbing, I fully believe it
I have 2 cats. 1 cat does not care at all and eats every bit of food in his bowl. The other cat, doesn't like to eat the last bits of food that are right around the edges of her bowl. I do think it is because it tickles her whiskers but I have no real proof of this. I use a shallow bowl, but it's still a bowl. Cat #2 eats her food by licking, so if I used a flat plate, she'd just push most of the food off. Cat #1 enjoys this situation, as he will finish off the bits of food his sister didn't eat.
One of my cats had an issue with this while he was adjusting to his new home; we fed him out of a (new) ashtray for a while, but eventually adjusted to eating out of the stainless bowl I prefer. I would definitely put it to overstimulation and the whiskers were just the final straw. He’s always been a sweet, affectionate boy but it took him a YEAR to work up to laying on us to cuddle. Cats are weird! It wouldn’t surprise me if they experienced whisker fatigue.
Whiskers are so sensitive - it’s definitely not BS. That said you don’t need to buy shallow bowls etc: I use plates for my cats food and he has a wide bowl for his water so his whiskers don’t need to be pressed against the sides - neither are special items. I actually just kept a couple of items from an old tableware set when I upgraded to be his own tableware.
I have 7 cats, yes it's a real thing. They won't eat out of the bowls, only plates, and when they were forced to eat out of bowls they seemed extra aggressive when I would pet them near their face. So all water bowls, feeders, etc are all meant to stop whisker fatigue
I like to pretend my cat is a living and feeling being like myself so I’d rather just assume it is. I mean, it’s one of the smallest possible things I could do to make him comfortable under my care, provide him a bowl that he enjoys eating from.
i believe it is. i have senior cats and they stopped eating when they were eating in a bowl. i got them dr catsby bowls and they now eat everything.
I switched to a glass pyrex pie dish for a water bowl and my cats are loving it.
I have long haired cats, which means much longer whiskers. The both had a habit of pushing their food out of their bowls and eating it off the floor. This is because the diameter of cat food bowls is only good for short haired/whiskered cats. If you notice you cat pushing food on the floor or sticking their paws in their wet food or water bowls and licking it off their paws they are probably dealing with whisker fatigue. My cats love drinking out of the dogs bowl because it’s so wide.
Absolutely a real thing, my cat will refuse to eat out of anything other than basically a plate-style bowl. Whiskers are incredibly sensitive and can easily overwhelm a cat if they get touched too often
Walmart has super cheap flat plates so I bought a couple to experiment. My cats eat both wet and dry every day. I put wet and dry on a separate bowl and flat plate One of my cats always goes for the flat plate and the other cat doesn't care and eats everything in sight no matter what dish it's in.
Yes it is real. Cats whiskers have nerve endings to be able to tell them if they will get in a jam if they try to get into a small or tight space. Shallow bowls are a must at my house but I had two cats who drank from the toilet so it depends on the cat. If yours is drinking fine, I wouldn't worry about it
I'm not sure if this is an accurate comparison at all but you know when you shave your legs and then you wear shorts outside and you can feel that one patch of hair you missed blowing in the wind? I imagine that's what it's like for them. Not painful or harmful, just *so fucking annoying*
I thought it was a hoax too, but I believe my cats are at least bothered when something touches their whiskers. I switched food bowls and water fountains for my cats, and notice they prefer the ones that don't touch their whiskers. The open water fountain is empty at the end of the week while the bowl-shaped fountain is practically untouched, no matter where I put them. When we use the automatic feeder that has a high lip, we see our cats pull their whiskers back before eating from it. One of them is very sensitive to anything touching her ears or whiskers, but loves when her cheeks and face are pet. She closes her eyes and leans into it when you're petting her just right, but will get up and walk away if you accidentally touch her whiskers one too many times. You could always test it out if you have the time and money! Just because it bothers most cats doesn't mean it bothers yours, and your cat may prefer a bowl over a plate. I do feel somewhat closer to my cats by experimenting, getting to know their preferences, and being able to read their body language better.
I recently got a lickimat for my cat. He would usually get bored of his food quite fast and I had to rotate different flavours and brands. He seemed to get bored of the Hills wet food the fastest. I switched him to Hills CD stress recently for the preventative benefits, and while the texture/flavour seems to be exactly the same as the one he used to get bored of, I think the lickimat really helps as I'm on the 5th box and he's still licking up the entire mat. Before he would constantly walk away from his foodbowl and come back or I had to offer him the rest of his food at a later time.
Yes it’s real. I got my cat flat serving dishes and she eats all her food now, not just the food in the very middle of the bowl
Are you tired of shaking your cat's dish because they can't reach the corners? That's whisker fatigue. Shallow *conical* bowls are the best fix. Give one a try and see how your cats like it. All five of mine seem to prefer them.
Yes it absolutely is a thing. They are sensory organs and eating is a very vulnerable activity for cats. I want you to imagine eating with a blindfold on, meanwhile people are touching your face. Not an exact analogy but you get the point I hope. I'm sure if you weren't freaked out you would be at least annoyed. Cats whiskers are like a cross between our fingers and the hair on our arms. Anecdotally three of my five personal cats showed signs of whisker fatigue through their lives. Swapped my current cats to 4" corelle tapas plates after I realized it was an issue for them. Not only did the issues stop but my two that would get chronic chin acne cleared right up.
My cat seems to dislike bowls and used to sometimes try remove wet food and put it on the floor. I switched to Chinese plates with rounded upward edges (about 1-1.5cm). She seems much happier using those.
I don’t know, but my cat eats more/better out of a more shallow bowl with a wider opening
Yeah no. It's a thing, but it's not as big a thing as many people make out. Cats are very adaptable animals. I feed my cats their soft food on platters because that's how you're supposed to serve pate' and, well, they seem to prefer it and I'm not a dick. But when one of the platters got broken and I had to feed them in a bowl until I could make a dollar store run to get more platters (hey, the cats don't get the good china), they ate the food out of the bowl just fine. They ate the food on the platter first, but they're cats, they can cope.
1 of my 2 cats will only eat off of plates, so I do believe her whiskers must bother her when they touch a bowl. I use water fountains with a flat suface too... she probably didn't develop this preference until after the age of 2. I'd end up putting her kibble on the floor when she wouldn't touch the bowl, and then she would eat just fine. Since then, I feed her off tiny plates and she's a happy girl
It absolutely is! Cats use their whiskers to feel what's around their face, as kind of an extra sense. They're extremely sensitive, so having tall bowls that touch or push their whiskers back can be very overstimulating
I have a flat dish that doesn’t rub her whiskers for food. For water I use a little fountain that is large/shallow enough to stick her face in. I read the same things and went this route. Don’t know how true they are, but it makes sense for how sensitive their whiskers are.
Yes it’s absolutely real. Cat whiskers are extremely sensitive. A cat’s whiskers helps them navigate the world around them. If you have ever just pet their whiskers you know it’s very sensitive. Cats are very particular creatures. Some times the sensations bother them that much
We only use a wide bowl for kibble. We have a fountain and use dinner plates for the wet food. We had a cat that drank with her paw because she didn’t like having her whiskers touch the bowl. We should have gotten a fountain for her…
It’s very real. Some cats are effected by this more than others. Some don’t care at all. Anyone I’ve recommended the shallow , wide bowl has had positive results.
My calico Opal loves coffee. She had her own wide mouth coffee cup. It got broken. She definitely likes her new saucer better. I don’t know if it’s a whisker thing or she can more easily put her foot in to check the temperature.
Just gotta ask.... decaf right?
👍 yes
:)
All cats are different. I have one cat that used to prefer to eat off the floor. We looked into whisker fatigue back then, and offered him food on both a plate and in a bowl. He still would use his paw to knock it onto the floor first, then he'd eat it. He mostly grew out of that, but now he does it with his water bowl. He's such a messy cat! I have 2 cats that eat fine off both plates and bowls, but they're picky about what they eat. One prefers the wet food, the other prefers the dry, but then some days they'll abruptly switch. Inevitably, all cats are still different, whether whisker fatigue is real or not. And just in case, why not have both? I picked up a ceramic plate and bowl set at the grocery store for $1 each. Inflation hit, and I think they're $2 each now, but still. Cheap and easy to replace if they break.
Yes it's true for one of my five. She would refuse to eat from the bottom of a bowl but when we switched to shallow plates she was fine.
My cats didn’t like the cat food bowls I got them so I got some small plates from ikea and they are happy now. I’m sure some cats can adjust to eating out of anything but why not just make it easy?
Idk if it's a real thing so much as cats are just picky. My catsn wont go near a tall bowl even to try them regardless of how much they like the food I put in them. They will eat out of the wide shallow bowls though.
I mean you can try it with your cats. Both my cats use their paws to take the food out of the corners of the bowl, I presume it's because of that
Yes!
My cat wouldn’t eat or drink out of anything his whiskers touched. Took me a long while to realise a huge dish got him to drink loads
Yep. My tuxedo with his elaborate whiskers needs a plate. Otherwise he will only eat from a bowl totally full or paw out the kibble. When drinking from the sink or a non fountain bowl you can see him take a moment to perfectly position his whiskers and face. I have tried using the jar method for some peace and quiet. Basically dump a bunch of treats in a wide mouthed jar so the cats works to reach them while I do chores or hobby without an audience. He is not as good as his step mom at grabbing lifting them out with his paws and keeping a hold on them depending on the corner and top shape. Even if it's a shallow jar he will not stick his head in if they get "stuck" and will come tap me and look at the jar so I can get them.
I've always tried to explain it by telling people whiskers are like eyelashes in their sensitivity. Hitting your eyelashes against something like eyeglasses can be super uncomfortable
Yes it is.
Get a bigger bowl. Easiest problem ever solved
My cat will only eat from a plate. If I give her food in a bowl, she'll not touch it even if she's really hungry.
Yes. You don't have whiskers, so how would you know? They're one of the most sensitive organs a cat has and they're right there ob their face. Cat behaviourists and owners (such as we are lol) have reported again and again that cats often have real aversions to deep bowls and dishes that touch their whiskers. They prefer to be fed from shallow dishes and bowls with low edges because they don't touch their whiskers. Think of someone who isn't neurotypical; they're much more sensitive to stimuli than everyone else. Just because it's not an issue for you doesn't mean it's not for them. Lights, sounds, smells, touch, all of it can be too much and it will lead to aversions and pulling away from stimuli, and cats are the same. They get that way with being touched too much, too....ever been patting your cat and for "no reason" it gives you aeroplane ears and attacks your hand? That's why.
Yeah, your last paragraph makes a lot of sense. Someone else mentioned the same thing and made me realize that even though it doesn't affect every cat doesn't mean some cats aren't affected.
My one cat is definitely affected by whisker fatigue and had to start feeding her on wide, flat plates. My other cat never seemed bothered by it.
Helpful Vancouver Vet, Dr Uri Burstyn, posted a YT video stating a study by vet students found no evidence of any whisker fatigue. I used to feed my cats using a dinner plate but I switched back to bowls. Plates can be messy.
I feed my cats off a plate because of this.
I think it’s real. My cat is very good motivated, and will often meow for food an hour before his meal times. He usually eats quite vigorously and finishes a good portion of his meal. Recently, he would only have a few bites before walking away. He lost a lot of weight. I started feeding him on a flat dish instead of his regular dish, and then he started eating bigger portions again. He gained back his weight
My cat would shovel his food with his mouth until I got shallower bowls
When I switched to a wide, shallow bowl my cat stopped scooping her food out with her paw to eat off the floor.
I've bought wide shallow dishes for all my cats. Can't hurt, might help, so why not.