Is leaving a TV on when nobody is home of any benefit or use to cats? (kittens, dogs)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Know someone who leaves a TV on for three cats when they go to work. They claim it helps keep their cats "company". I said it probably just wastes electricity.
Anyone have any knowledge that keeping a TV on for cats is a good idea or does it just waste power?
I don't have any documented proof to share, but every time my last girlfriend and I would leave she would put the tv on animal planet or on nat geo and all four of them would be on the sofa watching it when we got home so ... maybe? I know they DO like visual stimulation like we do, so it would make sense.
Our cats don't react to the television at all. I would be more apt to put on a talk radio station instead. However, I know a fosterer who leaves a television on for the kittens she fosters and says it calms them.
Mine likes "cat videos" (vids on Youtube of fish, birds) for a few minutes they entertain him, and then he eventually loses interest because he can't catch or find the fish/birds...so sooner or later, he doesn't care and wanders off. I think leaving that on all day would be a waste of electricity bigtime.
I have a friend who leaves TV on for her dogs all day, swears they love it. They are her dogs...so whatever she wants to do, it's her call.
One thing about cats, is they are happiest when things are consistently routine, and don't change too much. So if say you got a kitten in the summer when kids were home and the TV was on all the time, and then the school year started and the cat would be alone far more than it was used to, leaving the TV on might be "one less change" to upset its life. When you change too much too quickly, for a cat, they can have stress related behavior problems.
My cat actually complains not only if I'm trying to sleep in and he wants me to get up...but also if I stay up past my usual bedtime. He wants me to act normal, and he notices when I don't.
Agreed! If I sat up reading on my laptop past (what he thinks) is my bedtime, scruffles would actually get on the back of the sofa behind me with both his front paws on my shoulder and meow in my ear! All four of them would try to "hurd" us to bed so they could have the lights off! We didn't have cats, THEY had peoples!
The cats have no interest in the TV when it is on. I did show one of the cats part of a youtube cat video up close on a phone to the cat and the cat did seem to react a little to the cat in the video. It probably does depend on the cat, the show on the TV and how the cats have been taken care of. But leaving the TV on for extended periods with silly shows for the cats is probably just a waste of electricity in general. They usually just sleep anyways.
My cat shows no signs of being entertained by the tv. I typically leave my window open which I feel entertains her more than the tv ever will due to the birds in the trees.
My step-father used to turn on the radio when we would go out for the plants. Actually, I think he did it to discourage would-be burglars.
One time my first husband & I came over from work and the t.v. was on. We couldn't figure it out because we KNOW that we turned it off. We then realized that our cat walked on the coffee table and walked over the t.v. buttons and turn the t.v. himself.
One time, I was watching figure skating on my big console t.v. that I have had since the '80s. Oksana Baiul was doing a beautiful performance like she always does. My cat jumped off the couch and went up to the t.v. and was watching very intently. Once she was done, he no longer had interest. I think it was her costume that sparkled in the lights that had his attention.
We also had a cat try to get into a basketball game that was on and another who was trying to catch the stars as they went into the corner of the t.v. at the beginning of Star Trek.
I'm home every day and I never watch TV during the daytime but at night when hubs comes home if we watch any TV some of our cats do show interest in certain shows. Sports seems to interest them - particularly basketball - the movement back and forth across the screen interests them, during the Olympics they watched during ice skating (again movement across the screen), they watch baseball games, and sometimes nature programs with bugs or birds in them are very interesting. Who really knows what goes on inside those little minds. It's not all of them, not all the time, not at the same time, and not the same thing. I think it's another one of their evil little mind games they use to control us and make us worship them unconditionally....mwhaaaaaa!!!!!
My cats' tv is the window. I did get one of those DVDs one time, as a gift, so I put it in. The cats were interested in the noise that the birds made, but they didn't hang around. They chose to go look out the windows and get excited by real birds, instead.
However, I have come home to see my dogs watching tv. In fact, my girl hoodlum, I unfortunately found out one night while flipping through channels, loves that blonde girl hairdresser from...oh what was it called....Oh, Jerseyliscious. I'm not even kidding, but you have no idea how badly I wish I was.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Actually, I think he did it to discourage would-be burglars. 
