Something every cat owner experiences is when they spend £100's on that huge new fancy cat tree only for the cat to totally ignore it and spend endless hours playing in the box it came in, much to the slight annoyance of the owner (we still love them loads regardless!), however new research by a team of veterinary scientists from the university of Utrecht titled 'Will a hiding box provide stress reduction for shelter cats?' has showed that boxes do aid in providing a comforting, stress relieving area for cats.
The research was aimed at aiding with shelter cats (Felis sylvestris catus) whom dependent on personality type, can experience high levels of stress within a shelter environment which, can lead to not only mental issues but health issues as well. The scientists divided a group of shelter cats into a group that had access to a box and those that did not, observing their behavior over a period of two weeks; behavior was measured using the Kessler and Turner cat stress score as shown below.
By the third day of observation the cats which had been provided with boxes had lower stress scores than those without though, it was observed that some probably those with a more stronger personality, were not affected by not having access to a box but those that were, showed higher levels of stress which gradually reduced over time to the same as the box access cats by day fourteen.
The sample size of nineteen cats used is classed as small by most scientific standards but the paper still concluded that access to boxes provides a higher level of enrichment for the cats during the first weeks of shelter life, aiding with coping strategies thus reducing levels of stress and that further research will hopefully build upon this conclusion.
Why cats appear to love boxes so much is still a mater up for scientific debate, some suggestions include: that they like the warmth and allows a solitary species an area to hide away from social interactions however, I like to think as a cat owner myself, that it holds a attraction similar to that with young children; a box can be so many amazing things to a cat, a fort to conquer and defend vigorously from fellow cats and humans with a few well placed swipes at unsuspecting feet and hands, a place to hide from all of life's many annoyances, or maybe a object to pounce on and destroy till only scattered fragments remain and finally a lovely cosy place to snuggle up and catch some shut eye after a hard day of doing cat things.
Courtesy of Maru the cat :)
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