Each breeder of furry pets has repeatedly noticed their genuine interest in boxes and bags. Often, cats are not interested in the contents, but in the packaging itself, which delights and takes all the attention. What may be the reason for such an interest, why cats love boxes and often use them for sleep, the material of this article will tell.
What is interesting about them?
Often, owners of cats are faced with the fact that pets remain indifferent to expensive couches and game complexes. It is difficult for the average person to understand how you can exchange a good thing for a simple and sometimes even boring subject. However, cats have their own opinions on this matter. Scientists have found that the animal can relate differently to boxes and packages. However, it rarely leaves such things unattended.
A simple packaging cat can find different uses. Today it is a means of outdoor activities, tomorrow it is a secluded place, during the day it can become material for research. The reason for the different interest may lie in the mood of the pet. That it is the factor that determines the purpose of the subject.
Moreover, cats are not just interested in boxes - they need them.
What do you like boxes?
A cardboard box in the eyes of a cat can become a shelter or an object for the game. Often, cat owners use this packaging to create large gaming complexes. However, the cat does not have to have the box lined with warm material. If she likes her, this will be her favorite subject, taking up a lot of free time.
The smell of childhood
Someone believes that the reason for interest may lie in the relationship of cardboard with wood. It is likely that the cat smells the native smell of wildlife. However, a more believable version is her childhood memory: being a kitten, she was with her mother in a cozy box. Therefore, it can remember the smell.
If an animal climbs into a box and, purring, tugs at its litter for a long time, fingering it with its paws, it is. This instinct in cats has been developed since childhood. This behavior is characteristic of small kittens falling asleep near a cat. This is a reassurance, a feeling of protection and absolute peace, this is what the cat has been looking for all his life. Some cats behave about the same way in bed before going to bed.
Social factor
In addition, the box can become a kind of cocoon that protects the cat from stress. This fact is indicated by studies of scientists working with domestic cats in shelters. A cat without shelter feels unprotected, it is subject to stress and has poor contact with people.
The behavioral strategy of harboring helps the animal to hide from what it may fear.
If the pet does not have its place, it is likely that the box will perform this function. Other cats occasionally use boxes as a social barrier. Hiding in it, they feel protected from reprimands from the owner, screaming or noise. These situations are rare, only in the absence of another secluded place the cat will hide in a box.
Toy box
The look of an active cat rarely misses small boxes, mail boxes. Small objects become antistress toys, large ones become shelters in which you can hide, tracking down prey. Funny pets believe that they are not visible in the boxes. They get tremendous discharge during the game, scratching, biting, or throwing objects from place to place.
Cats often spend a lot of energy cracking boxes. Such activity is necessary to waste excess energy, after which the pets are tuned in for a sweet dream.
Individual individuals manage to poke their faces into narrow boxes, and this does not bother them at all. In their games, they rarely set themselves any framework.
Cardboard is used for the manufacture of scratching posts. He does not injure the animal when he wants to scratch his claws, and allows him to “come off” in a rush of active games. Other individuals flirt to the point that they tear holes in the boxes, biting paper with pleasure. They are sensitive to rustling sounds and enjoy creating them themselves by scratching and biting cardboard boxes.
Physiology
Cats are considered animals that adore various burrows. They like to guard the prey, sitting in an ambush, and therefore often even hide in a closet or curbstones. Animals are very quick-witted, they can watch or track something for a long time, and some, on the contrary, completely relax to the point that they fall asleep, being in a secluded place. The conclusion about craving for various holes was made by scientists a long time ago, while studies were conducted on the basis of the habits of many animals.
Pets adore boxes, from which the owners make improvised houses, carving round entrances to the "holes". If at the same time to connect a couple of objects with a common hole, such a toy will be rated better than an expensive sunbed. The cat will be inside its labyrinth, being fully confident that it is invisible, and also using boxes as personal space.
In general, the craving for boxes and packages is explained by vibrissae. Tactile touching objects (especially rustling) attract cats. Thanks to the mustache, they get information about things, but not every subject lends itself to rapid study. Cats gnaw boxes only when they are examined by vibrissae, receiving information that objects are inanimate (animals do not eat anything alive, even mice are initially killed so that they can not bite them at a meal).
The rustling like cats, it is vaguely reminiscent of the vibration from the mouse paws entering the brain through a mustache. It is for this reason that they touch packages and boxes with vibrissa. In addition, each type of mustache gives its own assessment of a certain thing. Vibrissa on its paws can evaluate the box as an object from childhood, those located on the muzzle may indicate that this product is for playing.
Other hairs will suggest that the box can be perceived as a sunbed.
Alternative to a plank bed
A cat, accustomed to its place from its young claws, very quickly realizes that it is a corner in which no one will touch it. Besides the fact that sometimes she needs personal space, she may just like a new impromptu “house”. There are times when two cats living together share a similar “house” among themselves.
And here, if there is no friendship, a joke or simple curiosity can develop into rivalry. As a result, the conquered box-toy becomes a principle bed. If desired, the box can be gnawed and used as a scratching post. What dictates the mood at the moment, that will be the box, and the cat rarely thinks about its safety (according to the principle "my box, I want to do what I do").
Why bite packages?
Plastic packaging attracts pets no less than cardboard. There are times when a pet is furiously tearing a plastic bag with its teeth. This does not mean that he lacks any substances or that he is sick. Not at all: in case of illness, vitamin deficiency or poor health, the cat’s package is not interesting. The animal entertains itself in such a way, because, you see, often the owner pays too little attention to it.
The cat begins its game with rustling and often with a tossing package. Entertaining herself, she can succumb to her predatory instincts, like those when she plays with the mouse. Other individuals like how claws dig into polyethylene. If the cat gnaws at it or even eats a bag, most likely there was something edible in it, from which there remained an alluring smell for it. For the same reason, the cat licks packages.
Why play with cellophane?
By nature, cats are extremely curious and interested in everything. They like the rustling sound, some members of the family like to examine every package they see in the house. They can crawl into them, sit for a long time inside and be genuinely offended when they scold them for it. Feline nature is such that furry pets look at everything in their own way. Sometimes breeders jokingly note that their pets were born in packages - that is how much they attract them. Moreover, cats sometimes not only play with packages, but even climb to sleep in them.
Plastic bags are different from the usual toys. During the game, they not only rustle, but also magnetize the wool in contact with it. Cats love everything unusual, giving free rein to instincts. In addition, the sound of a rustling packet in them may be associated with a call to hunt.
Being in a playful state, the cat can play along with itself, throwing up a packet or trying to touch it as often as possible in order to hear interesting rustling again and again.
Pets and paper bags love. They gladly climb into them, like in boxes. When examining this subject, they do not forget to note for themselves what was in it. If there was something tasty in it, the pet can distract from the game and look for the source of the smell. However, the cat often quickly switches to the game again, because it is characterized by a quick change of mood.
Sometimes a pack becomes an impromptu refuge during the game. The cat is sure that he has safely hidden and is invisible to the owner. At the most appropriate moment, he goes on the attack, sticking out a fluffy paw from the bag and tenaciously grabbing the "booty". From packages good toys-bows are obtained, which are liked by both kittens and adult cats. However, during the game, you need to monitor the animal so that in its curiosity it does not go too far. Do not allow pieces of a bag or box to fall into the stomach of a nimble hunter.
Video answer to the question why cats like boxes, see below.
