{"id":4070,"date":"2021-12-21T06:56:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T12:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petpundit.com\/?p=4070"},"modified":"2021-12-21T06:56:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T12:56:09","slug":"understanding-your-cats-sound-world-music-hath-charms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/21\/understanding-your-cats-sound-world-music-hath-charms\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding your cat\u2019s sound world (Music hath charms…)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Cathy,<\/span><\/p>\n

I recently adopted two small kittens and am curious to know if keeping a clock ticking near where they sleep somehow imitates their mother\u2019s heartbeat and would make them feel more restful. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013 Mike, Garden City, New York<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Mike,<\/span><\/p>\n

What a thoughtful question. People don\u2019t often think about the sound world around their felines, and it\u2019s great you want to provide a calming environment for your kittens.<\/span><\/p>\n

To answer your question, I decided to reach out to Sound Behaviorist Janet Marlow, CEO of Pet Acoustics, a company that produces species-specific music to reduce pet stress. As a fifth-generation musician, Marlow grew up with pets and always noticed they would gather around whenever she played classical guitar. One day, when she took one of her cats to the vet\u2019s office, she was surprised there was no music playing to soothe the patients.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marlow has since spent the last 22 years conducting research and behavioral observations on the hearing of dogs, cats, birds and horses, and was the first to create species-specific music, which eliminates percussive sounds and high frequencies for animal listening. <\/span>According to Marlow, feline hearing is greater than the individual hearing of dogs, horses, and birds, and three times greater than human hearing. Since cats are more affected by the sounds around them than other pets, it would seem prudent for feline pet parents to provide a calming environment for their felines.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHearing is an overlooked cause of pet stress that can lead to illness and behavior problems,\u201d says Marlow. \u201cCats show stress differently than dogs. They have the same level of response to sound, but dogs respond emotionally by coming up to us and showing us their stress whereas cats move away from the noise and find a place to hide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So, to answer your question, the rhythmic ticking of the clock might soothe people, but it\u2019s a \u201cman-made percussive sound,\u201d says Marlow, that won\u2019t mask other noise or calm kitties. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnimals don\u2019t respond to human talk, like when we leave the television or radio on, which permeates a short-distance,\u201d says Marlow. \u201cMusic permeates the air, fills the space and masks out sounds that only cats can hear.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Marlow recommends pet parents pay attention to a cat\u2019s body language, specifically the direction and reaction of the ears, to see how they are reacting to their sound world. If they are twitching their ears all the time, they could be hearing things that are causing them stress, and music, it seems, is a better antidote for creating calm kitties.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on species-specific music, visit petacoustics.com<\/span><\/p>\n

Cathy M. Rosenthal is a longtime animal advocate, children’s author, syndicated pet columnist, and pet expert with more than 30 years in the animal welfare field. Send your pet questions, stories and tips to\u00a0cathy@petpundit.com<\/a>. Please include your name, city, and state. You can follow her @cathymrosenthal<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Cathy, I recently adopted two small kittens and am curious to know if keeping a clock ticking near where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}