Animal Behaviour Experiment - CAT

[jamie_1002]

Hi

I have to do a series of experiments on my friend's pet cat. I have to design four individual experiments to demostrate the following reactions:

a) reaction to light
b) reaction to colour
c ) reaction to sound
d) reaction to smell

I'm not really sure how to conduct experiments to find these results.

Thank you very much.

[mith]

For light you could flash it, for sound you could use a blowhorn, for smell you could use catnip.

[James]

For colour, what is the cat's preferred colour bowl to approch and eat from

[Inuyasha]

Hey i'm slicing and dicing a cat in my Bio II class right now.

a) reaction to light
trying running a matched pair test, test ur cat's vision in the darkby throwing something at it. Note reaction speed, time, and any other vairable then repeat in the light. the cat I believe should have a faster reaction in the dark. Allow time for the cat's eyes to adjust though.
b) reaction to colour
easy, Put cat food in different colored bowls ( can be constructed from paper) and see what color the cat likes better. then take that bowl away and test until there is only one least liked bowl left.
c ) reaction to sound
Music, try different loudnesses, styles, ect. and see if the cat will move towards the music or away. Keep track of the speed too.
d) reaction to smell
Different odors, like music keep track of the speed she moves to and away from the odor.

[Inuyasha]

email me if u have any questions

[ScottishKevin]

This is really interesting. Good replies, too. I wouldn't have thought of things like this to experiment with. I would like to conduct an experiment like this on my own cat.

[Inuyasha]

well if u do post ur results it might surprise us. Different cats different results.

[ScottishKevin]

Okay. I'll carry out the experiment tomorrow. I reckon I'll have difficulty in doing smell etc.. but the colour shouldn't be too difficult.

[Inuyasha]

ok sounds good