Turns out quick-thinking cats may actually prefer high end flat screens. According to an Auckland, New Zealand veterinarian, pusses prefer watching prime time on fancy 100Hz LCD screens that have a faster frame-per-second rate. "Cats process visual information much faster than the rest of us," Dr. Alex Melrose writes. "And to their eyes, our standard 50Hz television sets will usually appear to be projecting a mind-numbing, garbled flicker."
Despite a popular myth, dogs and cats do see color -- just not as much as humans can. Dogs can pick out the color blue, but "red, green and yellow all appear similar." Cats can detect a fuller range of colors in the blue, green and yellow spectrum, says Dr. Melrose, but see very little reds.
If you recall from biology class, the human eye has light-sensitive cells called "rods" that help us see in dim lighting and "cones" that enable us to see color and detect fine detail. Dogs only have two types of cones at the backs of their eyes, while humans have three types of cones that are packed at 10 times the density at the back of our retinas -- hence our ability to enjoy the rainbow of colors.
How else do our pets see differently than we do?
Night vision. Dogs and cats see much better at night than we can because they have more rods at the back of their eyes than we do. Plus, they have a reflective layer called a "tapetum" that increases the light hitting their retinas (and makes their eyes appear to glow in the dark). Cats, whose vertical, elliptical-shaped pupils react much faster, can see even better at night than dogs and humans.
Focus. Because we have more cones in our eyes, we can focus sharply on objects at further distances than dogs can. This means objects that dogs can distinguish clearly from 20 feet away, humans can see from 90 feet away. Cats see similar definition in objects as humans. Dogs and cats are far superior to humans, however, in detecting movement.
Distance. Dogs can't judge distances as well as people can, but canines have much better peripheral vision due to their eyes being located on the sides of their head. (A dog's visual field is 240 degrees, compared to a human's at only 200 degrees.)
Depth perception. Not surprisingly, cats have better depth judgment in the near-sighted range than we do. (All the better to pounce on those pesky little mice, no doubt.)
Now that you know how dogs and cats see differently than we do, what can you do to enhance your pet's television-watching experience? "Turn the brightness [on the tv] down," says Dr. Melrose. "And pick out shows with lots of fast-moving action scenes where everyone's wearing lots of blue stripes." A snack or two probably wouldn't hurt either!
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Our two cats are fascinated watching the Dog Whisperer.
Wonder if they're thinking of eating those dogs?
Or maybe they're just disgusted with the doggy behavior and wait for Cesar to tame them?
One of my kitties LOVES to watch his "kittyvid"--some "Video Catnip" VCR tape we picked up at a yard sale. He will sit right in front of the TV, mesmerized, and sometimes paw at a favored bird or mouse image. Another kitty we had loved to watch it with him. But the other cats (three of them)? They don't even respond. They ignore the TV whether it's on or off. Maybe it's something in a particular cat's eyes--the one who loves it and his late buddy both were cream tabbies. The video-resistant cats are/have been: tuxedo (black and white), gray tabby, orange (but not as light as the cream boys) tabby, siamese and russian blue. And for those of you who are wondering--no, we do not "go through" cats. Half of them are neighborhood cats who come to our house to visit and play with the resident cats, visit us (the resident humans), cadge snacks and hang out in our cat-friendly garden.