In the case of pet cats, all toys in the world can not be compared to a single cardboard box.
But why are our feline friends so attracted to containers and other sealed items, like bins, laundry baskets, suitcases, and wallets?
Searching for confined spaces is an instinctive activity for cats, these areas allow the animals to hide from predators and susceptibly stalk prey.
“Cats like boxes because they are elusive animals; they like to hide,” says Stephen Zawistowski, science advisor to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, “And a box gives them a place of protection.point 396 |
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It was theorized that cats in boxes felt so happy because they reduce stress.
In 2014, Utrecht University researchers decided to test this theory by carrying out a study.
What they found won’t surprise you — lying in boxes actually lowers the stress levels of cats.
In a Dutch shelter, the researchers conducted a study involving 19 shelter animals, 10 of whom had a box with them.
According to the scientists who conducted this study, Stressful interactions can have a major impact on the health of cats and can lead to increased incidences of infectious diseases in shelters due to increased levels of cortisol causing immunodeficiency.
While several experiments in combined studies indicated a preference for hiding places and stress-reducing effects of hiding boxes on cats, none of these studies determined whether proper hiding enrichment would be useful in a quarantine cattery.
They instantly noticed a difference between the community of cats with a box and those without a box.
To determine the level of cat stress, the Kessler and Turner Cat-Stress Score (CSS) was used.
The test was conducted again in which, the cats with a box showed a lower stress rate than a group of unboxed cats.
A few weeks later, both groups had the same CSS as recorded by the test.
The scientists opined at the end that The hiding box seems to be a significant enrichment for the cat to manage stressors efficiently in a new shelter setting the first weeks after arrival.
As said by those worthy scientists “More research is required to determine the effect of the hiding box on house cats, its long-term effects and its association with infectious disease outbreak rates”.
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