Pets And Music

Most people like music very much, because it makes them happy. Many cat owners turn on the radio for their cat when they go away, but do cats like that kind of music? Charles Snowdon, an animal psychologist discovered that cats do indeed have musical abilities. Only they don’t react to our kind of music, but they do react to music especially for cats. According to other studies, dogs and goldfish can also perceive music.

Research

Researchers investigated whether cats respond to music. They visited a total of 47 cats and they played music to them. Two classical pieces of music and two pieces of music especially for cats. The first classical piece is called “Elegie” by Gabriel Fauré and the second piece is called “Air from suite 3” by Bach.

Reading suggestions 200+ Unique Female Cat Names for Your Cute Companion

 The compositions for the cats are called “Cosmo’s air” and “Rusty’s Ballad”. The cats did not react to the classical music, but they did to their music. When the cat music was on, they cupped the speaker and they purred. This indicates that the cats had a strong preference for the music made especially for the cats.

cat music

We listen to music that is made for our ears, so music that falls within our acoustic and vocal range. Also, our music should have a speed that corresponds to our heartbeat. The vocal range of animals is very different from ours because the vocalizations in many animals are an octave higher.

Reading suggestions Depression In Cats: A Disorder To Be Treated Urgently

The heart rhythm also does not match at all and that is why our music is not interesting for animals at all. Charles Snowdon worked with a composer and they made music especially for cats. They examined the frequency range of these animals and matched the rhythm to their heartbeats. Still, not all cats responded to this music.

 Especially young cats and old cats reacted to the music, so it was more difficult for the middle-aged cats to perceive this music.

dog music

Making music for dogs is a lot more difficult than for cats. The size of cats differs less than the size of dogs. Small dogs have a faster heart rate than large dogs and the vocal range is also different, so with dog music not all types of dogs can hear the music.

Research by Deborah Wells, a psychologist, shows that some dogs respond to human music. The dogs relax with classical music and get busy with heavy metal. There were even dogs that reacted emotionally to our music. So dogs respond more to music for humans than cats.

Reading suggestions;Black Dog Names ; 400+ Names for Black Dogs

goldfish

Almost everyone expects goldfish not to respond to music, but a study shows that goldfish can distinguish between pieces of music. The researchers had two tanks of goldfish. In one tank the fish got a treat when Bach music was playing and the other fish tank got a treat when Stravinsky got up.

The fish soon realized when they were getting a treat. The fish from the first tank immediately swam up when they heard a piece of music by Bach and they did nothing with a piece of music by Stravinsky. The second group of fishes reacted only to Stravinsky and not to Bach. The fish can therefore distinguish pieces of music, but according to the researchers they have no music preferences.

Conclusion

So finding the tune our pets love is not easy. Probably there will be more and more music for animals in the future because people are always busy pleasing pets. We all want our pets to be happy. 

According to Deborah Wells, it’s a good idea to play music in shelters because it calms the animals. It seems that animals have to make do with the music preferences of their owners because only a limited number of music pieces for animals have been made.