LOS ANGELES — What do cats do when their owners are away? There was one way to find out — “cat cams.” Fifty house cats were given collar cameras that took a photo every 15 minutes.
Based on the photos, cats spent about 22 percent of their time looking out of windows, 12 percent interacting with other family pets and 8 percent climbing on chairs or kitty condos. Just 6 percent of their hours were spent sleeping.
“What surprised me was how active the cats were. I believed my three cats were sleeping during the day,” said Jill Villarreal, an animal-behavior scientist who collected the data for Nestle Purina PetCare’s Friskies cat food.
The 777 photos studied by Villarreal showed the cats looking at a TV, computer or other media 6 percent of the time and hiding under tables 6 percent of the time. Coming in at 5 percent was playing with toys; eating or looking at food finished at 4 percent.
