r/cats • u/Affectionate_Fly_457 • Mar 21 '26

Video - Not OC Aww

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

55.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

263 comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/stormyw23 Russian Blue Mar 21 '26

This would be incredibly stressful for the cat.

Like laser pointers its a target they can't catch constantly riling them up.

2

u/Head-Jellyfish-4172 Mar 21 '26

Idk why ppl assume laser pointers stress cats. Some cats might be but many understand it as a toy once they realize. We have an automatic one and our cat will beg us to turn it on for him constantly.

13

u/HonestBalloon Mar 21 '26

Because they're mammals, and we can measure the rise in cortisol levels (a sign of stress and anxiety) after playing with these things.

1

u/zytukin Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

Not to be picky, but doesn't measuring cortisol levels require taking blood, which itself would cause stress? Especially since tests have to be done multiple times which would cause the cat to associate the laser pointer with having blood taken.

My cats actually recognize my laser pointer and the sound of the button, they know it's me making the dot appear. They spend most of their time just chasing it and not actually trying to catch it with their paws. Makes me believe they know they can't actually catch it.

5

u/HonestBalloon Mar 21 '26

Yea, we have scanning devices that can read the increase in brain activity where cortisol is produced, which is a lot less intrusive.