Most people really like music, 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 found that cats do indeed have musical abilities. Only they do not respond to our kind of music, but 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 played them with music. Two classical pieces of music and two pieces of music especially for cats. The first classical piece of music is called “Elegie” by Gabriel Fauré and the second piece of music is called “Air from suite 3” by Bach. The compositions for the cats are called “Cosmo’s air” and “Rusty’s Ballad”. The cats did not respond to the classical pieces of music, but they did to their music. When the cat music was on, they gave the speaker cups and purr. This indicates that the cats had a strong preference for the music made especially for the cats.
Cat music
We listen to music made for our ears, so music that falls within our acoustic and vocal range. Our music must also have a speed that corresponds to our heart rate. The vocal range of animals is very different from ours, because the vocalizations are an octave higher in many animals. The heart rhythm 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 heart rate. Yet not all cats responded to this music. Young cats and old cats in particular responded to the music, so it was more difficult for the middle-aged cats to perceive this music. In the end they decided to sell the created music under the name “music for cats”, the songs are for sale for $ 1.99 each.
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 also differs, 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 to classical music and get busy with heavy metal. There were even dogs who reacted emotionally to our music. So dogs are more responsive to music for humans than cats.
Goldfish
Almost everyone expects goldfish to not 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 it was music by Bach and the other tank with fish got a treat when Stravinsky got up. Soon the fish noticed when they got a treat. The fish from the first tank immediately swam up when she heard a piece of music by Bach and they did nothing with a piece of music by Stravinsky. The second group of fish responded only to Stravinsky and not to Bach. So the fish can distinguish pieces of music, but according to the researchers they have no music preferences.
Conclusion
Finding the tune our pets love isn’t easy. Probably there will be more and more music for animals in the future, because people are always busy pleasing pets. Of course, we all want our pets to be happy. According to Deborah Wells, it is a good idea to play the 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 have been made for animals.
