I just got into a mild argument with my office mate as to whether cats are color-blind or not.
He says they see in colors of grey.
I truly believe my cat knows the difference in colors. She will play with a pink and yellow cage ball (with a bell in the center), before she plays with the others. She also watches alot of TV. She enjoys hockey and baseball, I know alot of action, but I know she roots for the Angels.
My office mate is color-blind himself and I say he’s just jealous.
According to one of my textbooks, “…it is very difficult to teach cats to discriminate between colors, although they learn other visual discriminations with ease and have two types of cones that absorb green and blue.”
So I suppose the answer is yes, they can see (some) colors.
The book goes on to say that more studies have been done on dogs, who seem to view the world in shades of violet, blue, and yellow.
Thanks for the reply, it is nice to know what the scientific comunity says. I think though that by watching my cat (I know it was a non-scientific environment), I find she can discriminate yellow from purple and red from blue. I would like to hear from some cat owners who have observed the color responses from their cats.
I want to be able to print this out and go nah nah nah to the office mate as well as get that answer for my own knowledge.
From observing my five (yes, five) cats, I would say that none of them make any choices based on color. They are much more scent, shape, and texture oriented. I have seen my cats walk up to a pile of cat toys and sniff around for the one they want. Once cat prefers soft toys, another prefers hard plastic ones, and a third ignores all toys for a piece of crumpled paper.
I just saw something about this on TV not too long ago. I think it was a PBS show about animal perception and language - I’m not quite sure that’s where I saw it - but the conclusion it offered is that earlier research about color vision in pets was flawed. Now they say dogs can see some colors, like a person who is red/green color blind - and cats DO see in color, but it’s just “not very important” to them. Typical.
My dearly beloved cat Fluffy would go into my Barbie things when she was younger and steal the little hangers. For some reason, she ALWAYS went after the pink ones!
Lord, do I MISS that cat!
Cyndar, I know what you mean. Petite is very picky about her toys. She likes sounds like a bell as well as something she can carry in her mouth.
aseymayo, I would have liked to have seen that documentary it sounds interesting. That is what I get for working long hours, but will keep a look out for it. Yes, it is just like a cat. I think it is cute when Petite ignores me and walks away.
Ah, Guinastasia that is what I am talking about. Something that is identical and the only reason they pick it is color difference.