cat interference

I tried that cat game. Thank the Big Guy upstairs I'm a terrible shot. I think they should substitute something evil like roaches or something we'd be justified to kill. Ah, but what do I know, I just dislike bugs.

(Notes from a cat lover. ;) See avatar. ;) )

Cats are really complex animals. Which means you may be actually dealing with several problems at the same time. ;)

1. Your cat wants attention. You are giving it to the guitar. You are holding it, and stroking it for 2 or 3 hours at a time.

Cats hate being ignored. They want to be given the choice to ignore you.

2. His behaviour works. You stop playing when he "complains" about your guitar music. This creates a Pavlovian association in his brain:

Screeching Sound --> I Behave this way --> Screeching Stops. Go me.

3. Cats hear frequencies you can't hear. What sounds like music to you may sound like torture to your cat.

(On the other hand, when the neighbour's cat "sings" at 3 am, it sounds like torture to you. ;) )

My cat, for example, couldn't bear it when I played one of Karajan's Neujahrskonzert recordings. There was something there he could hear and I couldn't - he'd flee the room.

4. A guitar has a long "handle". Some abused cats are notoriously skittish about anything which looks vaguely menacing and stick-like. Brooms. Vaccum cleaner handles. Umbrellas.

Your cat could be extending this fear to the fretboard.

As you can see, if it's a case of 1. or 2. you can change his behaviour with a little knowledge of animal psychology.

You can give him special food treats and special petting sessions when you pick up the guitar (without playing), so that he starts to associate the guitar with pleasure.

(This could take a couple of weeks of daily work.)

When he does, you introduce strumming or picking, keeping up the positive reinforcement (giving him a favourite toy, some kibble, giving him a lot of attention).

Also, you can't stop playing just because he "complains". He must know that behaving badly will not get you to put down the guitar.

You then gradually work your way into "louder" pieces, always reinforcing the idea of guitar=pleasure.

Cases 3. and 4. are more complicated, and you have a much smaller chance of obtaining a resolution. (I'm fighting the urge to make a pun about cadences, but I won't.)

If he's naturally afraid of agressive-looking objects, it might be a bit too late to change it (a cat's brain is fully developped at 8 weeks and there are some things you can't change beyond that point). Still, the positive-reinforcement "Guitar = Toys, Petting and Yummies" might work to a certain degree. You won't know until you've tried.

If you're really Really pacient, you might want to test your guitar out note by note (softly) and start to see where your cat reacts, to prove or disprove whether he is dirturbed by certain frequencies.

If he is, the only solution seems to be using headphones on an electric.

Hope it works out for you and kitty. :D

Cats hate being ignored. They want to be given the choice to ignore you.

:roll: I always thought cats were like women......Now I know I'm right!!! :shock:

Cats hate being ignored. They want to be given the choice to ignore you.

:roll: I always thought cats were like women......Now I know I'm right!!! :shock:

I can't even type. I had to go back twice to correct my mis-typed stuff because I'm laughing so hard. I can't stop laughing because I can relate. Best laugh I've had all day.... :D :lol:

Kitty has definitely taken the " this place aint big enough for the two of us" stance. As soon as she sees me reach for the neck of the guitar she's off like a shot to the other room. So as far as 'positive association' with the music - she won't let me get that far. It's the physical grabbing of the guitar that sends her running. And she is too smart and feisty to fall for a 'treat' or 'bribe'. I'm considering trying 'the old blindfold trick'. I recall one rare time when she was sleeping and didn't notice me picking up the guitar. I didn't realize she was still there until I looked over and saw that she was sleeping beside me. So anything's possible with an old cat - about 7 years. By now it's mostly me coping with her dislike of the guitar that I'm concerned about. Perhaps if I could re-shape and paint the guitar to look like a big bird. She loves the pigeons on the window ledge.

When it turns spring, hang a hummingbird feeder out and try it yourself. They're very territorial little critters, aggressively defensive of their turf, curious, and fearless. They buzz me whenever I get close to the feeder. I think they have a "WTF?" attitude about the slide reso. Would love to get a picture!

she was sleeping and didn't notice me picking up the guitar. I didn't realize she was still there until I looked over and saw that she was sleeping

:D That's great, since it means the problem is not the frequencies being produced by your guitar.

;) Which also means that it's down to which of you two is stubborner ;).

*CUE "High Noon" music*

she is too smart and feisty to fall for a 'treat' or 'bribe'.

Don't worry about that. Pavlovian associations have nothing to do with "smartness". :)

(In fact, you use them every day when you raise your child or your teenager. And they're smart. ;) Though sometimes they desguise it well...)

It's not a "bribe", and it doesn't work as such. (You don't expect the treat to bring the cat to the guitar.)

It's actually a long process that requires serious effort and really serious repetition. You're tricking the brain into establishing subconscious associations, even if the conscious brain is thinking the opposite.

What you want to do is associate subconsciously a very negative thing (guitar) with a very positive thing (food). And when food is concerned, the biological instinct comes first.

(Is your cat hungry when he kills house flies? Nope, he doesn't even eat them. But the biological instinct to hunt for food is just too strong. This instict is what animal behaviourists - and animal trainers - bank on.)

Know how your cat knows the sound of the catfood tin? He doesn't know that a tin has food inside it being preserved and a little lever you pull to open it. He just knows that following a "ksskishh" sound, food materializes in a can where there was no food before.

Where this process fails is that it takes a lot of effort on the owner's part. You must keep it at it every day, several times a day, for a reasonable length of time, for two or three weeks before you see any result. Owners usually give up before the cat's subconscious brain has established any associations. :P

But if the imcompatibility between your cat and your guitar is something which really worries you (and I'm sure it is, since you started this thread), then it really is worth giving it a try.

(If you're in the UK, for example, the RSPCA can put you in touch with animal behaviourists who will help you train your pet.)

:D After all, you don't want to deprive yourself of the pleasure of one day finding yourself playing your guitar with your cat purring at your feet. :D

Thanks Martha for your wise counselling. It will definitely take alot of patience. Kitty doesn't eat anything but dry food. I haven't found any treats that she likes so far except maybe a bit of tuna or salmon. Surprisingly she tries to get at the chocolate donuts at tea time. But I know chocolate can't be very good for her. She loves birds so if the music I make were authentic sounding bird calls perhaps she'd play a larger part in the musical process. I pulled out the violin and she stared hard at it and me but didn't run. The violin is less threatening but it's not my primary instrument. Perhaps I'm expecting too much from kitty. If she doesn't like guitar she doesn't like guitar. It's bigger and more menacing. She has such an attachment to the guitar case.

Surprisingly she tries to get at the chocolate donuts at tea time. But I know chocolate can't be very good for her.

Chocolate is definitely not good for her. Neither is cheese or cow's milk.

We need more advocates for the doping-international exile-dont worry about it dyphenhydramine operation.

We'll take a majority vote. And as in any democratic process my vote counts as roughly 412,600.

All opposed? Say... nay.

All in Favor....

Kido

If she doesnt like it, she wont use it for a claw sharpner. I would hate to see a good guitar go to waste for a furball.

Chocolate is definitely not good for her. Neither is cheese or cow's milk.

I heard that cheese is cat drugs, I may be wrong, but isnt it like LSD for cats? She may end up being one creative kitty.

The stuff about how bad cow's milk is for cats is definitely exaggerated. I've had lots of cats for 48 years, and mine both love it and tolerate it just fine. No ill effects from it that I can observe. As for the "drug effect" of cheese or milk, they certainly get ecstatically happy when they get some!
:lol:

Chocolate is definitely not good for her. Neither is cheese or cow's milk.

I heard that cheese is cat drugs, I may be wrong, but isnt it like LSD for cats? She may end up being one creative kitty.

No, it's not cat drugs. It can actually give her intestinal parasites. They are in all cheeses but have no effect on humans, but will attack a poor little kitty's intestinal tract and cause diarrhea (always fun indoors :( ), which can cause the cat to become quickly and dangerously dehydrated. And that's not even mentioning the cramps and pain the poor thing could be experiencing along with the diarrhea and dehydration. So, basically, anything made with cow's milk is not good for cats. You can give her powdered milk, or the evaporated milks that come in cans (not condensed milk, though) or soy milks and soy cheeses. Just nothing from a cow's udders.

Before anyone starts freaking about about consuming "parasites" in dairy, it's not about "parasites" at all. ;)

It's about Lactose - which is a sugar present in milk ("Lacto"=milk "Ose"=sugar).

To break down Lactose (Ose) we need Lactase (Ase), an enzyme. If the enzyme isn't present, Lactose isn't broken down into simple sugars. The concentration of Lactose "calls" water into the interior of the intestine by osmosis. What results is diarrhoea.

(This is the same reason some people are milk-intolerant. They lack Lactase to break down lactose.)

Cat's milk and Cow's milk (and any other specie's milk) is different in composition. (For example, seal's milk is unbelievably fatty to help the pup build blubber.) But this isn't the main reason why some cats can't handle Lactose.

The reason is the simple fact that nature doesn't waste - what point is there in producing Lactase past weaning-age if you're a carnivore and (in the wild) would spend the rest of your life consuming lactose-free meat?

So felines simply stop producing lactase upon reaching maturity.

Cheese (yoghurt, and so on) is safe because as Lactobacillus convert milk to other dairy products, Lactose is consumed during the fermentation process.

Why do some cats go bonkers over cheese? Why do some ignore it? Nobody really knows, but it has to do with smell. (A scent molecule which might resemble pheromones and - thus - trigger the activity of the sexual centers in the limbic areas of the brain.)