How do cats keep time?

[Pico and ME]

Its amazing. A while back, I started feeding my cat a quarter cup of food every six hours or so. My husband feeds him before he goes to work - usually 6am, and then I feed him at noon, six and before I go to bed. Every day around noontime, Turbo wakes from his nap to bother me for his feeding. He is always on time, and its the same for his evening feeding as well. How does he do it?

[Shawnee123]

They have nothing better to do all day than watch the clock.

[Stormieweather]

My cat is always patiently waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me when I come down every morning. I come down to feed her and the dog at 7:00 am. As soon as she sees me, she runs to her bowl and starts bitching meowing. When I sleep in, she climbs a couple of stairs so she can get a better view of the hallway from my bedroom and complains loudly. As soon as the puppy sees her run to her bowl, he knows I'm on my way, so he starts jumping and barking at the baby puppy gate. It's hilarious.

[Lamplighter]

It's the tides... felines don't like to get their feet wet, but they have an appetite
for stranded fish, so they evolved that way.

[footfootfoot]

Pico, I'll bet you have the same ability but don't realize it because you have access to clocks. If you were to live without clocks for a while you would quickly find that you have a internal clock that is surprisingly accurate.

[Spexxvet]

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Pico, I'll bet you have the same ability but don't realize it because you have access to clocks. If you were to live without clocks for a while you would quickly find that you have a internal clock that is surprisingly accurate.

It can be honed, too. My dad hasn't used an alarm clock in 30 years. He just makes a mental note of what time he needs to wake up, and no matter how tired he is, he wakes up right at that time. (He didn't just decide to do this one day, but over time he realized he was usually waking up on his own and looking over at the clock 30 seconds before it went off. The habit became so reliable that he stopped setting it.) He says the only time it doesn't work is if he goes to bed drunk.

[Shawnee123]

Gaines is a gawdsend some mornings, when I accidentally oversnooze my clock. He wants fed and he wants fed NOW, 6:30 a.m. PROMPT. Little effer has got me to work on time more than once.

[glatt]

Friday night is date night. I drink a glass or two of wine with my wife, and we share a pizza.

Every Saturday morning, without fail, I wake up an hour earlier than I do during the week. And I don't want to. It's really annoying. I don't understand it. I can't get back to sleep, but I don't want to get up, so I just lie there.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

It's the tides... felines don't like to get their feet wet, but they have an appetite
for stranded fish, so they evolved that way.

Then how did dogs get the same internal clock?

[Shawnee123]

Cats keep time using a Meowtronome.

[Sundae]

Cats are known for having a good sense of time.
Diz is always waiting for me when I come home from school. And I mean waiting - Mum will say, "He came down 5 minutes ago, caem into the room to see if you were here and has been on the stairs ever since." Given that my arrival time depends on a number of factors, he's still got it down to approx 15 minutes.

He also starts badgering me from 16.20 onwards, for his fresh meat.
He doesn't always eat it all at once, and always has access to dried food, so I know it's just routine. I try to hold out until the time I have set - 16.30. But if I'm on the PC it's pretty hard to ignore him. Cat on lap, on shoulder, in front of monitor, trying to step on keyboard, switching on priter with his feet - aaaargh!

But I agree that humans have the same ability. I wake up at 07.30 when I need to be at school, and when I'm doing it regularly I'll wake up at this time every day (give or take 15 minutes) - if it's not a school day I turn over and go back to sleep. Over the Christmas break I woke between 09.00-09.15 every day, which is the earliest I can get up and not feel like I'm in my parents' way.

[monster]

You know the whole daylight savings time thing was a lie -cat-haters invented the time change just to confuse the little buggers.

Shawnee: ow, that hurt

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by monster

You know the whole daylight savings time thing was a lie -cat-haters invented the time change just to confuse the little buggers.

Shawnee: ow, that hurt

HAhahahaha...that's cause I'm a slapper. There's a song after me:

Slap-a-slap-a-slap
They call her the slapper
Slap, slap, slap you know what she's after

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by glatt

Friday night is date night. I drink a glass or two of wine with my wife, and we share a pizza.

Every Saturday morning, without fail, I wake up an hour earlier than I do during the week. And I don't want to. It's really annoying. I don't understand it. I can't get back to sleep, but I don't want to get up, so I just lie there.

Alcohol consumption reduces REM sleep. Your deep sleep is diminished. You may wake from light sleep more easily; but, you'll feel like you haven't had a good night's rest.

That's why it's not a good idea to give dogs or cats alcoholic beverages to get them to sleep at night. They'll be cranky in the morning.