A study published in the Applied Animal Behaviour Journal verified that domestic cats (felis catus) show a significant preference and interest in ‘species-specific’ tunes with frequencies and tempos that mimic the sounds of purring and birds. This means that leaving the radio on when you leave the house may not be having the effect on your cat that you intend it to… Can you imagine the Breeze FM all day? For music to be positively enriching for our cats, it must be composed for them as an individual species. 

Luckily for us (and our cats), composer and researcher David Teie has gleaned that every species has an intuitive response to sounds based on their neural development and their own specific vocalisations. Take for example, the common ‘pulse’ found in human music, not unlike the pulse of the mother’s heartbeat a human baby hears while in the womb for approximately four months, whilst their brains are developing. Comparatively, a cat’s brain, on the other hand is only 1/8 of its size at birth as it will be at 10 weeks, so the queen’s (mother cat) heartbeat is not picked up in the same manner.

The research team from the study above found that the song ‘Cosmo’s Air’ that was composed by Teie, ‘has a pulse related to purring of 1380 beats per minute’ and included sounds that cats routinely use in their vocalisations. In the study, most of the 47 cats tested appeared to prefer these sounds to classical human music, which was previously thought to be the ideal music to play for cats.

Research has also shown that cat-specific music can be utalised to help reduce stress levels in cats under duress, such as in a veterinary clinic setting. A study of interest regarding this was published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, where the authors concluded that cat-specific music can benefit cats by lowering stress levels and when integrated into clinical practice, can increase the quality of overall care in clinical settings.

So what does this mean for our own cats at home? Like any form of new enrichment, introducing it slowly while monitoring their response is crucial to ensure we are providing a positive experience. In the rare event your cat appears distressed, turn it off and try a different track on another day. In the Veterinary clinic or cattery setting, cat music can be used in conjunction with other low-stress methods and protocols to help reduce stress in cats who are hospitalised, or who are staying while their owners are away.

Cat music can be found on multiple music streaming applications such as Spotify, online via David Teie’s website (CDs can also be purchased if you are of the inclination), or on YouTube. I love to play this music on a low volume during predictably stressful times such as car rides or when the neighbour is letting fireworks off.

​