Your cat suddenly wants to eat from the floor and is therefore retrieving food from the bowl? And you now find this mess every day? Then it's probably due to severe whisker stress. For most cats, excessive whisker stimulation is extremely unpleasant.
The whiskers on your cat's face are extremely sensitive sensory organs. Cats use them to gather a wide range of information about their immediate surroundings.
The cat's whiskers (the so-called macrovibrissa) are made of keratin, the same substance that our hair is made of. Just like your hair, cat whiskers themselves have no feeling. Nevertheless, they constantly transmit an enormous amount of sensory information.
Each individual whisker follicle (hair follicles are the structures that surround the hair root and anchor the hair in the skin) of a cat can be connected to up to 200 neurons, and over-stimulation of the whiskers, or 'whisker fatigue' or 'whisker stress', is therefore a real problem. Since the transmission of information through the whiskers occurs continuously, it is only logical that excessive strain can lead to fatigue.
But what exactly is whisker fatigue or whisker stress?
Whisker stress refers to excessive sensitivity of the whiskers when they are stimulated – that is, when they come into contact with something. This is extremely unpleasant for cats. Simply imagine whisker fatigue or whisker stress as an information overload that really stresses your cat. Cat whiskers are so sensitive that they can detect even subtle changes in movement and pressure.
Whisker fatigue is caused by constant, repetitive pressure on the whiskers. The constant firing of neurons overstimulates your cat. The main cause of this is unsuitable food and water bowls, namely those that are narrow and have high – perhaps even vertical – rims/side walls. You can imagine that since cats' whiskers are such sensitive tactile organs, tons of messages are sent to the brain every time they come into contact with the rim/side wall of the bowl.
This enormous flood of information can cause your cat considerable stress and eventually lead to whisker fatigue or whisker stress.
You might be wondering if cats aren't constantly bumping or touching something with their whiskers? The surprising but simple answer is: No. Because they sense changing air currents around objects, touching them isn't even necessary for the cat to notice that something is there. And that in complete darkness. Even when cats intentionally rub their cheeks against something to mark with their scent, or when grooming themselves, their whiskers are folded away.
But as I said, there is one situation where whiskers constantly or frequently bump into something, and that's when eating from a bowl that's too narrow and has a steep rim/side wall that is too high. In any case, it's extremely unpleasant for the vast majority of cats.
