To a cat, a toy that rolls silently makes no sense: the Takagi experiment
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
We usually pick a toy by eye: bright colour, mouse shape, feathers. Cats work another channel first. Takagi, Arahori, Chijiiwa, Tsuzuki, Hataji and Fujita filmed 30 pet cats in an expectancy-violation experiment published in 2016 in Animal Cognition, under a title that says it all: "there's no ball without noise" (see the study). Our other enrichment ideas sit in the cat toys and enrichment section.
Contents · 4 sections
The protocol: shake, invert, watch the gaze
The design crosses two variables. An opaque container is shaken in front of the cat, with or without the rattle of balls inside; it is then turned over, and an object either falls out or does not. Half the trials are therefore congruent — noise then object, silence then nothing — and half incongruent. The measure is how long the cat stares at the container. The result: cats looked longer at containers shaken with noise, and longer still when sound and object failed to match. They had formed an expectation from sound alone, and their surprise shows when it is violated.
An ear built for it
The finding rests on exceptional hearing. Heffner and Heffner established in 1985 in Hearing Research that cats hear from 48 Hz to 85 kHz, one of the widest ranges among mammals (see the study). That reach into ultrasound matches the calls and rustling of small rodents. A crinkling plastic bag, scratching inside a cardboard box, the metallic ring of a bell all fall in a band where cats detect, locate and predict — long before seeing anything.
What this changes, and what it does not say
One essential caveat: the study measures a gaze, not play. It does not show that cats prefer noisy toys, nor that they tire of them less. What it establishes is that sound carries usable information and triggers orientation. In practice, that argues for objects which make a noise as they move — a bell ball, crinkly paper, a seed-filled toy — and above all for partly hiding the toy, under a rug, inside a tube or behind furniture, so that sound comes before sight. That is exactly the sequence wand games exploit, as detailed in our guide to the wand and feather toy. And if interest still fades, the cause lies elsewhere: see why cats lose interest in toys so fast.
- 30 cats filmed in a crossed design, sound present or absent × object present or absent.
- Longer gaze at noisy containers, and longer still in the incongruent condition.
- 48 Hz to 85 kHz: the hearing range of the domestic cat.
- No data on play duration: the measure covers visual attention, not enjoyment.
Keep the counter-intuitive rule: a silent toy asks the cat to see it before caring about it, while a noisy one gives it a reason to go looking where it cannot see.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my cat run to the sound of a bag or crinkled paper?
Because that kind of noise falls within the frequency band of small rodents and is enough for the cat to infer an object, without needing to see it.
Are bell toys better than silent ones?
Nothing proves it directly. The study only shows sound triggers attention, which argues for using it to start a play sequence rather than running it constantly.
Are ultrasonic toys of any use?
Cats hear up to 85 kHz, so they do perceive those emissions. No study, however, shows that an ultrasonic signal alone, with nothing to catch, sustains lasting play.
In our shop, for this use: Automatic tail ball for cats (€17.90) · the whole shop
For the gear, at Le Félin (same family, zero commission): Arbre à chat design cactus (from €99.99)
This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Cats universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.