If you’ve ever purchased an expensive, bespoke toy for your feline friend, then watched them ignore said purchase in favor of the cardboard container it arrived in, you will know this universal truth: cats love boxes.
Why have cats evolved this fascination with enclosed spaces, one that seems as distinct as their fear of cucumbers or their fondness for biscuit-making? We turned to a pawful of cat experts to find out more.
How cats use boxes when hunting
Despite differing personalities and energy levels, all cats can get something out of a well-placed box, says Mikel Delgado, a feline behavior consultant with Ease Pet Vet and a senior research scientist at Purdue University.
One crucial benefit relates to their hunting instincts. Cats that roam free outside occupy a delicate midpoint in the neighborhood food chain, where they are both predator and prey, Delgado tells Popular Science. As they hunt for birds or insects, outdoor cats look for hiding spots—like bushes or nooks—that can conceal them from being noticed by their prey or any potential predators, such as hawks or foxes.
The BBC investigates why pet cats continue to hunt. Video: Why Do Cats Hunt? | Cats Uncovered | BBC Earth
Just because a cat is indoors doesn’t mean that they lose their instincts, and boxes offer a perfect hunting spot, with walls that shield them from view and an open top that they can use to pounce onto potential prey (or a plush toy).
Boxes are safe places
Boxes can also provide a skittish cat with a safe place to hide when their environment changes. “There’s a natural gravitation towards some of those covered, secretive areas,” says Delgado.
This instinct begins from the cat’s earliest moments. A mother cat will seek out a quiet area to birth her kittens. “Their first experience will be a safe, enclosed space,” says Danielle Gunn-Moore, a professor of feline medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Multiple studies have shown that stress hormones like cortisol are reduced in newly rescued cats when they are given access to a box, she added.
A newly arrived box is also a change to a cat’s environment. Cats that live indoors know every inch of their kingdom and immediately notice any changes. “For a curious cat, the box is something fun and novel to investigate,” says Delgado.
Does box-hiding behavior tell us anything about our cats?
Boxes are one-stop shops for all of your cat’s hiding, hunting, and exploring needs. But whether spending lots of time in a box reveals anything deeper about how your cat is feeling depends on the context, says Delgado. A cat cowering at the back of a box with wide eyes is likely using the box in a very different way from one who is snoozing inside or repeatedly pouncing in and out of it.
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The safety and security of a box serve as an essential reminder of one of the responsibilities of owning a pet. A cat allowed to roam free around the neighborhood faces obvious risks from predators or cars. Cats inside face different challenges.
“What we do when we keep cats as pets is we keep them in an environment where they don’t have a lot of control,” says Delgado. A free-roaming cat can sprint to a nearby garage roof or hidey-hole when they are scared, but an indoor cat might have fewer options if they are scared by an unexpected visitor. Their reaction in these situations depends on a crucial period in their early life.
Kittenhood determines how your cat uses boxes
Kittens aged between two and nine weeks old absorb a huge amount of information about their world. When exposed to strangers, other pets, and vets at this age, kittens will remember if these meetings were positive or negative. Kittens carefully looked after and fed regular treats during this time will likely be much more resilient to environmental changes as adults. But suppose your cat had a difficult upbringing. In that case, providing boxes and other quiet hiding spots can be crucial to giving them a safe space when their threat alarms, calibrated to a sensitive setting from early life, go off unnecessarily.
This means that hiding behavior in a box or enclosed space might just be what a cat needs to feel safe. But it can also be a sign that something is stressing them out in their home. Cats need a safe spot to hide when they can’t control their environment, says Gunn-Moore. ”But for a cat to be hiding all the time, it’s really not good,” she adds.
If your cat is hiding excessively, says Delgado, “that is a good time to talk to your veterinarian and maybe get a referral to a behaviorist who can help you work with your cat’s fears in a way that can hopefully help them cope better.”
This story is part of Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.
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