All those who have had the opportunity to live with cats, we know that these incredible cats can constantly surprise us with their habits and behaviors. In fact, these animals were worshiped by different cultures thanks to their innumerable skills and powerful instincts.

And although many feline attitudes may seem “strange” to us, the truth is that it is worth discovering their behavior better in order to understand them and admire them even more. In this new article, we invite you to know why cats are staring at nothing.

The vision of cats: myths and truths

The senses and instincts of cats cause us so much curiosity that we have been building a series of fantasies about it. To understand them a little better, we will summarize some truths and myths about the vision of cats, only this way you will understand why cats are staring at nothing:

1. “Cats have a greater field of vision than humans” – TRUTH

The feline vision researchers found that cats have a wider field of vision than humans. While our field of vision is 180 degrees, that of felines reaches 200 degrees. [1]

2. “Cats see better in the penumbra than in broad daylight” – TRUTH

It is true that felines own a privileged night vision, since they evolved to be able to hunt in the dense darkness. The structure of her eyes is different from ours and she is prepared to perceive better under dimmer lights. Cats inherited this characteristic from their feline ancestors and can see up to 8 times better than humans in the penumbra. [2]

Another interesting fact about feline vision is that its ocular structure hinders its daytime vision. The cells of your eyes, when subjected to intense light, fail to transmit detailed information to the brain. For this reason, for a cat, the images are more blurred during the day.

3. “Cats see black and white” – FALSE

Human eyes have 3 types of color receptor cells: blue cone cells, red cone cells and green cone cells. This explains why we are able to distinguish a huge number of colors and tones.

Cats and dogs do not have the red cone, so they become unable to perceive the shades of pink and red. They also have difficulty recognizing the intensity and saturation of colors. But it is false that cats see black and white, as they distinguish shades of blue, green and yellow. [3]

Why do cats stare at nothing?

Have you discovered your cat constantly looking at nothing for hours and hours? It is inevitable to ask ourselves what absorbs your attention so much, right? This feline behavior generates so much curiosity that some people say that cats and even dogs can see ghosts. Since the supernatural can not be reached by our knowledge, we will try to explain why cats are staring at nothing because of other reasons:

The first thing we must understand is that where we see “nothing”, felines can see a lot. Our vision is limited in certain aspects and we may not perceive diverse subtle stimuli that the sharp instincts of the cats detect quickly.

But the extreme concentration of the cats is not only explained by their visual capacity. This is related to the harmony between their senses, your brain and your body, which provides balance to your body. For our cat, the simple reflection of a small insect or a particle of dust on the wall they can capture your attention for hours and hours in a row.

We are bombarded daily with thousands of data, images and sounds. Therefore, it is increasingly difficult for us to concentrate on just one thing. In addition, to keep pace with our times, we used to ignore many details to focus on what we consider most important. If our cat stares at “nothing”, we should not be scared or worry

However, in those cases in which the cat shows symptoms related to boredom, we should come to assess whether this behavior may be due to a lack of environmental stimulation. In this case, the most advisable is to bet on enriching the environment with toys, catwalks, feline residences.

If you want to read more articles similar to Why do cats stare at nothing?, we recommend that you enter in our Curiosities section of the animal world.