The music pleasing to us humans is not the same for our four-legged friends: the hearing of cats, in fact, has a different structure than that of humans. From this premise  Music for Cats was born , a series of music tracks specially designed to stimulate the brain of our four-legged friends. 

In these songs, buzzing, rustling and sometimes strident sounds for the ears of us humans alternate but made ad hoc by a team of scholars to elicit a precise response from cats to musical stimuli.

How Music for Cats was born

The project was born from the collaboration between David Teie, American cellist of the National Symphony Orchestra and great cat lover and Charles Snowdonm, psychologist and professor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison .

Teie wanted to create compositions based on ambient noises in order to stimulate the natural reactions of the four-legged friends.

Music for Cats, therefore, is a collection of songs that stimulate the animal or relax it deeply.

The music tracks

Teie started from the concept that combining different noises allows different results to be obtained . To achieve an energizing effect on cats, for example, sounds similar to bird chirping, pauses and rustles were mixed. On the contrary, to relax the animals there is a crescendo of purring, silences and meows.

On the site you can listen to the songs for free and if you want you can also buy CDs. All the musical tracks are devoid of text and voices: the notes, in fact, are interspersed only with silences and noises that may seem incomprehensible to the human listener.

Album One , for example, is focused on relaxation and is suitable for anxious pets. Contains 50 minutes of music alternating with birds chirping, purring and typical breastfeeding noises.

Album Two , on the other hand, has a duration of 66 minutes and includes a variety of soothing sounds that can also be enjoyed by humans. 

For the times when you are away … finally, it is divided into 4 CDs and includes different tracks ranging from energizing to calming songs. 

The results

Studies on animals of different breed, age and origin have shown that young cats that have survived difficult contexts (such as abandonment, abuse or stray animals) are more sensitive to music and tend to relax completely in the presence of a piece of music.

The experiments conducted by Teie and team members, in fact, reveal that each cat breed has a different and intuitive biological response to sounds. And that this is due to brain development, but also to the type of vocalizations.

Previously, a study conducted by researchers at Louisiana State University (LSU) and published by the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery (JFMS) had shown how vocalizations, purring and sucking had a calming effect on cats that even slowed the rhythm of the heartbeat. at rest.