Conditioning and Cats

The cats each have their own private food dish. Each bowl has a chip in it that reacts to a chip in one of the cat's collars, and only that chip. Dora's dish won't open for Dinah and vice-versa. This keeps Dora from pigging down Dinah's food and also cuts back a little on Dora's eating.  When I feed them, I put the dishes in the same spots in the laundry room and the cats go straight to their own dishes.

A couple days ago, I accidently swapped spots. I didn't notice, either. Dora was very clingy and demanding all day that day. In the evening, I grabbed the bowls to refill them and noticed my mistake. Oops! Interestingly, Dinah's bowl was empty, and Dora's was completely full. In other words, Dinah had figured out what went wrong and happily ate from her bowl in its new location. Dora apparently couldn't figure out why her dish wouldn't open and it didn't occur to her to try the other one, since it had never opened for her before.

Classical conditioning! Though Dinah seems immune. Either that, or Dora's a few watts short on her lights.



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