Circadian rhythms in food intake and activity in domestic cats.

Randall, Walter; Johnson, Ralph F.; Randall, Steffanie; Cunningham, J. Thomas

doi:10.1037/0735-7044.99.6.1162

Cited by 29 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(39 reference statements)

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“…In laboratory facilities, the importance of interactions between human beings and animals, and the social affinity of domesticated animals for human beings, are often ignored (Benn 1995). Randall and others (1985, 1990) showed that laboratory cats organise their daily activity patterns around the activities of their human caretakers, and respond strongly to people in their environment. Cats kept in enriched conditions in a laboratory facility showed a clear preference for human contact over toys (DeLuca and Kranda 1992).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare of cats in a quarantine cattery

1998

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The welfare of seven domestic cats housed singly in a quarantine cattery was studied for six months. Behavioural data were obtained with cameras and by time-lapse video recording, and cortisol to creatinine ratios were measured in urine samples collected from litter trays. It took five weeks for the cats to show evidence of adaptation to their new environment. They spent most of the first two weeks concealed in a house on the floor of their cage. As they adapted, they spent less time hiding and more time higher in the cage. The cats were inactive for approximately 90 per cent of the time observed, and they received little human contact. Compared with the first day, the cats' cortisol to creatinine ratios were significantly lower from their second month in quarantine.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare of cats in a quarantine cattery

1998

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“…There was no difference in age between any of the groups ( F = 0.93, p = 0.46, one-way ANOVA). Circadian factors are unlikely to play a role in sleep-dependent ocular dominance plasticity because circadian rhythms in sleep/wake and other parameters are extremely weak in cats [66]–[68] and entirely absent in critical period kittens [69]. Nevertheless, all experimental manipulations were done at the same time of day.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sedating Antidepressant Trazodone Impairs Sleep-Dependent Cortical Plasticity

et al. 2009

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BackgroundRecent findings indicate that certain classes of hypnotics that target GABAA receptors impair sleep-dependent brain plasticity. However, the effects of hypnotics acting at monoamine receptors (e.g., the antidepressant trazodone) on this process are unknown. We therefore assessed the effects of commonly-prescribed medications for the treatment of insomnia (trazodone and the non-benzodiazepine GABAA receptor agonists zaleplon and eszopiclone) in a canonical model of sleep-dependent, in vivo synaptic plasticity in the primary visual cortex (V1) known as ocular dominance plasticity.Methodology/Principal FindingsAfter a 6-h baseline period of sleep/wake polysomnographic recording, cats underwent 6 h of continuous waking combined with monocular deprivation (MD) to trigger synaptic remodeling. Cats subsequently received an i.p. injection of either vehicle, trazodone (10 mg/kg), zaleplon (10 mg/kg), or eszopiclone (1–10 mg/kg), and were allowed an 8-h period of post-MD sleep before ocular dominance plasticity was assessed. We found that while zaleplon and eszopiclone had profound effects on sleeping cortical electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, only trazodone (which did not alter EEG activity) significantly impaired sleep-dependent consolidation of ocular dominance plasticity. This was associated with deficits in both the normal depression of V1 neuronal responses to deprived-eye stimulation, and potentiation of responses to non-deprived eye stimulation, which accompany ocular dominance plasticity.Conclusions/SignificanceTaken together, our data suggest that the monoamine receptors targeted by trazodone play an important role in sleep-dependent consolidation of synaptic plasticity. They also demonstrate that changes in sleep architecture are not necessarily reliable predictors of how hypnotics affect sleep-dependent neural functions.

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“…They also demonstrated the existence of a bimodal pattern of wakefulness displaying dawn and dusk peaks under artificial light: dark cycle. Randall et al [25] found a free-running circadian organisation of activity in cats kept in constant darkness as measured by infrared photobeams. These cats, isolated from humans to human noises, showed, in addition, random patterns of activity when kept in constant light.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Daily rhythms in food intake and locomotor activity in a colony of domestic cats

et al. 2019

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Background: Daily rhythms have been widely investigated in various mammals but, surprisingly, literature is scarce and conflicting regarding the domestic cat, Felis catus. This may come from the difficulty to analyse rhythms in a species showing high interindividual variability and from the common idea that the rhythms of the cat are rather random. To elucidate the subject, two groups of indoor cats (14 in total) living in a cattery room, were followed on a 24 h/7 day basis, using advanced telemetry technologies, i.e. passive RFID, automated weighing of electronic scales and UWB technology with accuracy ensuring a good reliability of the results. Results: While covering on average 1.74 ± 0.4 km and eating 46.4 ± 3.6 g (≈ 179 kcal) of dry food per day, findings indicate 24 h periodicity in the locomotor and feeding rhythms of the cats. Systematically, their locomotor behaviour was more rhythmic than their eating behaviour (p < 0.01), possibly reflecting the flexibility of the eating patterns of the cat initially enabling it to adapt to daily rhythms of its prey. In their daily patterns, the indoor individuals showed two main troughs of activity and food intake-in the middle of the day and in the middle of the night-and two main peaks: one in the morning (especially before sunrise and food renewal), the other in the evening (following the end of the work day of the animal staff and before sunset), supporting previous work demonstrating peaks at dusk and dawn and confirming the crepuscular nature of the species. No general pattern emerged according to a more nocturnal versus diurnal organisation. Conclusions: Bimodality, more than chronotypes, seems therefore to best characterise the activity and feeding rhythms of the species as it was demonstrated in the individuals among the different categorisations. By validating the use of new tracking technologies as well as of adapted chronobiological parameters to assess the daily rhythm of cats living indoors, this study opens the way for more adequate analyses of cat behaviour through time under various conditions.

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Circadian rhythms in food intake and activity in domestic cats.

Cited by 29 publications

References 28 publications

Welfare of cats in a quarantine cattery

Welfare of cats in a quarantine cattery

The Sedating Antidepressant Trazodone Impairs Sleep-Dependent Cortical Plasticity

Daily rhythms in food intake and locomotor activity in a colony of domestic cats

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