Cats are not colorblind, as was believed in the first half of the twentieth century. Using more sophisticated and sensitive instruments, it was proved that these animals see the colors of the world around them and can distinguish them, though not with the same precision as humans.
Cats can turn their little heads 200 degrees, while we humans can only manage 180 degrees. In short, cats have a far more complex «photographic wide angle» than we do. In addition, cats have better peripheral vision than humans. 30 degrees compared to our 20. This means that when they focus on an object, they can still see what is around it better than we can.
Nevertheless, there is an important respect in which our pets «lose» to humans. We can see objects in focus at a distance of up to 60 meters from us, while cats cannot do this with things farther than 6 meters away. This applies to daytime. A cat's night vision is 8 times sharper and clearer than a human's.
A cat's favorite color revealed
If we think that cats are colorblind, we are making a serious mistake. In fact, they respond well to colors in the range of violet, blue, green and yellow.
Red, orange and brown apparently fall outside the color range a cat can perceive and are most likely seen as shades of gray, from lighter to darker. That is, everything orange, red and brown is something they see poorly, or rather, they do not pick up these shades. Cats perceive less color saturation than humans, which means cats do not see colors as intense or bright.
So, the next time you decide to buy a bowl for your pet, remember that cats prefer yellow, violet, blue and green.
