The best YouTube channels for your cat (and why cats like them)

Mira, my cat, doesn’t care about television. She likes to sit on my lap while I watches TV, she just doesn’t care what’s on it.

I thought she would never do it. Turns out I was just looking at the wrong things. There are thousands of popular YouTube videos just for cats. I recently tried one on my TV and Mira was interested. I didn’t expect that.

But what are cats looking for in a TV show? And is there any science behind the things they find interesting? Let’s explore that, and then I’ll tell you about some of my cat’s favorite YouTube channels.

The Science of Cat TV

I mentioned in my article on alcohol myths that my favorite scientific study involved a group of drunk Germans. I now have a second favorite: cats watching TV.

The 2008 study, published in Applied science of animal behavior by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, involved 125 cats in a rescue shelter: 67 males and 58 females, all healthy. The cats were left alone with screens. Some screens were blank, as a control. There were also screens showing three sets of videos: the first, humans doing human things; the second, inanimate objects like moving billiard balls; the third, traditional cat prey like fish, birds and mice running across the screen.

It turns out that videos of humans doing human things are about as interesting to cats as the blank screen. Moving inanimate objects did a little better. But the big winner, unsurprisingly, involved prey “engaging in naturalistic behaviors” like moving and feeding.

“These types of animals seem intrinsically interesting to a predatory species such as the domestic cat,” the study concludes, adding that leaving the television on such programs could potentially have “enrichment potential” for animals in a shelter.

But it turns out that cats aren’t natural over-observers. The study found that “the attention cats paid to television screens declined significantly over the course of three hours of daily presentation,” with interest dropping significantly after the first hour.

Either way, this study suggests that cats may enjoy watching TV, if you find the right videos. So I decided to try to find them.

Try these channels with your cat

My search didn’t last long. It turns out there are plenty of channels dedicated to keeping your cat entertained. I tried several in an extremely unscientific process, putting on a few videos and seeing what Mira responded to.

His favorite videos were from Paul Dinning, whose YouTube channel features around 1,800 videos specifically designed for an animal audience. The focus is really on the birds, as well as the occasional mice and squirrels, and the settings are always beautiful. Mira and I recommend this one.

Another solid choice is Birder King, which offers around 270 videos. The few videos I played for Mira seemed to keep her interested. Most of these videos are over five hours long, so you can stream them for your cat before you head out for an errand. The channel also offers five “live” streams, which will theoretically continue to air for days after you leave.

Another channel Mira liked was Handsome Nature, which features around 2,800 videos of Canadian landscapes with various animals. There are videos and playlists designed specifically for cats, making it easy to find something your feline will enjoy.

All of the channels above focus on nature footage, but this is just one genre of cat videos that I found. The others are animated films, usually involving objects moving in a way designed to attract a cat’s attention (think laser pointer). TV Bini and Cat Games are two of the most popular channels in this route.

These videos are not peaceful to leave in the background: they are frantic. Personally, I hated them. Mira – apparently a feline movie buff – seemed to agree and left the room when we let her. Your cat may be less sophisticated than mine, so give these channels a chance if your cat isn’t interested in natural videos.

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