You’ve probably seen the videos as you scroll through your social media feed: It starts with a cat minding their own business, calmly eating kibble or wet food. Behind the feline, however, sits a cucumber. As the cat finishes their meal and turns, they spy the dark green, cylindrical object, and the calm scene turns to chaos. The cat skitters and jumps, sometimes reaching unnatural heights, rushing to escape … a cucumber?
The viral videos presume that cats are afraid of cucumbers, but cat experts aren’t so sure. While the experts we interviewed agree the videos do showcase terrified cats, they don’t believe cucumbers are the problem. It’s actually the owners, they say.
Are cats afraid of cucumbers?
We don’t know much about cat behavior. As the New York Times recently reported, cats are vastly understudied. Some experts have theorized that the cucumber might look like a snake, which could cause cats harm in the wild, but Katenna Jones, a cat and dog behaviorist and owner of Jones Animal Behavior, isn’t so sure.
“It could be there’s some sort of evolutionary thing where they think it’s a snake because their primitive ancestors were eaten by snakes,” Jones said. But, in her long experience living with and working with cats, they generally could care less about cucumbers and other similarly shaped objects. In a YouTube video, she showed a cat barely sniffing a cucumber, as well as a carrot and Twix bar.
Cats Cucumbers – What’s The Deal?
What we do know, however, is that cats earn their “scaredy-cat” moniker for a reason: They are a prey species, and, in the wild, they’re always on high alert for attackers, Jones said.
“It takes a lot for them to put their head down and put their back to a wide open space to feel safe enough to eat,” Jones said. “And when they do it over and over and over and nothing happens to them, then they just sort of assume that it’s going to be safe to do that.”
In other words, the videos begin when we see cats who have been allowed to exist in a safe space and trust that they can take a minute to eat without fearing for their lives. But then, at some point, an object that seems big to them is placed behind them, sparking that dramatic reaction as they turn to leave their food bowl.
Their reaction, Jones said, is no different from when we hop into the shower and are surprised by a giant spider. “It’s going to scare the crap out of you,” she said. “And [the cucumber] is a large, dark object that’s suddenly behind them.”
“I think it’s just a combination of them being a prey species and on edge for their safety in a moment of being completely relaxed and this large, dark object appears right behind them,” Jones added.
Jane Ehrlich, a feline behaviorist with Cattitude Feline Behavior Counseling, also wonders what else is happening behind the scenes in the video. Did the person recording the video make a noise? Was there some other off-camera motion that scared the cat?
What do the cats’ reactions to the cucumbers tell us?
Both Ehrlich and Jones agree, however, that the videos show all the telltale signs of a cat experiencing extreme stress. “They are doing what cats do to escape predators,” Jones said.
In these videos, the cat being filmed typically jumps straight up into the air with an arched back, with their fur puffed up in order to appear larger and more threatening. “It is defensive, not offensive,” Ehrlich said of their reactions. “That is definitely fear.”
If these fearful moments are a one-off incident, the cat will likely be fine. But chronic stressors can exacerbate compulsive behaviors, aggression, and health issues, such as skin and digestive sensitivity, Jones said. It could also fracture your relationship with your pet.
What’s a better way to have fun with your cat?
There are far better ways to laugh with your cat instead of at them. Give your pet some agency, Jones advised. If you’re holding your pet Garfield and he wants to get down, let him get down. (Do not, however, give him the lasagne he demands.)
Allow your cat to have different experiences, so you can discover their personality, Jones said. For example, one of her cats loves “helping” her make the bed each morning. Another loves twisty ties from a loaf of bread.
And play the way your cat is telling you they want to play, Ehrlich said. Some cats, for example, might gravitate toward toys that resemble ground prey such as a lizard, while others may enjoy toys that mimic birds.
Just don’t try to scare your cat, Jones said. “Fear isn’t funny for the one that’s receiving it.”
This story is part of Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.
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