Why does my cat always lie down on black stuff?

by Maggie
(Cincinnati, OH)

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Photo added by Michael (Admin) - photo by Mike Cohen (Flickr)

My black and white long haired cat LOVES to lay on dark colored clothes especially black stuff. I was just wondering why she seeks out these dark colored items.
Maggie


Hi Maggie... Ummmm...thanks for the tricky question...:)

There are no scientific answers on this as far as I am aware. There are no research papers on this either. So there is nothing to go to and refer to.

We have therefore to fall back on to commonsense answers, the obvious answers if you like.

First point: cats are individuals. Individual cats have their own characters just as humans have. People can tend to forget this sometimes.

Different cats prefer different places to sleep and rest for example. They prefer different foods and so on. Some are nervous and some are bold. See cat personality types.

There is no reason on that basis to exclude the possibility that an individual cat prefers dark objects or black clothes to lie on.

This may be a throwback to her kittenhood, being raised by mother. Was her mother a black cat? Or one of the her siblings may have been black and they slept together.

It maybe that she in fact has no preference for black clothes but she just gives this impression.

For example, you may have a number of items of black clothes because you like black clothes!

You leave them on the bed or chair lets say. She lies on your clothes (that happen to be black) because they smell of you. This is a cat seeking a comfort zone.

Having used your black clothes before she uses them again because they now smell of her and you.

After they are washed she may associate the black clothes with a pleasant place to snooze or you prefer the same black clothes and put them in the same place. She lies down on them out of routine and habit - cats like humans prefer a bit of routine for the sake of the comfort zone again. The whole thing is just circumstance which looks like a pattern or preference.

There is one other long shot. The colour black absorbs heat. If your clothes are in an area where there is sunlight they will become warmer than if they were white or light coloured clothes.

Warmth is attractive to cats as I am sure you know. Once again it is a cat seeking out the best and most comfortable spot - the warm one...

I hope this helps.

Best

Michael Avatar

Why does my cat always lie down on black stuff? to Why Do Cats?

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Why does my cat always lie down on black stuff?

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Mar 31, 2012
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Same! NEW
by: Moka_Midnite_Mama

My black female cat does it allll the time. I can leave a light colored piece of fabric and a dark colored piece of fabric next to each other and she will lay on the black one every time. I think she likes the idea of being camouflaged, lol! Her brother/litter mate doesn't have a color preference, if it's soft, he'll lay on it!

~ Kathy


Sep 14, 2010
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I agree with the Black theory
by: Leah

Thats the first thing I thought of is that Black fabrics hold more heat so would thus be warmer for the cat to lie on.

I love the fat Tabby Michael.



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10 Responses

  1. Danny Norris says:

    We have a British short hair and we recently bought a rug for our living room. The multi coloured sits in the living room and even when the fire is off he only ever curls up on the black part of the rug.

  2. Melissa says:

    My all black cat lies only on black things as well it’s very erythropoietin strange. I think she’s does it to camouflage herself? She lies on my black coat, my black vest, black stove top, the stool is black she lays on that, etc list goes on

    • Michael Broad says:

      I like the word ‘erythropoietin”. What does it mean? 🙂

      I forget what I said in article but for me the most likely reason is that it is warmer as it absorbs light and warms up. The light is converted to heat.

  3. Brenda says:

    My ginger cat only sleeps on black items of clothing. Im convinced he seems them as invisibility cloaks. I have many soft blankets over my lounges,yet he waits for me to throw a black jacket or shirt down and he’s on it! As above, it’s annoying with him having light fur! Lucky he is a cutie!!

  4. PRettyRosckoe says:

    I have a White siberian forest cat. His mother was also white. It seems that he really likes to lie on black fabrics too. I have two of the same sweatshirt; one black and one grey. He only lies on the black one. And that goes for all my other black clothing too. Since he has white fur he sheds all over this stuff and it drives me crazy, so I try to keep it out of his reach, but somehow he still finds a way to lie on all my black clothing.

    • Val says:

      Oh my goodness, I thought it was just my crazy, long haired, white cat who sheds on me as she brushes past my leg! I did an experiment once just to see if it was just coincidental and left 6 or 7 articles of clothing on my bed with only 1 being black. Guess where she was sleeping ever so soundly when I came back? On the black item of course!

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