Why is it when a mirror is placed by a fish or a bird, they see

[schmuls]

another animal and interact with it, and if you hold a cat up to a mirror, they don't see a cat there?

[TZ]

1. Some cats do.

I've seen some cats hiss and spit at their mirror image. Many though, ignore it (probably because there is no smell)

[carlyhippy]

2. my cat interacts with the mirror, he knows it's him, and he primps in front of it

he thinks he is Rico Suave

[nuxvomica]

3. They don't smell another animal so the illusion wears off

My cats interacted with mirrors when they were kittens but now it doesn't affect them much. They still try to get behind the mirror to see what's really there, though.

[Forkboy]

4. They see it, they just don't give a shit.

:)

[dolo amber]

5. I was gonna say, "have you ever MET a cat?"

They totally see the cat in the mirror, they just don't give a crap about the cat in the mirror. :D

[DS1]

6. They're making sure it's not a cat

[charlie and algernon]

7. my cat sees the other cat, she doesn't care since it's not interacting with her

[Graybeard]

8. My cat would do her damnedest to get *behind* the mirror.

She wanted to get to the cat back there.

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Mine too.

Now he just talks to the cat every so often.

[Jamastiene]

9. Cats cannot see anything too close to them.

Hold the mirror at least 6 to 8 inches away from their face. Most people don't know that little factoid of information. Now, I finally got to use it.

[applegrove]

11. I'll try that. I'm always showing my cats their image in hopes they'll learn.

[Duer 157099]

14. Strangely enough, I've wondered about that

Except about dogs, but animals/pets in general. How do we know if they need glasses?

I put my reading glasses on my dog once, just to see what she'd think. And her eyes got really BIG, like "WOW!! Is that what all that blurry shit in front of me really looks like?!?"

So then I have wondered since then about pets, and whether they need glasses.

OK, maybe not reading glasses, cuz they don't read...

[Roon]

12. My Daniel loves to look at herself in the mirror

Whenever there is a mirror on the floor she will walk back and forth in front of it...checking herself out.

[JitterbugPerfume]

13. my cats barely tolerate each other

let alone that weird guy in the mirror