Quick questions: Cat laser?

gearbox

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jun 12, 2007
Messages
126
Can cats see green lasers? Which is better for playing with cats -- green or red?

Which cheap-o laser from DX would you get for that sole purpose?
 
My cat loves chasing laser dots. She especially likes the greenies, I suppose because she can see them better. I've noticed that she does not blink when accidentaly flashed in the eyes, though, so I keep the power down at 5 mW. That's enough power indoors. Outdoors I use a 20mW greenie, and she will chase that thing all over the property at full speed until she is panting like a dog! I keep it out in front of her about a foot so she won't get flashed.
 
In my experience, cats can see all visible laser wavelenths that people can; though they're more responsive as the wavelengths shorten (move toward violet).

I've tried the following wavelengths on one of our cats:

650nm (red)
632.8nm (orange-red)
592.95nm (amberish yellow)
543.5nm (slightly yellowish green)
532nm (green)
473nm (blue)
404.6nm (violet)
 
Do Cats See in Color?
We believe cats do see in color, although not exactly the way we do. In our tests, cats appeared to distinguish between the low to mid light wave spectrum (higher frequency), meaning cats
responded to the colors purple, blue, green and yellow range. Red, orange and brown colors
appear to fall outside cats color range and are most likely seen as shades of gray or purple.
Cats appear to see less saturation in colors than do humans,
meaning cats do not see colors as intensely or vibrantly.
Blue and green appear to be the strongest colors perceived by cats.
Our tests suggest cats can distinguish between more shades or levels of gray than can humans.
The images below show how we believe cats perceive color.*
click to see how our tests were done. http://videoforcats.com/catvisiontests.htm
 
my dogs see them ( both green and red ), but they don't really care. Then again I have basset hounds, the only thing they care about is where the couch is and when is suppertime..
 
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