Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Do animals get jet-lag?
This is one of those questions that sort of popped into my head, and now I'd quite like to know the answer.
So, does anyone know if animals can suffer from jet-lag?
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
How would you be able to tell? Most cats spend half the day asleep anyway!
That's a good point
Not all animals sleep all day though. I was thinking specifically of the horses in the Olympics...
Perhaps not so much as humans, as they have not got the concept of "bed time", "getting up time", etc., to deal with.
I think half of jet lag is in the mind - you're expecting to feel tired/bad/whatever, so you do.
Twice now I've flown overnight from the US, landed in England at breakfast time and gone straight to work from the airport.
I did feel tired toward the end of the day, but the next day I was fine.
Sarah - Yes, horses get jetlag. They recover pretty quickly though.
And as most cat/dog owners will tell you, Wilkie, they certainly have a concept of "getting up time" and "meal times"!
Don't know about jetlag as haven't flown with my cats but they definitely have a concept of time. When the clocks go back/forward they are thrown out by an hour at evening meal times for a couple of days.
Mornings they know when they think I should be getting up to feed them but this is affected by daylight hours.
@Wilkie - half the day? Your cat must be active - the one that stays with us hardly moves, and even when she does it's begrudgingly because we won't bring food to bed for her.
LOL at the idea of a cat ONLY sleeping 1/2 the day.
One of mine will get up, have breakfast, then do her best 'I'm exhausted' look to try and get a day-pass for the bed.
On a serious note, it certainly takes them a few days to adjust to having their meals on BST/GMT. They are complete pain when this happens.
My cat sleeps most of the time so even the change of hour makes no difference. It has munchies so eat as when it wants to.
Talking about horses....
Why do some of the horses in the show jumping have these hats?
Wilkie, they're mostly to keep the flys off/out of their ears, but also to suppress noise at large events where there's lots of crowd noise - stuff their ears with cotton wool and put the fly net over the top to keep in place.
But it's also become a bit fashionable as well - I noticed the German horses yesterday had theirs emblazoned with the team colours.
Nope
I was watching the equestrian events at the Olympics and the thought popped into my head. I didn't have a clue what the answer was, so thought I'd ask - this forum is populated by all sorts of knowledgeable people don't ya know? 
Coz they iz cool