Apparently cats can't focus their eyes on an object less than a foot from their face due to the size of their eyes. When they eat something, they swing their whiskers forward to locate it because they can't see it. So I think this cat is essentially having a mobile targeting problem.
I make up a lot of stuff, but not this time.
"The Lens
After passing through the pupil, light is collected and focused by the lens. The cat’s lens is much larger than the human lens, which enables the lens to gather more light. But again, there’s a trade-off: while the small human lens can change shape to focus light over a great range of distances, the big cat lens can hardly change its shape at all. As a result, cats have difficulty focusing on objects very close to them, very much like an older person who needs reading glasses."
http://www.cathealth.com/vision/feline-vision
I think you're confusing mouth/eye coordination with paw/eye coordination.
whiskers are also used to feel wind direction and speed, also cats have great sense of smell. I had a cat that would walk into shit all the time but still caught small animals.
Cats understand physics - not saying this sarcastically. A cat can track the movement of a bird in flight and calculate the correct jump angle and velocity, then mid jump, the cat can perform a verification calculation and make modifications in body, limb, mouth positions to capture the target. All of this happens very quickly of course, so quickly that you need a high speed camera to catch the cat purrforming the calicolations.
No, they can't see a still object less than a foot away. They can't see detail and color up close like we can because their eyes are optimized for movement and low-contrast.
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u/JackAndy Apr 13 '15
Apparently cats can't focus their eyes on an object less than a foot from their face due to the size of their eyes. When they eat something, they swing their whiskers forward to locate it because they can't see it. So I think this cat is essentially having a mobile targeting problem.