Eye Contact

“How does Taz know to make eye contact?” my husband Mark asked me after talking to our cat Taz.


If you have a pet or went to a friends house that has a pet you may have noticed that cats, dogs, and even birds make eye contact when you call their name. Mark and I talk to our kitties often as if they were fuzzy little people that understand our every word. So I took the question outside of our home and into the world of other animals.
Today I went to the pet store to get our class geckos their yummy crickets. While I waited I talked to the cockatiel that was singing on its cage. The instant it noticed I was talking to it the bird tilted its head and looked it’s one beady eye into mine. I didn’t use a name or nick name, just talked about its cage, food, toys and other things that the bird had around it.

My question for you is the same my husband gave to me.
How do animals know to make eye contact?

Could it be a universal communication that all animals understand?