Fact check: My cat suffers from serious FOMO. Every time I open a door to a pantry, closet, bedroom, or bathroom, he is convinced that if he doesn't immediately charge inside he will miss something spectacular.

1. Why the “FOMO” label is tempting — and where it slips away from science

Owners personify cat behavior using human terms like FOMO because the pattern—immediate charging when a door opens—resembles human urgency to join rewarding events. The literature warns against anthropomorphism and emphasizes that cats’ door‑entry urgency can reflect curiosity, desire for access to resources, or response to social cues, not necessarily the human emotional construct of FOMO. Recent ethological work lists exploratory activity as a core cat behavior and documents how sensory cues and learned associations drive rapid entry when opportunities appear, making a learning/exploration explanation more parsimonious ^{[2] [1]}.

2. Science points to exploration, attention, and learning as drivers

Experimental ethograms and behavioral descriptions identify exploratory activity and attention to environmental change as normal components of cat behavior; cats attend to openings because doors signal new spaces, scents, or social opportunities. The 2024 ethogram synthesizes observable actions like rapid approach and entrance under the category of exploration and attention-seeking, supporting the interpretation that the cat’s behavior is a species‑typical response to sudden access rather than an anthropomorphic emotional syndrome. This view aligns with lesion and neurobehavioral studies showing neural substrates for exploratory drive ^{[2] [4]}.

3. Stress, competition, and welfare contexts can produce similar behaviors

Clinical and welfare literature highlights stress, intercat tension, and competition for resources as drivers of behaviors that can look like frantic entry. When resources are limited or social tension exists, cats may rush into rooms to secure food, resting spots, or human attention; guidelines emphasize assessing environment and resource distribution to reduce such urgency. Thus, in multi-cat households or resource‑scarce settings, the same doorway behavior may reflect anxiety or competition rather than pure curiosity, and management strategies differ accordingly ^{[5] [3]}.

4. Neural and physiological evidence gives depth to the behavior story

Neurological studies show that brain regions influence attention and exploratory motor patterns, with lesions producing hyperexploratory activity in experimental conditions. Such findings demonstrate that approach behaviors have biological substrates and can vary with neural state, health, or sensory function. That means sudden door‑charging could be amplified by individual neural predispositions or sensory sensitivities, underscoring the need to evaluate medical or neurological contributors when the behavior is extreme or new ^[4].

5. Practical distinctions matter: curiosity versus welfare concern

From a management perspective, labeling behavior as “FOMO” is less useful than distinguishing normal curiosity, reinforcement learning, and stress-driven urgency. If charging occurs with calm exploration and no other problem behaviors, enrichment and predictable routines can satisfy curiosity. If rushes coincide with aggression, litter‑box issues, or marked anxiety, the intercat tension and stress literature recommends resource redistribution and behavior modification. The AAFP guidelines provide practical steps for recognizing when to treat the behavior as a welfare issue rather than mere quirk ^{[5] [3]}.

6. What owners should test and monitor to clarify causes

To determine whether the cat’s door behavior is benign curiosity or a sign of stress, monitor context, frequency, and consequences: note whether multiple cats compete for the same rooms, whether the cat shows other stress indicators, and whether the behavior escalated after environmental change. Use enrichment, more distributed resources, and controlled access experiments to see if urgency diminishes; persistent, worsening, or medically suspicious changes warrant veterinary or behaviorist assessment. This pragmatic approach follows the combined recommendations of ethology and clinical guidance ^{[2] [5]}.

7. Bottom line — accurate framing leads to better remedies

In sum, the most defensible conclusion is that your cat’s behavior reflects exploratory motivation, attention to opportunity, and possibly reinforcement, with stress/competition and neural factors as alternative explanations. Calling it “FOMO” is a useful shorthand for owners but risks obscuring actionable causes and treatments. For behavioral change, prioritize environmental enrichment, resource management, and, if needed, clinical assessment guided by the evidence summarized here ^{[1] [3] [2]}.