[amalia (OP)]

Mike has a very interesting question for us:
Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Do you know the answer?

[syhprum]

If cats are indeed afraid of cucumbers (please show evidence) the only thing I could suggest is the smell, how about an experiment with other similar shaped or coloured vegetables to see if they have any effect.

[Bored chemist]

I suspect that they are bothered by "something odd that they didn't see or hear creeping up on them"

[syhprum]

The most frequent explanation seems to be that they have an inbuilt fear of snakes that the cucumbers resemble.

[alancalverd]

I've seen a dog, probably tenth generation urban mongrel, freeze at the sight (or maybe smell) of a snake. So I guess cucumbers either smell like snakes or look like them.

Next: blindfold a cat (wear protective gloves!) and offer him various sandwiches: tuna, tuna and cucumber, cucumber. If no dislike of cucumber smell, paint a cucumber red and remove the blindfold.

[Bored chemist]

paint a cucumber red and remove the blindfold.

Do cats have colour vision?

[Colin2B]

Do cats have colour vision?

Some research suggests colour blind with red being another shade of green. They don’t appear to have as much saturation as human vision so colours more subdued.