Keep your cat entertained while you're out. These play sessions also address another common reason cats keep you up at night, which is that they are bored and lonely.
Healthy adult cats are typically fine at home alone for 8-24 hours so long as you kitty-proof their environment and prepare food and water.
All that rest during the day can lead to an active cat at night. Boredom. If your cat is alone for most of the day, your cat might be bored and looking for more interaction and attention. Cats are social animals: your cat may have extra energy or be waking you up for attention.
Keep Your Cat Busy While You're At Work
Provide your cat with toys that can be swatted around on his own: toy mice are especially fun for this. Some even come laced with catnip. Rotate these toys frequently because cats, like people, become bored with the same old thing day after day.
It's totally normal for your cat to spend a lot of time napping. However, they also need to enjoy periods of activity like playing, play-hunting, climbing, and exploring. If your cat seems depressed or never wants to leave the comfort of their sleeping place, it could be that they're bored.
Cats often prefer to live alone, so think very carefully before getting another one.
Cats Protection recommends that you keep your cat in at night to keep them safe.
Cats, while often independent creatures, still crave attention and love, in addition to their obvious nutritional needs of fresh water, clean litter, and food. If you decide to bring a cat or kitten into your home, you should be prepared to spend at least 20 minutes a day giving your cat loving one-on-one attention.
While kitty certainly loves to be out and about at night, the risks to their health and the health of other animals isn't worth it. There are several things you can do to encourage at-home enrichment, such as giving your pet a window perch in front of a bird feeder or allowing them outside on an enclosed patio.
By sleeping during the day, your cat is primed and energized to hunt at night. On top of this, many domestic cats spend a lot of their time indoors and without much engagement during the day. This creates pent-up energy that they also need to burn out by running around crazy at night when they're finally awake.
Even though they may play it cool, they will notice you're gone and they will miss your attention. If your cat starts meowing loudly when you leave the room, that's one sign they miss you. Other symptoms may include clinginess, loss of appetite, depression, anxiety, vomiting and diarrhea, and house-soiling.
How long can cats safely be left alone? Most adult cats are fine being left home alone for up to 24 hours, under the right conditions (more on that below).
Your cat's age can affect whether he or she can be left home alone. A kitten that's less than 4 months old shouldn't be left alone for more than four hours, but a 6-month-old cat can be by himself or herself for at least eight hours. If you have a fully grown cat, it can be left alone for 24 to 48 hours.
Other cat health and behavior experts offer similar recommendations, with the total amount of playtime ranging from 20 to 60 minutes daily. Playtime should be split into multiple 10- to 15-minute segments as cats are naturally active in short bursts.
"If cats aren't getting enough play, it can affect their wholemodus operandi, and their usual habits can change," says Wilbourn. "They can become destructive and aggressive because they have all of this bottled-up energy."
Lastly, but no less important, ignoring a cat can build frustration if the cat doesn't know any other way to behave or has been rewarded for their behavior in the past. Frustration can lead to an increase in the behavior and may also cause lower tolerance and a higher risk of aggression.
Understand that if a cat feels threatened, she will be less likely to spend time at home. If your cat doesn't feel safe, then she will prefer to remain outside and only come in when driven there by hunger. Take a look around you and try to see things from your cat's perspective.
In general, you should never close off an area unless it's for their safety. They have instincts that motivate them to search all nooks and crannies of their environment and when they are unable to their brain may respond via anxiety or frustration which is not relaxing for the cat to have to process.
If your cat sleeps on your bed, he may choose a position that lets him see out your bedroom door more easily. If he's curled up in a ball under your bed or in a quiet corner, then he may be hiding. Cats who sleep under the covers might love being close to you, or they might be hiding to feel safer.
Though household cats do get lonely because they developed a need for companionship, remember their ancestors were solitary animals. Therefore, it's in cats' roots to also enjoy some time to themselves!
Cats are naturally solitary animals and are often happy without the company of their own species. They are territorial animals who don't like conflict with other cats. Introducing a new cat to an existing cat in the household takes time and patience – but don't worry, we have advice for this!
Cats are naturally clean animals and don't appreciate a dirty environment. From birth, their mothers clean them until they are old enough to do it themselves, and they can spend up to 50% of their waking life on grooming. Cats are picky creatures, and that's part of the reason we love them so much.