This is a difficult one to answer – in the wild, cats are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk. This is because it’s the best time for hunting birds and rodents, the preferred prey of feline hunters.
Night-time activity
It is quite possible your cat is active at night and may well be disturbing your sleep cycle. This is particularly common in young cats and kittens, as they are bursting with energy and easily spurred on towards predatory play.
Here are some quick tips to reduce your cat’s night time energy.
- Don’t reinforce behaviours you don’t want – if you get up to feed or play with the cat, you’ve shown him or her that disturbing you leads to a reward meaning the behaviour is likely to be repeated.
- Make sure you provide enough exercise and stimulation – ensuring your cat has things to play with throughout the day and earlier in the evening will mean they are more tired overnight, and therefore less active.
- Don’t punish your cat – even if you are frustrated with your cat waking you up, you need to remember your cat isn’t doing this out of spite or anger. Focus on giving your cat enough to do and rewarding behaviours you do want to see more of.
- Changing your cat’s toys frequently will stop your cat from becoming bored, and mean that he or she is far more likely to entertain him or herself overnight.