nocturnal

Those of us who have cats know that playing and meowing in the middle of the night are included in the package, but the reason why they do it is not what you are thinking. The fact that your cat decides that 5 in the morning is the perfect time to do parkour on your head is not because it wants to annoy you nor because it is a nocturnal animal. We have spoken with Noelia Hernández, feline educator from Feline Codeto find out what is behind this behavior. They seem nocturnal to us, but they are not.. The first thing to understand is that the popular belief that cats are nocturnal animals is not entirely true. “Cats are activated by the rising and setting of the sun. They are crepuscular in that sense,” Noelia tells us. The fact that some cats have peaks of activity around midnight and then very early in the morning makes us perceive them as nocturnal, especially in summer when the nights are much shorter. In reality, cats sleep at night, what happens is that they wake up much earlier than we do. It is the complaint that Noelia most often hears in her consultations: “Many times, sunrise is when they have the highest peak of activity. It is something recurrent in tutors: ‘he wakes me up too early’.” “Cats are activated by the rising and setting of the sun. They are crepuscular” An evolutionary question. The fact that the peaks of activity are at these times has to do with their natural hunting instinct. The cats They have evolved to hunt when it dawns and when it duskwhich is when their usual prey are most active. These hunting “schedules” are also why their vision has developed to allow them to see in low light conditions. what’s happening. If your cat wakes you up in the middle of the night, it is probably due to a lack of stimulation during the day, a poorly enriched environment and an incorrect play routine: “During the day we go to work, to the gym, to shop… We arrive, we do a poorly executed mini play session and on top of that completely dependent on us.” Because this is one of the problems that this behavior causes: our cats do not know how to play alone. “Many cats do not know how to resort to autonomous play, they only know how to resort to the play that we tutors give them with canes and other toys,” says Noelia. Another factor is the lack of environmental enrichment. Cats, especially those that live indoors, need a series of adaptations in the environment focused on their well-being such as offering them different smells, surfaces to scratch or allowing them to climb high. If we also add that many people have a cat and spend many hours alone, they are the perfect ingredients for early morning parkour. And let’s not forget the heat factor: “In summer they can be more active at night because it is the only time of day when you can live in general,” says Noelia with a laugh. How to avoid it. “With a well-structured sequence of games, a well-enriched environment and a good understanding of the cat’s needs, these episodes of ‘I get up at 5 or 6 in the morning’ can be reduced,” says Noelia. First, to encourage autonomous play, it is important to offer them a variety of toys and above all not to always leave the same ones, but to change them: “Toys must be rotated so that they can manage themselves at night if they need it.” Furthermore, when playing with our cat it is not about making it run after a toy like crazy and that’s it, it has to be done well. He cat hunting cycle It has five phases: stalking → chase → capture → bite/ingestion → rest. If we stay on the principle “We do not lower those hormones that have been prepared for the hunt and together with the arrival of dawn and of course, they wake us up.” To make it complete, you have to let him catch the toy and finish by giving him food or a snack. “With a well-structured play sequence, a well-enriched environment and a good understanding of the cat’s needs, these episodes can be reduced” Commitment and understanding. Being woken up by your cat at four in the morning is not pleasant, no matter how you look at it, but getting angry or punishing it is not going to solve anything (in fact, punishment will make the situation worse). get worse or cause other new problems). For Noelia, it is a matter of commitment and understanding: “There must be commitment on the part of the guardian to understand his cat, let him express his nature and give him tools so that he can channel alone autonomously when he has these types of needs, without waking up the guardian.” Image | Amparo Babiloni, Xataka In Xataka | If the question is how long can you leave your cat home alone, the answer is: less than you think.