You may not know if you are considering adopting a cat or have recently done so, but the favorite playtime for many felines is at night. Cats are nocturnal by nature because wild cats hunt at night and domestic cats still retain this tendency to be night owls, which makes them very active at night and difficult to sleep at this time. These felines if they get bored, they don’t mind jumping on you at four in the morning or meowing incessantly until you pay attention to them.
This is why, for many cat owners, bedtime becomes a real nightmare since their pets wake them up day in and day out. Most people in this situation react by feeding or caressing them to calm down and the truth is that, with this, the only thing they achieve is to reinforce the behavior of the animal by making this problem continue over time, and like everything else in the life, the longer someone or an animal is allowed a behavior.
In this article, we are going to give you the keys to keeping cats asleep through the night and some guidelines that you must follow to understand the psyche of your animal and thus be able to modify this annoying behavior in felines.
Tips For Keeping Cats Asleep All Night
TIRE IT OUT DURING THE DAY
If you want your cat to sleep through the night, the first thing you should do is tire him out during the day. There are several ways for this.
The first (and most obvious) way to tire him is to play with him. To tire him more in this activity, try to buy him fishing rod type toys since with this toy they will have to bring out their hunting skills and this will tire him a lot because they will not only exercise his muscles but also his mental concentration, which will exhaust to a great extent.
Also, if you do not have much time to play with your cat because you work, do it at night when you return from work with him since doing this activity at night can tire him at the time when he is most active. Another thing you can do is consider taking a walk down the street with him.
As a trick if you do not spend a lot of time at home, we encourage you to do a kind of gymkhana, hiding food in different places and containers throughout the house, this will make it fun looking for food. If this idea does not convince you because you fear it will break something, you can color mobile phones that move with the wind next to a window (tightly closed) so that it entertains watching them.
CONSIDER GIVING HIM A PLAYMATE
If you only have one cat, consider adopting another feline as a playmate. This will prevent him from getting bored when you are not at home and spending his energy playing with him. Likewise, staying up late at night will direct his need to play toward his partner rather than you. However, you should think about this very well because, although a cat does not involve a great effort to care for, as if it would be to incorporate a second dog at home, this can cause anxiety or discomfort to your cat, especially if it is elderly or not very sociable.
LIVING WITH A NOCTURNAL CAT
Although you already know the tricks to make your cat get to sleep at night, this as everything is a process, and overnight your cat will not stop claiming you at night, this is why we are going to leave some tricks so you can better cope with the situation.
