To the Night Spent Hunting When the Dawn Was Our Sign to Tell It Was Time to Sleep Again

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Cats are a mystery (that's part of what we love about them). This cat mystery is even more intriguing at night, when they wander neighborhoods and our homes doing… any it is they do.

Why Cats Are About Active at Night

It'due south oft said that cats are nocturnal, merely that's not quite accurate. Cats are actually crepuscular, which means they are about active only before the sun rises and just after the sun sets.

Possibly you've noticed that your true cat seems antsy at night or pounces on your breast to tell y'all that it'southward breakfast time hours earlier your alarm goes off. This is because, for them, it'south meal time (and because they tin can't decline an opportunity to deprive you lot of sleep ; )

Cats are natural hunters that evolved to catch their prey — mice and rats — during the dawn and twilight hours. Merely because they now pb cushy lives where their meals are brought to them, it doesn't remove their instinct to hunt for their model repast (comprised of about 50–threescore% poly peptide, 30–40% fatty, and ten% carbohydrates — a nutrition that's too far off these proportions can increase your true cat's run a risk for obesity, diabetes, and more than. Check this article for help well-nigh reading cat nutrient labels.)

Where Cats Go at Night

It'southward natural to wonder where the heck cats become at dark. At domicile, they're usually sleeping, playing, cuddling, eating, or sleeping some more than. But what do they practice when they're off on their own? Turns out, it'due south quite a lot.

Researchers at the Academy of Georgia placed small cameras on 55 cats in the Atlanta surface area and then studied more 37 hours of footage to look for trends. Here are a few of the key takeaways.

• 44% of the cats hunted wild fauna.
  • Their principal prey were reptiles, pocket-sized mammals and invertebrates (things without internal skeletons… recall spiders and slugs).
• Hunting cats captured an boilerplate of 2 prey during seven days of roaming.
• 85% of wildlife captures were witnessed during the warm season (March–November in the Southern U.Southward.).
• Younger cats defenseless more prey-per-hunt than older cats.

Dangers to Cats at Night

During their nightly exploits, the cats in the study also had a habit of putting themselves in danger. Overall, 85% of the cats did at to the lowest degree one thing the researchers deemed a unsafe behavior! The top dangerous behaviors for those cats were:

• Crossing roads (45%)
• Encountering strange cats (25%)
• Eating and drinking substances away from abode (25%)
• Exploring storm bleed systems (twenty%)
• Entering crawlspaces where they could become trapped (20%).

If y'all're curious about your cat's wanderings or if you desire to go on track to avoid losing them if they spend time outdoors, you lot might consider a GPS collar. In the video beneath, you tin get an thought of what i cat did for about 12 hours during the 24-hour interval when its activeness was tracked with a Pawtrack GPS neckband.

Annotation: Preventive Vet recommends that cats not exist let outside without straight observation. This is for their ain health and safe, as well as the wellness and rubber of other animals in your neighborhood and even you and the other members of your dwelling (cats tin option up zoonotic diseases that they tin transfer to humans, or bring dorsum fleas and other parasites). If this sounds like a good enough reason to transition your outdoor kitty to an indoor lifestyle, meet how to proceed an indoor kitty entertained and happy.

Cats' Effect on Wildlife

Even if an outdoor cat manages to steer clear of predators, they're own hunting can exist quite devastating on local wildlife. Researchers have institute that as few as 25 cats in a national park can reduce the local bird population by half! That's according to the National Park Service, which also notes that domestic cats can deplete the bachelor food source for wild animals.

Animals like coyotes, foxes, skunks, raccoons, and hawks have a harder fourth dimension finding food in an area where domestic cats have already hunted the available supply. If that'south not concerning enough, the lack of available casualty ways an outdoor cat volition become much more than bonny to other large predators.

Why Cats Fight at Night

There are two main reasons that lead to true cat fights. As cats cruise neighborhoods and city streets, they will fight when in that location is competition for food or a mate. In many places, these encounters are more probable because cats' territories are shrinking equally neighborhoods become denser.

According to Dr. Marci Koski, a certified Feline Beliefs and Grooming Professional, studies have shown that cats' home ranges and territories are shrinking as the environment gets more crowded with cats — in other words, more cats in closer proximity equals more than encounters and more fights as they compete over resources. And these hazard encounters are more likely during the pre-dawn and mail service-twilight hours when cats are venturing out to chase (remember how they're crepuscular?).

True cat-Seize with teeth Abscesses From True cat Fights

Unfortunately, cat fights can be quite vicious, resulting in scratches and cat-seize with teeth abscesses that can rack upward vet bills of several hundred dollars to more than $1,000, and even spread diseases (run into more on this beneath). A cat-bite abscess results in a soft bloated wound under the cat'south peel.

It may exist several days before yous find it. Worse however, cat-seize with teeth abscesses can pop and ooze the puss inside. Yous might non find a bite abscess until information technology begins to swell, but there are additional signs that might indicate a trouble.

Signs that could bespeak a true cat bite abscess:

• Fever
• Decreased ambition
• Lowered energy levels

While some true cat seize with teeth abscesses may rupture and and then heal on their own with some dwelling care, these injuries are best dealt with by your veterinarian.

Other Common Cat Fight Injuries

In addition to bite abscesses, bite wounds are also the master way of transmitting Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV – a.k.a. "feline AIDS"), too equally Feline Leukemia (FeLV).

Untreated fight wounds can easily become infected. A cat'due south mouth carries as many bacteria as a dog's, but their teeth are better suited to transmit those leaner, fifty-fifty through minute puncture wounds, according to researchers with the Mayo Clinic.

True cat claws too deport a ton of their own bacteria, which will fester and thrive in the warm moist environment of a fresh wound. In fact, cat scratch fever (the horribly painful illness for humans, not the horribly painful vocal) is caused past the Bartonella bacteria transferred through a cat's claws, which is really transmitted to a cat through fleas.

Unneutered males are far more likely to fight than neutered cats. This is fifty-fifty true of multi-cat households, where unneutered males are more likely to fight with each other, equally well as spray to marking their territory. Neutering indoor-only cats won't eliminate fighting, but it should reduce the number of fights.

Sounds Cats Make at Nighttime

Aside from the obvious audio of a cat fight, one of the main times you're likely to hear a cat is when they want to exist heard, like when they're looking for food or a mate. The videos below include examples of true cat mating sounds. You might as well enjoy the other videos compiled by Meowsic (recollect "music" combined with "meow"), a research group that is studying the means cats communicate with each other — and with the states.

Why Cats Yowl at Nighttime

Excessive vocalizing might be due to whatsoever of a variety of factors. If your cat is yowling at night, it might non be cause for immediate business organisation, but you shouldn't ignore this behavior either. Here are some of the nigh probable reasons behind yowling.

• Old Age: Yowling in older cats might be due to Feline Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome, otherwise known as feline dementia.
• Boredom: An indoor cat that doesn't go much opportunity for exercise or play might yowl excessively because they're bored.
• Stress: Sudden changes in a cat'south routine — like the improver of a new baby or a recent motility — tin can stress out a cat and cause them to vocalize.
• Medical Problems: If you lot can dominion out the other causes of your cat's yowling, then it'due south time for a trip to the vet. Your vet will need to perform an exam and check your true cat's blood pressure level — and maybe collect blood and urine for testing — to look for underlying medical weather condition, such as:
  • High blood force per unit area (hypertension)
  • Excessive thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism)
  • Blindness
  • Kidney affliction
  • Bladder inflammation
  • And a host of other possible causes

Important Note on Vocalizing: If your true cat is vocalizing and straining while using the litter box, go them to the vet immediately! This could exist a sign of urinary obstacle, which isn't simply painful and sad to a cat, but volition also be fatal if veterinarian care isn't sought promptly.

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Source: https://www.preventivevet.com/cats/cat-behaviors-at-night

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