Usually, they are active for a bit in the morning before taking their very long daytime siesta. Then, once fed, your cat may go back to sleep before you’ve even brushed your teeth. Cats get active at sunrise and sunset in order to hunt.Ī house cat’s version of this? They’ll wake you up at dawn to get another can of food opened, even when there’s already food available. It’s no coincidence, then, that hunting by wild cats increases dramatically just after dark (around 7–8 p.m.) and in the early morning (2–4 a.m.).Ī cat’s version of “dawn and dusk” may be quite different - and quite irritating - from your own. A more appropriate term for cats is crepuscular, meaning cats are most active at dawn and dusk.ĭuring these 2 times of the day - just after dark or just before sunlight - birds’ color vision is less effective and small prey mammals have trouble spotting predators. Nocturnal means an animal sleeps all day and gets active only at night. “Even though cats have been domesticated for generations and their food comes out of a can, their internal clocks are still set for nocturnal activity,” writes pet expert Tracie Hotchner in The Cat Bible. “Unowned cats were more nocturnal,” the study said.īut cats are technically not “nocturnal.” Let me explain … Nevertheless, they conserve energy until they think they have to “hunt” for their next meal.Ī 2011 study of free-roaming cats found that feral cats spent around 14% of their time running or hunting, but cats who had homes spent only 3% of their time on those activities. Feral cats will conserve energy by sleeping, often in colonies, and then go out at night to kill and eat.Īccording to Sarah Zielinski, science writer for Smithsonian, “Feral cats’ daily activity pattern of sleeping during the day and being active at night … likely reflects the behavior of their prey, small mammals, as well as lets them better avoid humans.”īy way of comparison, house cats tend to exhibit this same activity - but most of them have a dish at the ready supplied by us. Cats instinctually save their time and energy to hunt for food.
My little orange house kitty often looks like he’s stalking prey in the Serengeti that is my basement.Ĭreatures need food to survive, a primary life force. Sure, the house cat has evolved into a domesticated fluff ball from their big cat roots - but many instinctual patterns remain the same.
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