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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

My cat is now nocturnal.

16 replies

Thursdayisgoingtobehard · 10/03/2015 18:45

Hi cat people. I am a relatively new cat person. We took princethursday into our home last August and it took him a few months to settle in. So he is very settled now, spends most of the day outside and sleeps indoors. However, now the weather has got good, and he has started going out all night and coming home to sleep in the day! Is this normal? Just worried about him and his nocturnal activities!!

OP posts:
cozietoesie · 10/03/2015 18:51

It's to be expected (for a non-Siamese) but not necessarily a good thing - life in the nighttime is more dangerous for cats. (Cars, predators etc.)

Can you keep him in?

Fluffycloudland77 · 10/03/2015 19:03

Normal but more dangerous.

RubbishMantra · 10/03/2015 19:37

Princethursday, excellent name. Grin

Yup, just keep him in at night. He'll adapt. Much safer for him.

MinceSpy · 10/03/2015 20:43

Princethursday what a an excellent name. Yes his behaviour is normal but has risks. Can you persuade him to come late evening and keep him in?

givemushypeasachance · 10/03/2015 21:36

When I was younger my mum used to "put the cat out for the night" but I now also subscribe to the it's-best-to-keep-them-in approach; the shelter I adopted my boys from actually made me sign a bit of paper promising I'd keep them indoors overnight.

TheOneWiththeNicestSmile · 10/03/2015 21:40

I keep my cats in at night. This time of year they don't go out much anyway, but we have a schedule now that they have their last meal at 8-9pm & at that point the cat flap is locked to in-only & they are shut in the kitchen diner for the night.

(They very likely get up to nocturnal gymnastics but that's their business Grin & it's all indoors)

2lol2lol · 10/03/2015 21:41

I'm another one who curfew them indoors for night. They adapt pretty well, crepuscular anyway.

Branleuse · 10/03/2015 21:50

its normal.
I quite often put mine out at night because otherwise they wake me or the children up at all hours, playfighting or purring loudly at my sleeping face. Its not cute.
in the winter i lock them in the kitchen and in the summer they are out

crazycatlady82 · 10/03/2015 23:05

I have one indoor cat (her choice) and one very outdoor cat (again by choice) and for outdoor cat I let her out at breakfast, the flap goes on 'in only' during the day, then out again at 5pm and in again about 8pm. We have to keep her in during the day as she brings home live pigeons and goes walk about in the local shops... Grin

susurration · 11/03/2015 21:22

as PP say, its normal cat behaviour to be somewhat nocturnal. Their vision is much better at night than ours so they have no problem being out, and I think many actually enjoy it as it gives them a sense of being more concealed.

Suscat used to be nocturnal where she lived before, but we lock the cat flap now as soon as it goes dark. She knows that means she is in for the night. She can come and go as she pleases from breakfast till dinner time. We also gradually and gently 'broke' her daytime sleep pattern by very gently pestering her to play when we're home during the day, making sure she goes outside during the day etc. Since we did that she now tends to have an afternoon nap, settle down for a long nap between 6-10pm and then we take her upstairs with us at bedtime. She potters around and has a particularly active period around 3am (she's so bloody noisy when she uses the tray!) but then sleeps again till morning.

abigamarone · 11/03/2015 23:53

I've only recently started letting my almost-a-year old cats out during the day, after they'd started trying to dive out every time the door was opened and trying to break through the locked flap. Cat flap is now locked after about 8pm but they've quickly become accustomed to this and don't bother trying to go out.

CunningCat · 12/03/2015 00:00

I try to keep mine in at night. Last year one of them was killed by a car at nightSad. My Siamese x always sleeps solidly through the night on my bed.

cozietoesie · 12/03/2015 00:17

Maybe he's got Siamese eyes? Siamese aren't as nocturnal as other cats perhaps partly due to the fact that their eyes are physically different and they haven't got such good night vision. Perhaps he got some of his Siamese parent's genes there.

Original poster
Thursdayisgoingtobehard · 15/03/2015 22:23

Thanks for the advice. I sat himself down and told him how being outside at night was bad news,and he was to stay in at night from now on. He listened intently then went out at eight in the morning and didn't come home for 24hours! So we are back on nighttime duties. We live in the countryside so am much more worried about cars in the daytime. However we are 100meters away from a very dense wood with alsorts of wild animals in. I have explained the dangers but he obviously feels that he is harder than any beast he comes across so that's that! The prince roams free at night!

OP posts:
SummerSazz · 15/03/2015 22:26

We live {fairly} rurally and DCat goes in and out as she pleases. I know she would rebel against any imposed in/out rules so we go with relaxed parenting where the cat is concerned....

Pipbin · 15/03/2015 22:36

We operate out during daylight hours only here. My baby girl now sleeps all night on our bed and spends most of the evening on my lap.

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