My cat howls at night -- why?
Written by mmcginnis1980
One of my cats has started yowling/howling in the middle of the night. She is 4 and half years old and this has recently started up in the last few weeks. The first time she did this, it scared me to death, I thought something was very wrong. I came running out of thed bedroom to see her pacing in front of my coat closet. I held her and told her it was okay and went back to bed. Then she started up again. I came back out to see what was wrong, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. I sat down on the living room couch and she settled down and went to sleep. This is becoming more and more frequent - though it has nothing to do with the coat closet. I'll find her anywhere in the living room when she howls. I've tried opening the coat closet to see if she's looking for something that went under the door.
The last thing I tried, was to bring her to bed with me and close the bedroom door so she can't get out. And that seemed to stop her from howling - but I don't want to keep her from food, water or the litter box.
Any ideas on what this is or how I can stop it?
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I have been having the same problem with my almost 2 year old female kitty. I am pretty sure she just wants attention since she recently saw the vet.. She howls in the living room and in the basement. These are our two main play areas. I have been very busy lately and have not been playing with her as much. My cat has a lot of energy and needs a lot of activity. I just make sure I play with her a lot before I go to bed and we both get a good work out. This has helped to keep her from waking me in the middle of the night.
I also used to have a male cat that did this. It was a mix of a thyroid problem, he was senile, and deaf. We treated the thyroid problem and that helped until he went deaf and senile. Then he was just bonkers.
If its not medical, your kitty might just need some extra playtime during the day.
My cat howls at night too! She just started. Last night she only howled once. She was right outside my bedroom door and I jumped up to see what was wrong and petted her and she strolled in... 2 nights before though was the ... funniest. I actually fell asleep downstairs on the couch in front of the TV. I heard major howling and jumped up. I couldn't see without my glasses so I called her name and she came running towards me with something blue in her mouth. As I got closer I realized it was a fuzzy glove.. She dropped it and ran behind me. I wasn't sure if there was something wrong with it (she used to bring me dead birds and mice) so I poked it with a pen. It was a regular glove. So I petted her and went back to bed. She did it once more that night and I went through the same routine. Crazy cats.
I am really not sure why your cat has suddenly taken up yowling in the middle of the night. Cats truly are nocturnal (night time) or crepuscular (more active at dawn or dusk) and just can't help the instinct to be up and on the prowl.
Sometimes a sudden behavior change can indicate the start of an underlying medical problem. Other reasons for behavior change can be something new or a change in the cats life or something going on outside the house such as a new cat in the neighborhood.
Most cats do love to hang out with their owners and would like nothing more than for us to play with them half the night. So if you do get up and spend time with your kitty, you may actually be encouraging the behavior. The best way to try and curb the activity is to ignore the yowling so there is no reward (you) and spend extra time before you go to bed playing with or brushing your cat. You could also have a stash of cool toys that only come out at night to entertain kitty while you sleep. There is even such a thing as videos for cats to watch that you could put in before you head off to bed. Good luck and I hope you get some sleep!
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