Hyperactive: for cats it’s normal behaviour, but it can be curbed
Do you have hyperactive cats?
If you have a cat that attacks you and anyone else that comes close it’s normal.
When it goes for your furniture, appears to be taking on a phantom spirit or an invisible mouse, it’s OK. It’s normal.
Those times that the cat’s bouncing off the walls, knocking stuff off the counters, or stealing and walking around with unusual objects. Don’t concern yourself, your cat is acting quite normally.
What he or she is probably doing displaying this apparently obnoxious behaviour is actually acting out play and predatory behaviour.
When these behaviours maninfest themselves in the middle of the night, in the early hours of the morning, it’s because cats are creatures of the night. Their activity levels tend to peak early in the morning or late at night.
It is particularly frequent with bored and lonely cats with an excess of energy because they are cooped up indoors and have nowhere to use up their natural energy.
Prevention and cure
Providing opportunities for games, entertainment and exercise can prevent these behaviours exploding into your home.
But don’t just throw a toy into the mix. Get down on the floor and play! Use some string and tie a toy to the end. Hurl it down the stairs and reel it in, or drag it slowly across the living room floor. Putting a bird feeder outside a window your cat likes to look out of will give your cat ample opportunity to watching the birds dive-bomb your bedding plants and shrubs.
To stop the activity happening at night you will need to train your cat to shift the active phase to earlier in the day. Instead of letting the cat snooze while you relax watching television, find ways to enable your cat to play.
If you can tire him or her out early in the evening, he or she is more likely to sleep all night. If this doesn’t work and he or she still insists on playing nocturnally, then find ways of enabling her to carry on without disturbing you . Provide your cat with lots of soft toys.
Frenzy and Noise
Caterwauling, frenzied behaviour and spraying urine are also signs that your female cat may be in heat or your full male cat may be responding to his female counterparts in heat. The only solution here is to get your cat spayed or neutered.
Spaying is the surgical removal of ovaries and uterus but it also removes the annoying behaviours associated with being in heat.
The prime time for spaying is as soon as your female cat is six months old. She doesn’t need to go through one heat period. Indeed she should be spayed before her first heat.
Castration is the simple surgical procedure to remove the male cat’s testes. As well as eliminating the possibility of testicular cancer and reducing risks of prostatic and other reproductive problems, there is also a rapid decline in roaming, aggression, fighting and spraying in most male cats. if castration does not happen at the earliest opportunity, bad behaviours can become ingrained habits.
