Why do cats get the zoomies at two in the morning ?

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Because we are by nature more nocturnal ! We sleep 14-18 hours a day, mainly during the day, especially if our human is at work and we have nothing else to do.

Then it’s purrfectly normal for us to vent us at night if we fail to day activities. However, this night game marathon is not necessarily the taste of our human …

Here is how our humans can adjust our internal clock for their personal comfort :

ensure that we are as active as possible, and therefore woken during the day : put toys available and use a treat dispenser that requires some activity to get a reward
provide more intensive sessions of various games on a regular schedule. If your human works all day, it’s best to plan a morning game session in the morning, a play session when he’s back from work, and a play session prior to the time you go to bed
use an interactive toy for these play sessions (throwing balls, laser, tape continue fishing rod, …)

To win more quiet nights, your human must meet the program daily. After 1 month, Claire was able to spend whole nights (22h30-5h30) without interruption from us, except full moon nights. Those nights are special, nothing can stop us from having the zoomies !

22 thoughts on “Why do cats get the zoomies at two in the morning ?”

Ellen Pilch 9 January 2015 at 14 h 51 min

This is a great post. We got da bird interactive toy for Christmas and the kitties do have less zoomies when they get to play with it.

Connie 9 January 2015 at 16 h 38 min

actually, cats are not nocturnal.. they are crepuscular, being more active during twilight hours since that is when their natural prey is most active.

da tabbies o trout towne 9 January 2015 at 18 h 19 min

pixie N zorro, we like ta find de loudest noiz maker in de houz N play with it at round 3:13 am !!!!

🙂

heerz two a warm, walleye, whitefish week oh end !! ♥♥♥

Summer 9 January 2015 at 20 h 00 min

My human doesn’t know if it is because she is a night owl, or because she tends to “bother” her cats during the day and keep us all from getting a full nap on, but she has never had this problem of cats going nuts while she is trying to sleep. Every cat has pretty much adjusted to her schedule. With kittens, sometimes it takes a little bit of time and growing up, but even they get used to it.

Timmy Tomcat 9 January 2015 at 20 h 44 min

Dad has us pretty well to his own schedule. I think it was all the play in the morning and when he gets home from work because I know I used to love to zoom at night. Lately Buddy and Toby have been capitol Z Zooming between 6 and 8pm. MOL
You are such a cutie Pixie
Timmy

Cathy Keisha 9 January 2015 at 22 h 59 min

Deaden that thing, Pixie! THEN keep the human awake. TW plays with me before she goes to bed and it’s a double edged sword. She gets the heart rate up and she can’t fall asleep anyway.

Flynn 9 January 2015 at 23 h 06 min

I get my best zoomies when I have been in the litter box in the middle of the night. The moon makes me have extra mad zoomies too.

Dezi and Lexi 9 January 2015 at 23 h 22 min

Gweat posty. We sleep most all night every night. We do get up to go pawdee and get a dwink and sumtimes dat means we play a little. but no wild zoomies. We weserve those fur da daytime. glad Claire wuz able to get sum sleep. 🙂

Luv ya’

Dezi and Lexi

The Island Cats 9 January 2015 at 23 h 30 min

We do it just to annoy the humans! 😉

LP 10 January 2015 at 3 h 08 min

We all sleep through most of the night. Esme even sleeps in LP’s arms! The kittenbabies still play at night some times but they don’t get crazy enough to wake efurryone up! Pixie, your furs are looking so beautiful! 🙂

the critters in the cottage xo

Raven 10 January 2015 at 3 h 36 min

Very good tips for reducing night-time zoomies. My humans are glad that I don’t zoom much until about 5am. But I do like to hack up furballs around 4am. That’s always a fun sound for them to wake up to, especially since I’m usually on their bed.

Kitties Blue 10 January 2015 at 6 h 09 min

Oh, Pixie, you are getting so super big. We tend to sleep all night as we sleep with our humans. And we get lots of activity on the cat during the day (if it is not too cold outside). Hope to see you Sunday for our selfies blog hop. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

Hannah and Lucy 10 January 2015 at 14 h 44 min

We nearly always sleep through the night – it’s Mum that keeps us awake!
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx

Little Binky and Granny 10 January 2015 at 18 h 30 min

I only zoom at night because Granny loves it 😀 Pawkisses for a Happy Weekend 🙂 <3

Canadian Cats 10 January 2015 at 21 h 32 min

What great suggestions….most of our toys are interactive and the ones that aren’t….soon are after I throw them at mom…hehehe

(((Shoko)))

Layla Morgan Wilde (Cat Wisdom 101) 10 January 2015 at 22 h 39 min

Connie is correct about dawn and dusk being the most active times. Every cat is different and will adjust. The sleeping hours are spread out and all cats sleep with their senses active able to wake up and leap in a second. I’m a night owl and often my cats will go to bed before me 🙂

Katnip Lounge 11 January 2015 at 6 h 49 min

Mommy calls it the 10 pm crazies! Strangely enough, we sleep through the night and get wild before we go to bed–maybe because daddy chases us around the house before he goes to sleep!

Christy Paws 11 January 2015 at 15 h 48 min

Those are great tips for humans who have problems with the zoomies. Our mom is lucky. We almost always sleep through the night. I never get the zoomies and the boys reserve it for an occasional daytime activity.

Athena 11 January 2015 at 17 h 30 min

I tend to sleep most of the night on Mum’s bed and then wake her up at 5 am for my breakfast!

Purrs xx
Athena

Bev Green 11 January 2015 at 22 h 31 min

Pixie you sweetie 🙂 Full moon madness takes Pickles to a whole new level of Zoomie! she goes nuts! no matter what energy she has used during the day hahahaahaa 🙂 my little moon witch she is 🙂 huge hugs and hope Momo continues to do well ,..you are always in our thoughts much loves Fozziemum and nutty Pickles ! xxxx <3

Clooney 12 January 2015 at 5 h 35 min

Pixie it looks like you are having some good playtime. Great pointers, glad this has helped the zoomies and the sleep! Mostly, we sleep through the night, on occasion we are up zooming around.