17 Things Your Indoor Cat Does While You Are Out
You close the door and imagine eight hours of sleep. Pet cameras tell a more interesting story, and it shows you exactly how to make an indoor cat's day better.
Cats do sleep a great deal. An adult cat sleeps 12 to 16 hours out of every 24, and kittens and seniors sleep more. But in between naps, an indoor cat home alone follows a routine of its own, and owners who set up cameras are often surprised by how organized it is.
That routine comes straight from the cat's history as a small, solitary hunter. A cat living outdoors spends its day in short cycles: hunt, eat, groom, sleep, and then patrol its territory before starting again. Your living room has no mice, but the programming is still there. Your cat runs the same cycle with whatever the house provides.
This is why what happens while you are out matters. An indoor cat lives longer and more safely than an outdoor one, but it depends completely on you for things to watch, climb, scratch and chase. A cat with nothing to do is the cat that overeats, overgrooms or starts urinating outside the box.
Here is what is probably going on at your house right now, and one simple way to improve each part of the day.
Read all the way to the end. The last one happens just before you walk in.
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First hour
1. Watches you leave
Sounds like your cat?Many cats go to a window or sit facing the door for a while after you go. Some call out once or twice. Then most of them wash, settle and fall asleep.
Cats are far more attached to their people than their reputation suggests. They read your leaving routine closely: the shoes, the keys, the coat. Most cope well with a normal working day.
AdvertisementA minority develop separation-related problems. The signs are urinating on your bed or clothes, yowling, destructive scratching at doors, or refusing food until you return. Cats that were orphaned, hand-reared or have always had someone home are most at risk.
Make it betterLeave calmly, without a long goodbye, and scatter a few treats or set out a food puzzle as you go so that your departure predicts something good. -
Most of the day
2. Sleeps in several different spots
Sounds like your cat?On camera you will see your cat use four or five resting places in a day: a bed, a chair, a shelf, the back of the sofa, a box.
AdvertisementMost of this sleep is light dozing with the ears still swiveling toward sounds. Only about a quarter of it is deep sleep, which is when you see the paws and whiskers twitch. Rotating spots is instinct. It keeps a cat's scent spread around the territory and, in the wild, keeps parasites from building up in one nest.
Cats also choose by height and by temperature. They feel secure up high with a wall behind them. A senior cat who gives up the high spots is usually stiff with arthritis, which is very common and often missed in cats over 12.
Make it betterOffer several warm resting places at different heights, and give an older cat steps or a ramp up to its favorite one. -
Late morning
3. Follows the sun
Sounds like your cat?As the sun moves across the floor, so does the cat, from one warm rectangle to the next.
AdvertisementCats descend from a desert species and are comfortable at much higher temperatures than we are. Their comfort zone starts at around 86 degrees Fahrenheit, which is why a house that feels pleasant to you feels slightly cool to them. Lying in the sun lets them stay warm without burning calories.
There is one caution. Cats with white ears and pink noses can get sunburned through window glass, and repeated sun damage leads to skin cancer on the ear tips and nose. A sore or crust on a white ear that does not heal needs a vet.
AdvertisementA house that feels pleasant to you feels slightly cool to a cat, and the sunny patch fixes that.
Make it betterKeep a blind open on the sunny side of the house and put a bed or a window perch where the light falls. -
On and off
4. Watches the window
Sounds like your cat?Birds, squirrels, falling leaves, delivery trucks and the neighbor's dog are all entertainment. A cat can sit at a good window for an hour.
A cat's eyes are built to detect small, fast movement, so watching the outdoors is real mental stimulation and one of the best forms of enrichment an indoor cat can have.
It has a downside. The sight of a strange cat in the yard is a threat to territory, and an indoor cat who cannot chase it off becomes agitated. This is a leading cause of urine spraying near windows and doors, and of sudden attacks on another pet in the home.
AdvertisementMake it betterHang a bird feeder where your cat can see it from a secure perch. If stray cats are the view, cover the lower part of that window with frosted film. -
At the window
5. Chatters at birds
Sounds like your cat?The jaw quivers rapidly and a strange clicking, chirping sound comes out, with the eyes locked on a bird and the tail tip twitching.
This is predatory excitement with nowhere to go. The rapid jaw movement closely resembles the killing bite a cat uses on prey, performed in the air because the prey is behind glass.
AdvertisementIt is harmless and normal. But a cat that is aroused by prey many times a day and never gets to complete a hunt carries that frustration around. It comes out later as ankle ambushes and rough play.
Make it betterGive a 10-minute session with a wand toy each evening, let your cat catch it at the end, and follow it with a meal so the hunt finishes properly. -
Several times
6. Patrols the house
Sounds like your cat?Cats walk a regular circuit through the home, checking each room. Along the way they rub their cheeks and chin on door frames, chair legs and corners.
That rubbing is called bunting. Glands on the cheeks, chin and forehead deposit facial pheromones, which mark an object as familiar and safe. A cat living among its own scent marks is a calm cat. The synthetic pheromone diffusers sold for anxious cats copy this facial pheromone.
AdvertisementThis is also why cats dislike change. New furniture, fresh paint and a deep clean all wipe out the scent map, and the cat must rebuild it.
Make it betterLeave interior doors open so the circuit stays complete, and leave the cheek-rubbed corners alone when you clean. -
After naps
7. Scratches
Sounds like your cat?A cat wakes, walks to a favorite surface, stretches up tall and rakes its claws down.
Scratching does four jobs. It stretches the muscles of the back and shoulders, pulls the worn outer sheath off each claw, leaves a visible mark, and deposits scent from glands between the toes. It is a need, not a bad habit, and it cannot be trained out.
AdvertisementYou can only direct it. Cats scratch most after sleeping and in prominent places. Declawing is not a solution. It is the amputation of the last bone of each toe, and it causes lasting pain in many cats.
Scratching is a need, not a bad habit. You can direct it, but you cannot train it out.
Make it betterPut a sturdy post, at least 3 feet tall and heavy enough not to wobble, beside the favorite sleeping spot. Sisal rope or fabric is the texture most cats prefer. -
After meals
8. Grooms thoroughly
Sounds like your cat?A long wash follows every meal and usually comes before a nap. It runs in a fixed order: the paw is licked, then the face, then the shoulders, flanks and tail.
AdvertisementCats spend a large share of their waking hours grooming. It cleans the coat, spreads natural oils, cools the body through evaporation and calms the cat. The tongue is covered in backward-facing spines that work like a comb.
Changes in grooming are medical signs. Licking the belly or inner thighs bald points to fleas, allergy, bladder pain or stress. An older cat with a greasy, matted coat along the back has stopped grooming because of arthritis, dental pain or excess weight.
Make it betterBrush your cat a few times a week, daily for long coats, and take any bald patches or an unkempt coat to your vet.Advertisement -
Little and often
9. Eats small meals
Sounds like your cat?Given the choice, a cat eats ten or more small meals spread across the day and night. A mouse provides about 30 calories, and a cat's stomach and appetite are designed around that portion.
Two large meals a day suit our schedules, not their biology. But a bowl kept full of dry food is the main cause of obesity in indoor cats, and obesity leads to diabetes and arthritis. The answer is to measure the daily ration and then divide it.
Cats must also eat regularly. A cat that stops eating for more than a day or two, particularly an overweight one, can develop hepatic lipidosis, a serious liver disease.
AdvertisementA mouse is about 30 calories, and a cat's appetite is built around that portion.
Make it betterSplit the measured daily ration between a timed feeder and a puzzle feeder, so your cat gets several small meals and has to work for some of them. -
Short bursts
10. Plays alone
Sounds like your cat?A toy mouse is batted down the hall. A rug corner is attacked. Something invisible is chased up the stairs. Each session lasts a minute or two and then stops.
Play in cats is hunting practice, and real hunts are short, intense efforts. So brief bursts are normal, and several short sessions a day suit a cat better than one long one. Cats also lose interest in a toy quickly once it stops seeming new.
Check what is left lying around. String, yarn, ribbon, thread, rubber bands and hair ties are dangerous if swallowed. A length of string can saw through the intestine and requires emergency surgery.
AdvertisementMake it betterKeep toys in a box and put out three or four different ones every few days, so there is always something that seems new. Put away anything long and stringy before you leave. -
When it is quiet
11. Explores forbidden places
Sounds like your cat?Counters, bookshelves and the top of the refrigerator all get inspected when no one is there to object.
Cats are climbers, and height means safety and a good view. Counters also smell of food. A cat cannot be taught that a place is off limits when you are absent. It learns only that the place is off limits when you are present.
AdvertisementSo make the house safe instead. Lilies are the most serious hazard. Every part of a true lily or daylily, including the pollen and the vase water, causes kidney failure in cats, and they should never be in a home with one. Keep human medications shut away as well.
Make it betterGive your cat a tall cat tree by a window so it has a permitted high place, and remove lilies, loose pills and food from the surfaces it can reach. -
Now and then
12. Knocks things over
Sounds like your cat?A paw reaches out, taps a pen toward the edge of the desk, pauses and taps again. The pen goes over.
AdvertisementThis is exploratory and predatory behavior. Cats test objects with a paw to see whether they move, the same way they test prey. An object that falls and rolls has behaved like something alive, which is rewarding. If it also brings you running, your cat has learned an excellent way to get attention.
It is normal behavior, but it is more frequent in a bored cat. More play is the cure.
Make it betterKeep breakables away from edges or fix them down with museum putty, and do not react when it happens. Add a daily play session instead. -
In empty rooms
13. Calls out
Sounds like your cat?Some cats meow or yowl when alone. Siamese and other oriental breeds are simply talkative. In others, crying is a sign that needs attention.
AdvertisementIn a cat over ten, new loud yowling, especially at night, has medical causes until proven otherwise. The main ones are an overactive thyroid, high blood pressure, kidney disease, pain, hearing loss and feline cognitive dysfunction. Most of these are found with a blood test and a blood pressure check, and most are treatable.
In a younger cat, persistent crying when alone points to separation distress or, in an unspayed female, to being in heat.
In a cat over ten, new yowling at night is a medical sign until proven otherwise.
Make it betterBook a vet check for any cat, particularly a senior, that has started crying more than it used to. Do not put it down to old age.Advertisement -
Midday
14. Sleeps on your things
Sounds like your cat?Your pillow, your sweater and the laundry basket all smell strongly of you. To a cat your scent means safety, and mixing its own scent with yours is how it marks you as part of its group.
This is affection in cat terms. Cats that live together and get along sleep in contact and share a group scent. Choosing your pillow is the same behavior.
Watch for one variation. Some cats, particularly Siamese and Burmese, suck or chew on wool and fabric. Swallowed fabric causes intestinal blockages, so a wool-chewer needs clothing kept out of reach.
Make it betterLeave a worn T-shirt on your cat's bed when you go out, and send one along for any stay at the vet or cattery. -
Whenever
15. Uses the litter box in peace
Sounds like your cat?Many cats prefer to use the box when the house is quiet. A cat is vulnerable while eliminating and wants privacy and a clear view of the exits.
AdvertisementGet the setup right and most litter problems never start. Provide one box per cat plus one extra, in different places. Each box should be one and a half times the length of the cat. Most cats prefer unscented, fine, clumping litter and an uncovered box, and none like a box beside a noisy washing machine.
Know the emergency. A cat, especially a male, that strains in the box, makes repeated trips and passes little or no urine has a blocked urethra. It is fatal within a day or two without treatment.
AdvertisementA cat straining in the litter box with nothing to show for it is an emergency, at any hour.
Make it betterScoop at least once a day and wash the box with mild soap weekly. Take a straining cat to a vet immediately. -
Late afternoon
16. Gets the zoomies
Sounds like your cat?Late in the day your cat tears down the hall, skids around a corner, leaps onto the sofa and stops, wide-eyed. A minute later it is over.
Cats are crepuscular, which means they are most active at dawn and dusk, when their natural prey is moving. An indoor cat that has dozed all day reaches the evening with a full tank of energy and nothing to spend it on.
AdvertisementThis is normal, and common right after using the litter box. It is different from the restlessness of an older cat that is losing weight despite a big appetite, which is the classic sign of an overactive thyroid.
Make it betterSchedule your main play session for when you get home, and feed dinner afterward. A cat that has hunted and eaten will sleep. -
Just before you return
17. Waits by the door
Sounds like your cat?Your cat is on the mat or the windowsill when you come in, and has been for several minutes.
Cats learn the daily timetable from their body clock, the changing light, and regular sounds such as the school bus or the neighbor's car. Their hearing extends far above ours, and they recognize the particular sound of your engine or your step on the stairs well before you reach the door.
AdvertisementThe greeting itself is specific. A tail held straight up, often with a hooked tip, is the friendly greeting cats reserve for those they like. The leg rub that follows renews the shared scent.
Make it betterGreet your cat before you do anything else. Offer a hand to sniff, then stroke the cheeks and chin, which is where cats most like to be touched.
The short version
A healthy indoor cat keeps itself busy, but it relies on you to make the house worth being busy in. Sun, a view, something tall to climb, something sturdy to scratch, several small meals and a clean, quiet litter box cover nearly everything. A daily play session with a wand toy, ending in a catch and a meal, covers the rest.
The same routine tells you when something is wrong. A cat that stops jumping, grooms less or far more, cries at night, changes its eating or drinking, or alters its litter box habits is not being difficult. Cats hide illness well, and a change in the daily pattern is often the first and only sign you get. Tell your vet what you have seen.
If you have never watched your cat on a camera, try it for a day. You will learn which window matters most, which bed gets used and when the energy peaks, and you can arrange the house to suit.
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