It’s that time of year again in the Northern Hemisphere. The days are getting longer and even though the snow is piled high and the wind bitter cold, the calls and emails come in as cats, in particular, succumb to seasonal orders.
But wait a minute! Shouldn’t those behaviors be called disorders like the seasonal changes in behavior some humans experience?
Not at all. Even though we may find these season-related animal behaviors disconcerting or even incomprehensible, they’re no more abnormal than the natural tendency for those same animals to slow down and sleep more as the days get shorter. However, as we humans increasingly define ourselves in terms of our quite unnatural 24-hour clocks and equally unnatural calendars, our bodies and those of all animals continue to respond to natural rhythms. In other domestic animals who share our daylight orientation, it’s not that difficult to convince them that they should adhere to the same time pattern we do. Many cats do, too, all or enough of the time that it’s easy to forget that they evolved from well-developed nocturnal as well as solitary roots.
But much as we might like to, at least some cats make it impossible for us to forget this at this time of year.
For me questions about cats responding to seasonal orders are one of the first harbingers of spring, inevitably arriving before the first red-winged blackbird. (I can’t say “robin” any more because I now have robins year around here in New Hampshire.) Generally, theses cats are engaging in one of several behaviors. Some suddenly start waking their owners up at night, sometimes by running over the owners’ beds, other times by prowling the house and vocalizing. Other night-active felines may attack moving human legs or feet under blankets. People who deliberately or inadvertently trained their cats to lick their noses to wake them up at what those folks considered the appropriate time may find themselves awakened by feline nose-nips in the middle of the night instead. Meanwhile, other cats start spraying or otherwise marking their space with urine, stool, or claw marks, while those living with other cats may start squabbling with each other.
“You call all this normal?” you might well ask. Well, it is normal relative to what the animal’s physiology has prepared him or her to do this time of year: find a good mate.
“Not so!” you counter. “My pet is spayed [or neutered]!”
Nobody doubts that such surgery makes it impossible for an animal to reproduce, but it doesn’t eliminate these animals’ awareness of what’s going on in the world around them. Additionally, there’s a fair amount of anecdotal evidence—and I hear it from clients and friends, and have observed it firsthand—that these animals do retain their sexual natures. But even if the surgery has somehow magically wiped out all sexual components, all animals are territorial and even pets who show no interest in sex are aware of the movement of other animals through their space. In- and outdoor cats may sense these intruders as they make their outdoor rounds; animal sensory perception is so much more advanced than ours that even strict housecats are aware of such presences.
As the days get longer, activity increases in the wild animal and free-roaming and feral cat populations also may stimulate pet cats. During this time, testosterone levels increase in both male and female wild animals. This not only enhances arousal, but also ensures a ready supply of energy necessary for the establishment of a territory and successful mating. More social animals who may have banded together with others to survive the harsh winter now begin to compete rather than cooperate. More solitary, nocturnal animals like cats, skunks, and raccoons leave pheromone-laden calling cards as they pass through yards in even the most urbanized settings. These messages identify their source (species, sex, and reproductive status) and signal any territorial and sexual intentions. Even if a pet can’t or doesn’t want to participate in these rites of spring, studies in chronobiology make it clear that animal physiology responds to seasonal as well as daily, monthly, and other cycles.
So what to do with the seasonally affected pet? Well, it depends on the cat and what, specifically, the cat is doing. Those who merely revert to normal—for them—nocturnal behavior may be ignored simply by closing your bedroom door and using a sound machine or radio tuned to static to block out any noise they might make that would awaken you. Delaying playtimes and feeding until last thing before you go to bed also may induce some cats to sleep through nighttime activities that might otherwise alert them. For sure, you don’t want to react to the cat who wakes you up in any way because that will reward the behavior and cause it persist and even escalate. There are more than a few cat owners who rue the day they ever got up and yelled at or fed the cat at 2 a.m. in hopes the cat would then start sleeping through the night!
Unfortunately, cats who mark, fight with each other, and/or have concurrent medical problems can’t be crammed into a one-size-fits-all treatment mold because doing so could make any behavioral issues worse. In that case the proper response is to have a complete bond and behavioral work-up done to ensure the treatment program meets that animal’s and that owner’s specific needs.
As with all animal behaviors, seasonally-related ones are perfectly normal and, indeed, exquisitely elegant when they occur in a natural setting. But when our pets’ interpretations of these sensations and any displays in themselves and others are colored by domestication, spay and neutering, and their relationship with us, some animals may become stressed and seek to relieve that stress in ways we consider problematic.
Yes, we could see their reluctance to adhere to the same more often than not artificial rules that govern our own activities as yet another way that cats can complicate our lives. But we can also choose to see these seasonal changes as a reminder that animals march to the beat of a drummer far more ancient and sophisticated than anything we humans have invented or ever will. While we most certainly should seek to relieve any animal or human stress that arises when natural seasonal orders clash with artificial human ones, we also should be glad for this reminder of our own intimate link with nature.
If you have any comments regarding subject matter, favorite links, or anything you’d like to see discussed on or added to this site, please let me know at mm@mmilani.com.
But wait a minute! Shouldn’t those behaviors be called disorders like the seasonal changes in behavior some humans experience?
Not at all. Even though we may find these season-related animal behaviors disconcerting or even incomprehensible, they’re no more abnormal than the natural tendency for those same animals to slow down and sleep more as the days get shorter. However, as we humans increasingly define ourselves in terms of our quite unnatural 24-hour clocks and equally unnatural calendars, our bodies and those of all animals continue to respond to natural rhythms. In other domestic animals who share our daylight orientation, it’s not that difficult to convince them that they should adhere to the same time pattern we do. Many cats do, too, all or enough of the time that it’s easy to forget that they evolved from well-developed nocturnal as well as solitary roots.
But much as we might like to, at least some cats make it impossible for us to forget this at this time of year.
For me questions about cats responding to seasonal orders are one of the first harbingers of spring, inevitably arriving before the first red-winged blackbird. (I can’t say “robin” any more because I now have robins year around here in New Hampshire.) Generally, theses cats are engaging in one of several behaviors. Some suddenly start waking their owners up at night, sometimes by running over the owners’ beds, other times by prowling the house and vocalizing. Other night-active felines may attack moving human legs or feet under blankets. People who deliberately or inadvertently trained their cats to lick their noses to wake them up at what those folks considered the appropriate time may find themselves awakened by feline nose-nips in the middle of the night instead. Meanwhile, other cats start spraying or otherwise marking their space with urine, stool, or claw marks, while those living with other cats may start squabbling with each other.
“You call all this normal?” you might well ask. Well, it is normal relative to what the animal’s physiology has prepared him or her to do this time of year: find a good mate.
“Not so!” you counter. “My pet is spayed [or neutered]!”
Nobody doubts that such surgery makes it impossible for an animal to reproduce, but it doesn’t eliminate these animals’ awareness of what’s going on in the world around them. Additionally, there’s a fair amount of anecdotal evidence—and I hear it from clients and friends, and have observed it firsthand—that these animals do retain their sexual natures. But even if the surgery has somehow magically wiped out all sexual components, all animals are territorial and even pets who show no interest in sex are aware of the movement of other animals through their space. In- and outdoor cats may sense these intruders as they make their outdoor rounds; animal sensory perception is so much more advanced than ours that even strict housecats are aware of such presences.
As the days get longer, activity increases in the wild animal and free-roaming and feral cat populations also may stimulate pet cats. During this time, testosterone levels increase in both male and female wild animals. This not only enhances arousal, but also ensures a ready supply of energy necessary for the establishment of a territory and successful mating. More social animals who may have banded together with others to survive the harsh winter now begin to compete rather than cooperate. More solitary, nocturnal animals like cats, skunks, and raccoons leave pheromone-laden calling cards as they pass through yards in even the most urbanized settings. These messages identify their source (species, sex, and reproductive status) and signal any territorial and sexual intentions. Even if a pet can’t or doesn’t want to participate in these rites of spring, studies in chronobiology make it clear that animal physiology responds to seasonal as well as daily, monthly, and other cycles.
So what to do with the seasonally affected pet? Well, it depends on the cat and what, specifically, the cat is doing. Those who merely revert to normal—for them—nocturnal behavior may be ignored simply by closing your bedroom door and using a sound machine or radio tuned to static to block out any noise they might make that would awaken you. Delaying playtimes and feeding until last thing before you go to bed also may induce some cats to sleep through nighttime activities that might otherwise alert them. For sure, you don’t want to react to the cat who wakes you up in any way because that will reward the behavior and cause it persist and even escalate. There are more than a few cat owners who rue the day they ever got up and yelled at or fed the cat at 2 a.m. in hopes the cat would then start sleeping through the night!
Unfortunately, cats who mark, fight with each other, and/or have concurrent medical problems can’t be crammed into a one-size-fits-all treatment mold because doing so could make any behavioral issues worse. In that case the proper response is to have a complete bond and behavioral work-up done to ensure the treatment program meets that animal’s and that owner’s specific needs.
As with all animal behaviors, seasonally-related ones are perfectly normal and, indeed, exquisitely elegant when they occur in a natural setting. But when our pets’ interpretations of these sensations and any displays in themselves and others are colored by domestication, spay and neutering, and their relationship with us, some animals may become stressed and seek to relieve that stress in ways we consider problematic.
Yes, we could see their reluctance to adhere to the same more often than not artificial rules that govern our own activities as yet another way that cats can complicate our lives. But we can also choose to see these seasonal changes as a reminder that animals march to the beat of a drummer far more ancient and sophisticated than anything we humans have invented or ever will. While we most certainly should seek to relieve any animal or human stress that arises when natural seasonal orders clash with artificial human ones, we also should be glad for this reminder of our own intimate link with nature.
If you have any comments regarding subject matter, favorite links, or anything you’d like to see discussed on or added to this site, please let me know at mm@mmilani.com.