A vet has warned cat owners not to stroke their beloved pets during the night if they are woken up by them. Cats are one of the most popular pets in the UK, with around 11 million owned, according to Cats Protection, slightly lower than the 15 million dog owners. Nevertheless, this means there are millions of people looking to understand cats and their behaviour.
Why stroking at night is a mistake
According to vet Carlos Gutiérrez, if your cat jumps up on your bed overnight, the last thing you should do is stroke it. The reason, Carlos explained, is that cats act through learned behaviour. Therefore, the concern is that a cat may feel rewarded by getting attention from its owner in the middle of the night and think that behaviour is good.
As a result, if they know waking you up in the middle of the night will get them something positive in return, that could reinforce their behaviour rather than put a stop to it.
What to do instead
Speaking to El Espanol about the matter, Carlos said: “If your cat keeps you awake at night, never reward it with strokes when it miaows….Never reward them with food, petting, or your attention if they miaow to wake you up.”
Should someone find that their cat is doing this, Carlos’s recommendation is to gradually change their routine so that, over time, they stop waking you up. Examples of this include making sure the cat does not associate the early hours of the morning with attention, and so they create a disassociation between those two things. Furthermore, this includes increasing one’s focus on the cat during the day to emphasise that this is the right time for play and activity.
However, Carlos warned that progress would not be quick, as it is “an adaptation that tends to be slow”.
Litter box golden rule
Yet, he is not the only person who has been giving advice on how people can keep their pets safe. Host of the television programme ‘My Cat From Hell’, Jackson Galaxy, has claimed through their TikTok account that there is one golden rule cat owners should follow. Said rule involves the all-important litter box.
He said: “When it comes to litter boxes, embrace the code of litter boxes. Embrace the golden rule of litter boxes, which is for each cat you have, you have a litter box, plus one. One cat, two litterboxes. Two cats, three litter boxes. It works.”
What’s more, he added that it was critical for people to make sure they strategically position their cats’ litter boxes around the house rather than putting them directly next to one another. He said: “Still doesn't count. I call litter boxes the king of scent soakers. Scent soakers are this thing that symbolise the sanctity of territory. Where your cat walks by it, it's almost like you walking by your mantle and you see all the pictures of your family. You walk by and you're all proud of your family.”
