Do cats feels lonely when they’re alone?
Cat may seems like they like to be left alone and independent. However, domestic cat tend to crave for companionship and often attach to their owner. Cat is a very social creature, don’t be mistaken with their territorial nature.
So the answer is yes. Cat do feels lonely when they are leave alone.
But since cat is generally quite independent, you can leave your cat for a certain period without worrying too much. Provided your cat is healthy and does not need much human assistance.
- under 4 month : a couple of hours
- 4 – 5 month : 5 – 6 hours
- 6 month and above : 8 hours
- adult cat : up tp 48 hours
Keep in mind you need to prepare for all your pet needs, such as enough food, water, clean litter and entertainment.
What happened if you leave your cat alone too much?
They can start displaying destructive behavior, lost of appetite, peeing outside litter box ( since their litter box is dirty ) or excessive grooming.
What should you do if you have to leave your cat alone for a period of time.
#1 Prepare enough food and water
Before you go out leaving your cat, feed your cat until he satisfied. Then proceed fill up their food and water bowl. If you plan on leaving your cat for a few days, it is a good ideas to invests in automated food feeder and drinking fountain.
For example like Automatic Cat Feeder Petoneer Nutri Vision Smart, you can control food distribution through app, there is even and a mic so you can talk and see your cat. While drinking fountain will help to maintain the water from being stale. For instance, Petonner Fresco drinking fountain comes in 3 water filter to ensure your pet drinking water is safe and clean from dirt and dangerous mental like lead.
Preparing multiple bowl of food and water in a different part of your house also can help, incase your pet need extra food and water.
#2 Clean litter
This might be a little bit tricky. Cat is a fan of cleanliness especially when it come to their litter box. From my own personal experience if their litter is not clean, they will have the tendency to “go” somewhere else.
The other way of doing this, you may prepare a few clean litter box throughout your house. So incase one of the litter box is filthy, your cat can have another clean litter box that he can use. Bonus point, you don’t have to come back home and see a massive mass.
#3 Provide play area
Your cats can feel bored if he were left alone, to avoid them from making a big mess while your are not around, provide enough entertainment such as cat trees and toys for them to fill up their time. Bored cat can display a destructive behavior too.
#4 Cat Sitter
If you plan to leave your home for a week long, try to arrange for a pet sitter to come clean and play with your furry friend. As I mention above, even though they are territorial creature, cats still required human interaction.
#5 Get Additional Cat
Since cat is a social creature, this means they can live together with another cat provided with a proper introductory. Keep in mind with their age too! Senior cat that used to be alone might not be so welcoming at first, but with proper introduction they would get along just fine.