Where do cats like to sleep?
Have you seen the Simon’s Cat Logic series of videos? Creator Simon Tofield and Cats Protection’s Behaviour Manager Nicky Trevorrow team up to examine one of the Simon’s Cat videos and explain why cats do what they do.
In the latest video in the series, the duo look at Simon’s Cat in the video ‘Catnap’ and talk about cats’ favourite sleeping places.
“My second cat Chloe used to love the airing cupboard and would always find a way of sneaking in there and going up to the second shelf and laying on the soft towels in the warm,” Simon explains. “She loved it in there.”
Cats sleep or rest intermittently throughout the day, for an average of about 16 hours – even more in kittens and elderly cats.
“Cats like to sleep somewhere safe, usually up high” says Nicky. “They’re also really fond of somewhere dark and warm. You may think to yourself ‘why does my cat sleep in this random place on the floor, especially when I’ve bought this really expensive cat bed?’ But if you follow the lines of the hot water pipes in your house, you may well find that your cat’s sleeping just above them, keeping nice and toasty!”
Nicky also explains in the video why cats love laundry.
“All laundry provides a comfortable place for cats to sleep,” she says. “Some cats prefer dirty laundry, just because it smells familiar to them and it has the scent of the owner of them whereas other cats prefer clean laundry and this could because if it’s been freshly tumble dried it’s going to be nice and warm, it’s a safe place to sleep.”
“Whether it’s a box, the laundry pile or even a suitcase, cats tend to rotate their sleeping place, which is a normal behaviour. We think this is a throwback to African Wildcat behaviour, where they want to regularly change their sleeping place to avoid a build-up of external parasites.”
If you want to learn more about cat behaviour, check out the behaviour area of our website.
Does your cat have an unusual sleeping place? Tell us on Twitter @catsprotection and use the hashtag #SimonsCatLogic
