New 5 month old shelter cat adopted to good home, but turns into chaotic kitty with zoomies at 4 am every night, keeping pet owners awake all night: 'We tried playing with him for like an hour and a half straight, he doesn’t stop'

Author image for Briana Viser
Briana Viser • Writer and Editor
Oct 28, 2025 7:00 PM EDT

Adopting a new pet, especially a young kitten or puppy, is a lot of work. It's impossible to know how things will be with the animal until you have it. Take the story below as a good example: the protagonist is a woman who just adopted her first ever kitten with her husband. They went to the shelter together to pick out a kitten, and decided on one who seemed chill at the time. On the kitten's file, it did say that she was a little on edge and would run around at night. Little did they know this meant complete and utter sleep-depriving chaos. The little kitten is literally bouncing off the walls at night, zooming from room to room, keeping up the owners so they can't get any sleep. 

They try multiple tactics to calm the little kitty down, but eventually nothing works. They seek wholesome advice from the internet for their situation. 

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  • 01

    my cat has a switch that turns on at 4 am every day

    Hyper kitten
    via u_ud2bon3z46 from pixabay / Canva

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    so, my boyfriend and i just adopted a 5 month old kitten. from our local shelter. his file from the previous owners that
    via u/webstatic
  • 03
    returned him after adopting from the shelter said that he was too active for them, getting up and walking around in the middle of
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  • 04
    the night and keeping them awake. i didn't really think this would be an issue for us because those owners were old and the
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  • 05
    wife was on hospice. us being young adults i figure we won't be bothered by it as much. i was
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  • 06
    wrong. they heavily sugar coated his behavior in the file. we both work overnights, so him being awake in the middle of the night
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  • Having a kitten could be akin to having a baby. They might meow and keep you up all night, or have insane zoomies like the cat in the story here. There's no telling what kind of personality the cat will have until you're up all night with a furball. 

  • 07
    is fine, to an extent, but he does not stop until around 8 am and it's ridiculous. every day like clockwork he gets the most
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  • 08
    energetic zoomies around 4 am. he'll climb behind the furniture, he'll be messing around with stuff
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  • 09
    under the bed, he'll literally be bouncing off the walls, getting into things he shouldn't. the first couple nights, we would grab him
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  • 10
    and lightly hold him down by us while petting him to distract him from playing, and he would fall asleep pretty fast and be okay for
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  • 11
    the rest of the night. that has since changed, we cannot stop him. we try putting him in the carrier we have for him but he
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  • 12
    Woman trying to sleep
    via shisuka / Canva

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 13
    just meows and meows and meows very loud and does not stop for anything, and i don't want to turn the carrier into a
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  • 14
    negative thing for him either. i've owned dogs my whole life, this has never been an issue for me
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  • 15
    before and i have no clue what to do so some help would be much appreciated.
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  • 16
    edit - you guys seriously need to stop acting like just because i put him in a carrier with a bed and a blanket in it for less than 5
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  • 17
    minutes because i couldn't get sleep that i'm completely ak ¨¨ g him and being the worst cat parent on earth. i spent $300 on
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  • 18
    supplies for him and did plenty of research before i got him, i met him at the shelter and he seemed
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  • 19
    very calm, they also told me he was very calm. the file said WALKING AROUND not running around and jumping off walls. i
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  • 20
    play with him very often, for very long, he has plenty of toys and plenty of time and space to "be himself". it becomes an issue
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  • 21
    when it's 930 am and i haven't gotten an ounce of sleep because he hasn't stopped for 6 hours. im sure it would be a slight issue to
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  • 22
    you guys too. nowhere in this am i saying "i cant stand this cat i put him in a crate for the whole night because he's just so hyper and i
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  • 23
    expected dog behavior" which is what you guys are acting like i said. google can only do so much.
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  • 24
    this is my first EXPERIENCE with a cat. that's why i'm reaching out for help. so do not get sarcastic or aggressive with me just
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  • 25
    because i'm asking for help. and to the people that are actually making good use of their time by saying something USEFUL, thank you, it is much appreciated.
    via u/webstatic

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