{"id":30623,"date":"2026-09-11T23:36:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T21:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/11\/why-do-dogs-and-cats-get-the-zoomies-the-science-behind-the-sudden-bursts-of-energy\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T23:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T21:36:43","slug":"why-do-dogs-and-cats-get-the-zoomies-the-science-behind-the-sudden-bursts-of-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/11\/why-do-dogs-and-cats-get-the-zoomies-the-science-behind-the-sudden-bursts-of-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do dogs and cats get the zoomies? The science behind the sudden bursts of energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Does your <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/health-and-families\/outdoor-cats-health-risks-study-b2997655.html\">cat <\/a>or dog suddenly get a burst of energy and perform athletic feats around the house that would make even a gold medallist jealous? Welcome to the world of zoomies.<\/p>\n<p>Zoomies involve intense periods of high-energy activity including running, spinning, jumping and rolling. All at top speed.<\/p>\n<p>A proposed scientific name is frenetic random activity periods (FRAPs). In rabbits these high activity periods are called \u201cbinkies\u201d. But many cat and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/dog-cooling-mat-rspca-heatwave-warning-b3002782.html\">dog <\/a>owners simply call them \u201czoomies\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>A proposed scientific name is frenetic random activity periods (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>So why do our animals experience the zoomies? And is it something we should be worried about?<\/p>\n<p>Why do animals get the zoomies?<\/p>\n<p>Think about when your cat or dog gets the zoomies.<\/p>\n<p>You might see post-bath zoomies, dog park-zoomies, midnight-zoomies and good ol\u2019 out-of-nowhere zoomies.<\/p>\n<p>The trigger may be excitement or a sudden increase in stimulation.<\/p>\n<p>In cats, a commonly reported trigger is using the litter tray. This may be explained by \u201cpoo-phoria\u201d, a feeling of euphoria following defecation. This is possibly caused by large bowel movements stimulating the vagus nerve,<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"echo_read_more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/life-style\/health-and-families\/zoomies-cat-meaning-dog-explained-b3048884.html\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0More Info >>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does your cat or dog suddenly get a burst of energy and perform athletic feats around the house that would make even a gold medallist jealous? Welcome to the world of zoomies. Zoomies involve intense periods of high-energy activity including running, spinning, jumping and rolling. All at top speed. A proposed scientific name is frenetic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":30624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","wpai_meta_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2242,708,36],"class_list":["post-30623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netbuzz","tag-health-amp-families","tag-lifestyle","tag-mixtv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}