My SO has a pair of cats which are both lovely creatures in the whole. One of these guys hits his cycle peak, apparently, at about 4AM. He’s learned that if he makes enough noise out in the general area of the house, it will wake one of us up. That seems to be his only goal because we’ve been careful not to pay attention to him at the risk of encouraging him. When one of us gets up from the bed, he will stop for a short time. We’ve tried closing the soor to the bedroom but that seems to spur a bout of very loud, enthusiastic scratching at the door.
I have to admire his dedication and inventiveness in this pursuit- it’s useless to try to remove noisemakers because he’ll find another. He doesn’t crawl al over our sleeping bodies, at least he doesn’t yet.
All in all, it’s a mildly frustrating thing, but if there is any course of action which would help lessen this behavior it would be good for my sleep patterns, to say the least. Any suggestions?
I love the water gun training method, not least because it gave me an excuse to go buy a water gun, but in this case the small annoyance of being damp seems to be a fair trade, to him, for the enthralling experience of me having to wake up and walk out into the room to squirt him.
He’s a kitten. That’s what they do for a couple of years. But you could try playing with him vigorously shortly before you go to bed - it might tire him out. Otherwise, just wait - eventually you’ll get used to it (like people who live near an airport) or the kitten will grow up.
Kidding, of course. I have a 5 year old cat who is indoor/outdoor (not green and plastic though!). You wanna talk about inventive, he’ll climb up on the bathroom counter and bounce the not so tightly screwed in mirror against the wall. Talk about a racket! I know he only wants to go outside, but I assume that’s not your problem.
The watergun thing is a good idea because at least in my experience, they’re pretty quick to learn. I would just make sure that his food and water bowl is full and litter box is clean. If I were a cat, those would be the only 3 things to make me suffer a water gun!
You Just Beat Me! But you forgot to tell her to Duct Tape it to the wall above the litter box, head facing Up. Also, if she’s worried it might not make it, tape a beeper on vibrate to the tape already on it. If she gets worried about it in the middle of the night, she can call the beeper number and if the cat makes a weird sound, its fine.
My 11 m/o kitten Hanna does this too. Not every night, but fairly often. She usually does not keep it up very long, but if it is bothering me I pull the blanket up over her and she mellows out - kinda like a loud parrot. She’s getting better, and neother of my two older cats do this, so there is hope.
I’ve never done the water gun thing with her because she does not mind getting wet. When she is in my plants or otherwise doing something I want to discourage, I have found a can of the canned air, (like for cleaning electronics) and one blast over her head (not directly at her) works pretty darn good. It sounds like a loud hiss, and she usually stops what ever she’s doing.
I asked a question very similar to this a few months ago.
Yes, playing with the cat for a few hours before bedtime really does work. As does ignoring it as best as possible.
The SO’s mother suggested children’s Gravol mushed up into some wet food before bedtime. We were going to try this, but the SO purchased the WRONG KIND of Gravol, and I wasn’t about to do that to my little kitty. Turned out she settled down, so it wasn’t necessary.
BTW, a laser pointer can be a worthwhile investment!
ah, yes…the well known and (un)beloved “Nighttime Crazies”. a very common trait among cats, being as they are more designed for nocturnal hunting and adventuring than diurnal socializing with the humans. one of the little prices we pay for making them adapt to our schedules.
when they were young, my cats thought nighttime would be the ideal timeframe for settling hierarchy disputes between themselves. while on top of our bed. with us sleeping there.
fortunately, a well-placed undercover kick (enough to dislodge combatants without any real body contact) soon convinced them to take it elsewhere. similarly, an irate scolding or two when they thrashed through the bedroom discouraged additional bouncing-off-the-wall sessions. YMMV, of course, since i have one cat that takes all scoldings (even those directed at her sister) very much to heart, whereas her sister can cheerfully sit and stare blankly at me all through said scoldings (up to the point when i actually start coming into swatting range).
you may just have to tough it out a bit–ignore his efforts to make you get up and come play. hopefully, he’s not the tenacious type.
It is NOT just kittens. My gf and I have a 9-10 year old cat who often goes crazy at night. She knows, however, that making noise in the house doesn’t wake either of us up–so she crawls all over us and nibbles on our noses at about 3 or 4 a.m.
Playing with her once or twice a day eliminates this behavior. That shoestring was the best purchase I’ve made in the last couple of years
At 3:30 AM, my male cat will butt my head HARD until I get up and drop a bit of kibble in his dish. Then I go back to bed.
Yeah, I gave up. He will also do other unspeakable things to get my attention, so I learned that if I just humour him, I can get back to sleep quickly.
He trained me well.
Oh, and he’s 5 or 6. (Wild guess. I got him when I was working at the SPCA.)
Our eldest, Noel, at seven, seems determined to get everyone up at 2 am and on. Banging at doors, knocking stuff off of dressers, scratching things, mewing constantly.
And then, when everyone does get up, finally (My mom is a morning person and likes to get up at 4 am so she can have time to herself before everyone else gets up), she acts like a spoiled bitch to EVERYONE-snarling at her sisters, etc.
So far, we haven’t been able to get her to stop. She goes through phases where for long stretches of time, she sleeps through the night, followed by stretches where she becomes a feline oompah band.
My cat Dolphie went through a phase after her best friend kitty died where she would torment me and the other kitties at 5am every day. Growling, hissing, knocking things over… I am an insomniac, so sometimes I was juuuuust getting to sleep when she started. Suffice it to say it put a strain on our friendship.
I invested in a big dog carrier. I put it in the bathroom, and when she started, I grabbed her and put her in there, usually only for an hour or so until I had to get up anyway. She calmed right down in there. I had to do this for several months, and either her desire not to be in the carrier or her grieveing period’s end made it unnecessary. If worst comes to worst, you might consider this option.
