Cat waking us up all night, help.

[RadioNate]

Our 6 month old cat will not leave us alone at night. We don't mind if she is on the bed but the loud purring, head butting, kneeding and pouncing are driving me crazy.

I don't know what to do. I need to sleep! I do not function well on less than about 8 hours. I know I'm a wimp but with only 6 hours of sleep I'm cranky, tired and have a headache all day.

This is a new problem. She gets lots of playtime when we are home. We have another cat so it's not like she's 100% alone when we are sleeping.

I would shut the door but she just cries for hours to come in. I also feel very clostrophobic with the door shut and get anexiety and panic attacks.

Cat people, how did you deal with this problem.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Ah yes...cats and the nighttime. Many cats in my past.

I will share my favorite story from one of my cats...Honey, our yellow tabby.

When it was time to get up in the morning to be fed, she would sit on our dresser and knock things off, one by one.
I hated that!!! Drove us nuts!

Don't know what you can do...use a squirt bottle, perhaps?

 

[Mom2Ashli]

Our 6 month old cat will not leave us alone at night. We don't mind if she is on the bed but the loud purring, head butting, kneeding and pouncing are driving me crazy.

I don't know what to do. I need to sleep! I do not function well on less than about 8 hours. I know I'm a wimp but with only 6 hours of sleep I'm cranky, tired and have a headache all day.

This is a new problem. She gets lots of playtime when we are home. We have another cat so it's not like she's 100% alone when we are sleeping.

I would shut the door but she just cries for hours to come in. I also feel very clostrophobic with the door shut and get anexiety and panic attacks.

Cat people, how did you deal with this problem.

My little Kitty Ellie does the same stuff plus BITES our fingers at night. And than pounces across the bed. I thought maybe she was confused and thought she was a rabbit.

 

[smilie]

Don't know what you can do...use a squirt bottle, perhaps?

I tried this with our kittens. The crazy things loved it! For some odd reason I found the 2 cats that love to get wet. They'll sit in the sinks after you've used it to get wet, they try to join you when you take a shower, and when you're done they lay in the bathtub.

 

[SC Minnie]

Our new cat, 6 months too, doesn't wake us up in the night but our old cat would. DH usually gets up about 4 am and if he decided to sleep in the cat would not have it. He would run across the bed at full steam several times. If that didn't work he would beat on the blinds or the cord to the lamps or tv. Anything to make up get up. Now, if you got up he would want you to pet him for only a minute then he wouldn't want anything to do with you. He just wanted someon up with him. We tried closing the door at night but he would beat on the door until we got up. I never found a solution.

Good luck.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

We cannot have our cats in the room when we are sleeping. The only exception is the night after we've returned from a vacation--if we don't let Tigger in on that night ne cries all night long, keeping us awake (the poor baby misses us ). There is no way in the world that I could let our two kittens sleep with us--they are way too playful. They are used to not sleeping with us even though they are always by my bedroom door in the mornings and after I open my bedroom door I always have 4 cats on my bed.

If I were you I would not let the cat stay in your room at night since you're not getting enough sleep. Maybe once the kitten is older you can try again. As far as the crying at night when not in your room, the kitten should adjust. If not I would do the water squirt bottle. It's not as if the kitten isn't getting attention during the day. I don't think it's ever possible to give kittens enough attention, at least in their opinion!

 

[CheshireVal]

A

When it was time to get up in the morning to be fed, she would sit on our dresser and knock things off, one by one.
I hated that!!! Drove us nuts!

Grrrrrrrrrrr my siamese does that, too! I *hate* it! When I try to just lie there and ignore it, he'll stand on his back legs and start swiping at picture frames!

 

[RadioNate]

Cats are too funny. We know she is just being herself but I'm SOOOO tired!

Of course she's sleeping on the windowsill right now. I keep waking her up just to be annoying!

I'm really close to banishing both cats to the garage at night. Before anyone freaks that's where their food and litter is. They also have a bed and 'treehouse' out there. We don't park in the garage so there is no danger from cars and all the lawn equipment/chemicals are in the shed. There is actally carpet, a treadmill and a TV out there!

I really hate having the door shut but it looks like I'm going to have to try it to get some sleep.

Of I also think some neighborhood cats are making the problem worse. Last night there was a lot of meowing and posturing, DH went to check and he didn't think it was either of our cats. There have been 2 outdoor cats hanging around and I think their presence is getting our cats all riled up.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I really wish I could help you. My one cat cries all the time and we can't figure out what she wants to shut her up. I'm chalking it up to old age and guessing she is senial.

My other cat used to sleep with me. But he would wake me up throughout the night. He insisted on constantly being touched. He sniffs my face (he sneezes constantly, eww), paws at my hands, and climbs on top of me. I have woken up to his face right in mine sometimes. (I love him, but not that much.) It is so nice that he doesn't talk because when he gets annoying I put him outside my room and shut the door. I can't do this to my older, senial cat because she learned how to open doors! I understand your pain.

It sounds like the garage might be the best bet. After awhile, kittens learn.

 

[Nancy]

I am assuming she is spayed already right? My cat got like that when she was in heat. Once we got her spayed...no more night time bothers. Now both my cats are just lazy slugs that lay around all day.

 

[Rhonda922]

I have a 7 month kitty, Coco and two older cats. Miss Coco starts jumping on the other cats usually around 4:30 to 5:00 am every morning. All I hear is running, thumping, and a lot of growling & hissing. It is absolutely impossible to sleep. Then Coco will jump on the chair by the bed and wait for the others to walk by so she can swoop down on them. This causes a lot of commotion. Then she stampedes over the top of DH and I when we're trying to get those last few minutes of sleep. What I usually have to do is separate them and leave the little one in the bedroom with us and put the other two out in the hall and shut the door. At night, I try to keep her awake for as long as I'm up so that she can't be resting up and end up waking any earlier in the wee hours to play.

 

[Ronda93]

Mine wakes me between three and four in the morning. Hops up on the bed and paws at me through the covers. If I roll half way over, pet him for a couple of minutes, I am permitted to roll back to my stomach and he'll settle in next to me.

Good luck.

 

[Virgo10]

I am assuming she is spayed already right?

LOL, that was my first thought! As you can imagine, with 16 cats there is absolutely no way the bedroom door is open at night. They've all learned when we go to bed, they don't come in with us. Every once and while one of them will try to get in during the night though. Then it's a quick spritz from the water bottle and they don't try it again... at least for a while.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

Maybe try getting a large (like the size you would use for a German Shepard)cage/kennel and putting her in at night with food, water and a litter box as well as a couple of toys to keep her amused??? That's really the only thing I can think to offer for a solution,Nate. Hope that helps.

TOV

 

[RadioNate]

Yes she's spayed.

I'm gonna try shutting the door for a few nights. If that doesn't work it is to the garage at night.

Funny thing is that my DH doesn't mind all the much. Of course the 16lb cat sleeps in his armpit.

 

[KatelynnsAuntie]

Funny thing is that my DH doesn't mind all the much. Of course the 16lb cat sleeps in his armpit.

This cracked me up!

My mom had the very same problem your talking about. In fact she could have written your post. What she ended up doing was putting her cat in the spare bedroom and shutting the door for the night. There was food, water, litter box, bed, everything the cat needed in there. Of course the cat would cry sometimes but the door was shut so she couldn't hear it too much as the spare bedroom was down the hall. Then in the morning kitty gets to come out. Now her cat is used to spending the night in "her" room.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I really wish I could help you. My one cat cries all the time and we can't figure out what she wants to shut her up. I'm chalking it up to old age and guessing she is senial.

One of our old cats used to meow loudly every night. He sounded like a female cat in heat. We used to come out and scold him sometimes because it really was a little much. Then those 3 cats aged and the meowing cat eventually died. BUT, a lot of the meowing continued. Turned out one of the other cats did some of the meowing and looking back we wondered how often we scolded the one cat for what one of his brothers was doing.

 

[Rajah]

Make sure the cats involved in this thread are spayed/neutered. That should help if they aren't.

If that isn't the cause, try having a very vigourous play session with their favorite interactive toy (laser pointer, feather on a stick, etc) for about 30 minutes before bedtime. Follow this up with a treat for the cat (cat-appropriate, of course). In most (but not all) cats, this triggers their "hunt, kill, eat, sleep" instinct and will get them to settle down enough for sleep.

Good luck

 

[azgal81]

My kitty did this as well when I first got him. He would not sleep at night he would spend the whole night kneading my head, purring loudly and then everytime I moved he would pounce on me. He would also bring all of his little stuffed toys, balls and anything he could carry in his mouth to bed. I would wake up to him sitting on me with a toy at his feet wanting me to play with him. Or if I mananged to sleep through that I would wake up to a bunch of toys in my bed. I tried to lock him out of the room but he would just paw at the door and meow loudly so I gave up and just dealt with it.

He is about nine months old now and alot better! He will still sleep with me but he no longer kneads my hair to death and purrs loudly. He does still sleep on the same pillow as my head or on the pillow next to me and usually purrs when he's falling asleep or in the morning to wake me up but it's normally a quiet purr. If I sleep to late he bite my hand until I wake up to feed him. Normally I can sleep through the night and I wake up to him in the window and then when he sees I'm awake he'll come see me. Hopefully your cat will get better with age. I know alot of people who had the same problems and as their cat got older he/she got less playful and they were able to sleep through the night.

 

[mamacatnv]

Ah yes we too have a cat that has been nick-named the "Waker upper kitty" by my DD. The Waker now spends his nights in the spare room at the opposite end of the house. Our other 2 cats sleep thru the night, one sleeps with me and the other goes back and forth between the kids.

MamaCatNV