Kitten relentlessly waking me at 4am. Advise please.

[Roscoe32]

Hello. Wondered if anyone could share some advice. Have got a 12 month and 7 month pair of male maine coons. The youngest of the two has taken to a newish habit which has been going on for about four months or so now whereby he scratches at the bedroom door to get in at obscenely early hours in the morning. Having owned many cats I know that they have phases but this one is pretty persistent and getting up and feeding him doesn't help at all. He eats them comes right back and scratches again. If we eventually let him in the room he comes in and starts running about like a lunatic. Relentless face licking and then the older cat comes and joins in so its a pretty tiresome scenario. We live in a three story open plan house so it's not like we can shut them in a kitchen or living room. On the evenings where we really need sleep there is a small spare room on the lower floor that we put them in but it's not really fair on them and feels like a short term fix. It feels like the door scratching and dawn wake ups need to be remedied in a different way. I'm hoping that because he's still a kitten and very boisterous indeed that it's maybe a phase he will grow out of eventually and he gets older and lazier. Anyhow if anybody has thoughts it would be great to know. Many thanks. Jim.

[lilynmitz]

Hi, I do sympathise, it's a real mixed blessing being woken up by two joyful kittens, but boy do you miss the sleep! There aren't many solutions to this I'm afraid, but this might help.

Try wearing them out before you go to bed with some realliy energetic play. Da Bird is great for this, as are laser pens.

Also, put some food down for them before you go to bed, enough to see them through to morning if you can. Cats usually sleep after feeding to digest it. Just remember, in the wild a cat is most active when hungry, as they're looking for something to kill and eat, so they go into full on hunting mode. In domestic cats, this translates as play.

Once you've got the feeding balance right, keep to routines. This way they'll eventually learn that batting you about for food at 4am is a waste of time. But with youngsters, it can take a while for the message to get through.

But if all else fails, then yes, shut them in the spare room. Make sure they've got food, water, litter, and bedding and given their age, some toys they can play with on their own (eg catnip, rolling balls etc). Also make sure there's nothing in there that might get them into trouble if they start playing up, eg breakable items, toxic houseplants, cables etc. They'll complain at first, but tough it out, as your need for sleep has to be more important than their need to play. I used to have to do this with my two, and I really hated doing it, but I was desperate for a good night's sleep, and they always forgave me as soon as I came down in the morning.

[Poppy Puddlecat]

Hi Jim, I saw your post and thought "oh no that sounds like Poppy.." When we first got her (after her initial period in the bonding room) she would sit outside our bedroom door, meowing and scratching at the door and carpet ALL NIGHT, and I mean all night. She'd have 10-minute intervals of wandering off and then she'd be back. If we ever had a night where she was quiet, all it would take to start the noise is me or my partner getting up to use the bathroom or get a glass of water... Her little eyes would light up as if to say "Yay, time for breakfast!"

It's taken 2 months of wearing earplugs, hiding treats and toys around the house and using an automatic feeder to get her out of the habit - she now sits on the windowsill or plays calmly in the living room all night, more often than not. And I can get up in the night without a mournful wail at the bedroom door when I go back to bed!

As the previous post suggests, wearing out your kitties with Da Bird will help tremendously - after a 20 minute session with it, Poppy is exhausted and we hear significantly less running about during the night than we used to.

If your kittens are the sort to wolf down their food as soon as it's set in front of them, try the automatic feeder idea, we've got this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Catmate-Automat ... tic+feeder" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We put a little bit of dry food in each compartment and set for 2am and 5am, Poppy can have a nibble when she feels like it and doesn't gorge herself. Hiding treats around the house will provide some entertainment too, as long as you mix up the hiding places!

It does get better! The main thing is to get your kitties used to the idea that they're not going to get any attention from you during the night. If they meow and scratch, don't let them in or feed them, eventually they'll realise that this doesn't work on you and they'll stop. Once they get into a routine (one that suits you and not them!) you'll start having a peaceful nights sleep!!

In the meantime, I highly recommend investing in earplugs!

[Roscoe32]

Thanks to you both for the advice. We do have a timer feeder and we feed them before bed and leave out plenty in the night. This tends to calm the older cat but the younger one seems relentless, we also try and wear them out but the younger one seems hell bent on getting in to our room and when he does it doesn't feel like it's food related as we sometime get up and feed him and he's not interested he just wants to get on the bed and head butt you and run around, he's a live wire! However I think the key is to condition him into new habits, not get up in the night, maybe wear ear plugs and eventually he will grow out of it or tire of it. I am hoping that part of this is related to the fact that he is only 7 months and has a lot of extra energy.

[lilynmitz]

If he's shredding the carpet, and it's in the interests of sparing the soft furnishings that you cave in, get a length of that transparent carpet protector strip, lay it so that it's on both sides of the doorway but a bit wider than the door opening. Cut it very closely (that's important) to the profile of the door frame, so that they can't get their claws under it. Then secure it to the carpet with velcro. They could then scratch away as much as they like without me getting anxious about the carpet getting destroyed!

[Littleme91]

Hi Ive got a young cat who scratches and meows at my bedroom door at night even when I put her in the liven room she's clawing my carpet which lifts up and trying to chew my door, I've told my partner it's cruel to keep her in the liven room but he said she's got to learn, also she's started climbing my curtains and jumping on top of everything... Any help would be appreciated!

I've never owned a cat she's my first.

[Hestonmum]

I've got a rescue cat and we had a similar problem for many months when we got him. The scratching at my bedroom door was solved by just letting him in (I think night time cuddles are the best!), the other doors (including the bathroom, and other bedrooms) got better as he got more confident in his surroundings. But he would still wake me up, normally by licking my face and meowing!
I looked for advice online and was told to ignore the behaviour, but you must be very persistent. It took a couple of months before he stopped waking me every night at 4am. You have to completely ignore the behaviour- no feedback at all, either positive or negative, don't even talk to the cat or put the lamp on and definitely don't get up to feed or stroke it! It was really hard at first with lots of broken sleep, but it is worth it now!
All the ideas suggested (play, automatic feeders etc) sound great. I have to say I'm not a big fan of locking the cat in another room- if your cat is already anxious or lonely, that will just make it worse, and it needs to feel confident and secure in it's house. But obviously you need to protect furniture etc. Good luck!

[Mollycat]

I agree with you shutting a cat in one room seems a bit much, out of the bedroom fine but just the living room I wouldn't be happy with either. Does she have everything in there - litter tray, food and water? Which room does she go to when she needs to hide away?