Cat Chat Feline Forum

Good morning,
I have recently bought two kittens. I bought them a week ago. This is my first time having kittens so am still new to everything and learning as I go along. I have read that it's better to keep the kittens in one room until they become accustomed to myself. So at the moment I keep the kittens in my bedroom (it is a large room with enough space for a lot of toys for them, their litter tray and food and water bowls). The kittens are getting on wonderfully at the moment and I can see the they are starting to feel at home. I just have one dilemma at the moment. The kittens usually go to sleep around 11pm and at around 1-2am they wake up. When they wake up they will get onto my bed and play around which often involves scratching at me and waking me up. I can understNd that kittens are not going to sleep through and whole night and will wake up but is there anyway I could stop them from waking me up ? Is this just a phase they go through ? And if so how long does it last ?
And I have been reading many different opinions for and against putting cats in crates at night. What are your views on that ? (Considering the crate was big for them to play in).

Thanks

You will get lots of good advice here. I have never had a kitten myself so I can't advice but my opinion is that id put them in a different room at night. They won't be lonely because they have each other and they can play without disturbing you. I only have one cat (5yrs old) and from day one we kept our bedroom door shut and he sleeps happily on a cushion on the living room couch, I never wanted him on my bed. But that's only my opinion, not advice. Good luck.

I don't think you can stop them waking you up if they are currently living in your room

You do need to spend time with them but keeping them with you at night is unnecessary. When we got our oldest cat, she was kept in the spare room. I spent almost all of my free time with her but she spent the nights in there and the time that I was at work most days. She has always been completely and totally bonded to me.

It's silly to think you have to be around them all the time and sacrifice your sleep in order to bond with them, especially because as long as you teach them their place is with you at night, it's going to be even harder to get them to understand they need to be alone at night. It'll be easier to make them understand the night time is for you to sleep alone if you get them to learn it early on but it will be harder now that they're used to being with you.

I would agree that if you have a different room that they could be in that would be better, they need to learn that you won't be there for them all the time and as you have two they will have each others company and someone to play with. If you get concerned about leaving them to unattended then something like a baby monitor could help. If your bedroom really is the only room they can be in then a very large crate might be acceptable overnight as long as it is large enough for them to run around in without falling over food, water, litter tray etc.