How to stop her scratching at my door?

Hi all!

Maybe some of you have had this experience before and can share some thoughts...

Singa is now roughly 1.5 years old. She was always allowed to sleep in my bed at night, but most of the time she would wake me up several times at night when she suddenly felt the urge to cuddle with me. walking over me etc.
It became a bit annoying, so when I moved recently (end Dec), I decided to try to not let her sleep in my bedroom anymore. At the beginning she would come to the door and meow and scratch at it several times at night. With a bit of 'scolding' she eventually got the message and let me sleep peacefully. So I thought.. but maybe I was just sleeping like a rock then...

Now she will come to the door in the morning and meow and scratch (around the time I usually get up +/- a couple of hours. I know why she does it and with the weird alarm clocks cats can be, but how do I keep her from scratching the door????

I rented the place, It's pretty new and I don't want to have to replace the door when I move out!

Any ideas?

No ideas, just sympathy. I'm going through the same thing. Made the mistake of letting ChanKahli see KittenKiya going into my room and now she is at the door constantly scratching and crying.

I would like to let all the kitties in but one insists on "marking" my bed and the other one is a hyperactive tornado......so KittenKiya and ChanKahli are the only quiet ones and the only ones I can trust not to "mark" my bed.

So, they get in, but if it is only KittenKiya, ChanKahli goes into her digging mode and scratches and cries at the door until I let her in.

AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Kitties are the most tenacious beings in the world.
My kitties have trained me to never leave a door shut.
They win....
my doors stay open.

Originally Posted by xocats

Kitties are the most tenacious beings in the world.
My kitties have trained me to never leave a door shut.
They win....
my doors stay open.

Click to expand...

Singa definitely hates closed doors. But if I leave my bedroom door open I will look like a zombie in no time. She is really extremly active. Especially because I made the mistake of letting her climb all over me when she was a kitten. Now she still does it - weighing 5 kg! And I can't get it out of her anymore...and then she will lie down here, and shift there, etc. etc.

I just can't take it anymore. Work's stressing me enough... so I need my bag of sleep at night.

Appreciate any advice!

OH, I know what. Get a hard plastic runner and cut it to fit where she is scratching, and then add about two feet. See if there is some way to attach it to the door, so that when she scratches, it will be on the plastic.

That sound is much easier to handle than the door.

Originally Posted by KittenKiya

OH, I know what. Get a hard plastic runner and cut it to fit where she is scratching, and then add about two feet. See if there is some way to attach it to the door, so that when she scratches, it will be on the plastic.

That sound is much easier to handle than the door.

Click to expand...

Good idea!

I was originally thinking of the plastic cling wrap (from the kitchen) because I heard they don't like to get their claws entangled and then she would stop altogether. But I am scared she gets entangled completely and maybe suffocate, so I decided against it...

Well I have been having this problem for quite some time as well.

I will tell you what I did. I lined towels on the floor so it was half way in my bedroom, halfway out. Pile them thick, but not so thick you can't close your door.

This does work but it's a pain in the you know what.

I then got soft paws, those were fine but he still scratch at the door. I tried foil, the cats were more fasinated with foil than anything else.

I had concluded that the only way I was going to fix this is to get a measurement of my door width. Then go to Home Depot find some hard plastic, make it into an L shape so it aligns with the door. But that is just too much effort for me.

They win....

Click to expand...

And win he did. My door now stays open, the bathroom door as well. My cats are my stalkers. They need to know where I am at all times. Anything else is just unacceptable..

When they do pester me at night ( they don't anymore ) I completely ignore them. I just push them off the bed. That seemed to do the trick.

I had exactly the same problem recently and someone from this forum suggested that I should put double sided sticky tape on the door where they scratch. As they don't like getting sticky paws.

It has worked a treat!!! No more scratching and I get a full nights sleep. I do still get a bit of meowing but only a bit!

good luck!