How to keep our cat out of our bedroom at night!

Hi all,
Our cat Ted is a 6 month old tabby, he is extremelly affectionate and can't stay in any room alone, he follows us wherever we go.

However I am expecting a baby in March and we do not want Ted in our bedroom at night where our baby will be sleeping. We are scared he will jump in the crib and harm the baby, so we are trying to figure out a way to close the door at night and not let our cat in.

The problem is, we have tried to do this a few times and our cat just miawls non stop, REALLY loud too, as if he is being hurt. It is so loud we are afraid our neighbours might complain!

Is there any way we can keep our cat out of the bedroom at night and that he wont miawl as much ?

have you thought about getting him a friend? then he wont be alone when your in bed , and will have someone to play with , you will have to be presitent for this to work , the meowing should ease up once he knows your not going to give in , everytime you give in and let him in he knows the next time he will do it again as it works. if that makes sense?

I seem to be queen of stupid questions today, but if it is your neighbors you are worried about when your kitten cries, then what are they going to think when they hear your newborn crying for hours at night? That's what newborns do, you see, they cry. A lot. Just like kittens do, but much louder.

Does your kitten harm YOU at night? If not, what makes you think that your baby will be in danger? If anything, the kitten might just curl up and go to sleep with the baby.

I would seriously not worry about it. Lots and lots of people have had babies with cats in the house. Contrary to old wives tales, cats do NOT steal babies breath and kill them.

Your kitty just wants to be with you, and doesn't understand why you are now closing the doors. I'd cry too!

I'm a big supporter of letting the kitties in the bedroom, but I will tell you this: I have two, and since I got Penelope her little brother, she is not in our room every night. But I am sure your baby will be fine with the cat. In fact, it may be worse to keep your kitty out of the room once the baby arrives, as it may associate the baby with being locked out and that wouldn't be good.

I'm sure your kitty will be very sweet and loving to your baby, much like he already is with you!

Could you get a mosquito net or something similar to go over the baby's crib if you're worried about the cat climbing in?

If you want to keep the cat out you need to just be very persistant. Ignore the crying and be prepared for it to get worse before it gets better. He will soon get the idea of where he's expected to spend the night. If you go to him at all he'll feel he's being rewarded for crying and won't give up. If you're worried about the neighbours how about going around to see them (assuming you get on) and explaining what you're trying to do and that it may be noisy for a while. People are usually more tolerant when they understand why there is some noise and that you're trying to stop it.

I also think getting a second cat is a great idea if you can afford it and have enough room. Not only will that be company for Ted at night but when the baby comes you'll probably not be able to give him as much attention during the daytime so it would be nice for him to have a feline friend.

just wanted to add , i never shut my cats out when i had my children. they never went in the cribs. now though a cupple get on the top bunk with my oldest who is 8 and sleeps with her lol

None of my animals ever messed with Sierra as a baby either. And whenever they got close I'd divert their attention to another room with food.

We have four kids and we've never had a problem with a cat getting in the crib or the cradle with them.
But like XxtashaxX said, now Lizzie sleeps with our second oldest Son, Annabelle sleeps with our Daughter and Elliott sleeps with our youngest Son.
Gracie, well she sleeps with us!

Originally Posted by cythena

Hi all,
Our cat Ted is a 6 month old tabby, he is extremelly affectionate and can't stay in any room alone, he follows us wherever we go.

However I am expecting a baby in March and we do not want Ted in our bedroom at night where our baby will be sleeping. We are scared he will jump in the crib and harm the baby, so we are trying to figure out a way to close the door at night and not let our cat in.

The problem is, we have tried to do this a few times and our cat just miawls non stop, REALLY loud too, as if he is being hurt. It is so loud we are afraid our neighbours might complain!

Is there any way we can keep our cat out of the bedroom at night and that he wont miawl as much ?

Click to expand...

Shut the door and learn to ignore him if you really don't want him in the room. May take days or weeks but worth it if you really want it.

I agree with the others, don't worry about the kitten hurting your baby. The cat will have to learn how to behave around the baby anyways.
Another thing to consider, at 6 months old your kitten is a baby itself and you're his mommy that's why he follows you everywhere. When you shut him out of any room he doesn't understand why his human mommy doesn't want him there.

My parents used to have pictures of me as a baby with a fluffy pastel tortie (think that's what it's called?). I was told this cat would follow me everywhere, play with me, sleep with me, etc. It was also sleep in the crib and keep out scorpions.
Maybe this is why I still love kitties so much? Ingrained from a very young age.

You kitten will probably respond in one of three ways, acceptance, indifference, or avoidance. It might be a good idea to get the kitten used to baby smells, baby powder, whipes and such.

Shut the cat in a room. A comfortable one, where it usually wanders. We had to do it with our cats when they were little. They started chasing our eyelashes and clawing at our faces, so we put the heaters on and shut them in the lounge. After a while, they went to sleep.

Originally Posted by XxtashaxX

have you thought about getting him a friend? then he wont be alone when your in bed , and will have someone to play with , you will have to be presitent for this to work , the meowing should ease up once he knows your not going to give in , everytime you give in and let him in he knows the next time he will do it again as it works. if that makes sense?

Click to expand...

Sorry -couldn't help smiling. Similar problem with my bedroom being suddenly off limits for Singa (just without the baby thought) - I adopted a kitten and now I have an upset Singa at home. It's a bit more difficult than I thought and I am now really in doubt if it was the right decision.

But maybe it is a different story if your Ted is still young. Singa is 1.5 and won't have it (yet).

But I fully understand what you are going through... We went through the same thing... every night over and over again..

Yes, it's good to have 2 cats instead of 1. I believe the same can be said for children.

We have two kittens and have always kept them out of the bedroom at night because they just kept playing etc and keeping us up!

I had some great advice from someone on this forum so I shall pass it on ... put some double sided sticky tape on your bedroom door, cos your kitten don't like getting sticky paws so will hopefully stop clawing (at least ours did) it totally worked.

Now they are slightly older and we let them in in the mornings and they are good and go to sleep but when they are little they do just tend to play!

I would also recommend putting the kitten in, say in the living room or somewhere, as long as your cat is comfy and has water and litter I'm sure it will forgive you!