Cat sleeping with humans; how to make it work?

else

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I have a 2 yro, spayed, female cat and a new, 11 week old kitten. At night, our kitten stays in a small, seperate room right now while our 2 yro is getting used to her, while the 2 yro is in the basement. She's always in the basement at night because otherwise she'll be all over, waking us up at night. Even the kids feel disturbed by her walking around on their beds unless she's in the basement.
I would have loved for both cats to be able to sleep with us or the kids, and though we have not tried with our kitten yet, it is hard when they can't just settle and sleep.
How have all of you worked it out, who sleep with your cats? I'd love to have them join us, but for them to just go to sleep and behave.
 

gothicangel69

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You could try tiring them out with a nice play session before bedtime?? I cant help too much, since my new kitten goes crazy at night and bounces off the walls! My 2 year old though usually knows that night time is sleep time, so I'm hoping the kitten will learn soon.
 

nar1122

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My cat ALWAYS went crazy at night.
If you're home all day, or somebody is, then keep them awake for most of the day.
The cats sleep ALL day...don't allow it. Play with them, give them some high energy treats, and get them on YOUR schedule - not lazy cat schedule


This worked for me. Now, Casper will crawl into bed and lay right by my neck, or sometimes will crawl under the covers and sleep between my legs.
 
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else

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Well, she is very active during the day, and she's confined to a half bathroom at night right now, and stays calm there. So maybe she's already on our schedule. I'll see if dh will agree to try her with us tonight... Maybe I'll get her a good work-out first.
 

strange_wings

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After a few years we've learned to ignore being walked over.
It takes Sho putting all of his weight in one spot and standing there for a few minutes for him to wake us up now. Luckily Tomas doesn't weigh as much as Sho.
 

worriedmommy

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We have our three cats locked up in the Master bedroom with us at night. The oldest of the bunch will wake-up the kids if left to roam. I do not know if it is because the cats are locked up in one room area but our cats are use to this and in turn have been trained to sleep at night. I know that they are by nature nocturnal but obviously they can be trained different. They all curl up on the bed with DH and me and we do not have them waking till morning (or at least if they do get up to use the litter box or such we do not get disturbed by them). Anyway, not sure if that helps you any but that has been my experience with all cats we have owned.
 

buzbyjlc10

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OMG, there'd be no sleeping if Oliver wasn't in bed with me! The only substitute is the boyfriend, haha, when they're both not there I find it VERY hard to sleep (unless I'd been out at the bar, hehe) - the big trick was getting all 3 of us in a twin bed in my college apartment haha... anyhow, Ollie's a cuddler and what I like to call a leaner, lol... I get in bed and he'll lean on my legs, feet, against my belly, against a pillow or stuffed animal (yes, I'm 23 and still sleep with stuffed animals haha)... sometimes he uses the lean-age for preening/grooming purposes, other times he just puts his head down and goes to sleep... I'm sure he'd throw a fit if I tried to keep him out of bed with me... I'm also a very heavy sleeper, so I don't really notice when he stomps around on me (my mom used to vacuum under my crib/next to my cradle when I slept as a baby... now I have to set 3 alarms to make sure I get up, haha).... a good play session before bed can help calm your kitties down, but they're naturally nocternal animals and come dawn time, they'll be in hunt mode... Ollie gets up about 5am every morning for a stop in the potty box and some kibble - sometimes he's content to just hang out in my room or get back in bed, other times he's relentless at scratching to get out of the room... if you want the kitten to sleep with you, I'd get him used to it now - get him into a routine and teach him the rules now while he's impressionable and before you'd have to break old habits....
 

mamakitties

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I usually play with them before bed time and keeps them up while I get home from work so they will sleep when I go to sleep. Initially, it was terrible having them sleeping with me. One sleeps on my legs and one sleeps on my neck. I would grab the neck sleeper next to me everytimes she tries to wrap her body around my neck. After being persistant, she stopped. Now, they are really good at sleep at night and they can practically sleep through the entire night with occasional getting up to potty and light snacking but then hits right back to bed with me.
 
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