Night Behavior- Thoughts?

Miles is 9 months old and we have had him for 2+ months. He has had no problems adjusting to our house.

We tried letting him sleep with us at night- but he's a "rude" sleeper (in our eyes!). He wants to meow and play and climb and won't settle.

So we tried locking him out of the bedroom (the dog does sleep with us - and has forever- that won't change). However, he body-slams the door hard enough and repeatedly enough that he pops it open even if we pile shoes etc on our side of the door. He also screams.

So, we have been locking him into the office where his litterbox, food and water are. He typically gets locked in around one am and let out around five or six am- he is put in there when the last one of us goes to be and let out when the first one gets up.

However, this morning, I noticed that he ripped out corners of the carpet in the office- new carpet! He typically knocks over stuff in there- but thats okay, we "Miles=proofed" the room. He really can't stay in there at night if he is going to destroy the carpet- that is expensive- and we have to be able to sleep.

We really don't know what to do now. We do exercise him before bed and through out the day. He's only by himself for two- three hours a day. He plays with us and the dog.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Try putting one of those vinyl floor mats under the door so the cat will not ruin the carpet.

Play with him (a lot) before bedtime to wear him out a bit, then let him be with you. His antics won't last forever (the dog's presence may bother him too, which is no one's fault), he will grow up and settle down in one place (on the bed), plus one day you may want him to be there and he'll be somewhere else, so try to be patient and give him a chance.

Originally Posted by Larke

Play with him (a lot) before bedtime to wear him out a bit, then let him be with you. His antics won't last forever (the dog's presence may bother him too, which is no one's fault), he will grow up and settle down in one place (on the bed), plus one day you may want him to be there and he'll be somewhere else, so try to be patient and give him a chance.

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I think you may have mis-read.

1) We do play with him a lot before bed. He actually gets more attention/play than most cats.
2) We simply, at this point, cannot let him be with us as he is very "rude". He attacks hair and toes. None of that is appropriate for grad students with jobs.
3) The dog has been here for two years- way before him. She is very polite and ignores him. He is not bothered by her.

Well, what are the chances of re-homing the cat - sounds like you may have more cat than you can deal with. What he's doing at night of course is pouncing on the bed mice - every time you move under the covers, he sees a little animal that needs catching - it's not rude, it's instinct that he has almost no control over. I do realize you need to sleep, but sometimes understanding from the cat's perspective helps a bit to not see him as an enemy, but being true to what he is.

Could you lock him in an uncarpeted "Miles-proofed" room overnight, with his food, water and a litter box? A bathroom, perhaps?

Also, FWIW, what Larke said is true. Miles is a kitten and the vast majority of kittens are highly energetic. It's not rudeness, it's simply the way that kittens are. Admittedly, that doesn't make his antics any more pleasant for you, but bear in mind that at this point he is like a very young child, and he should grow out of this behavior. By the way --- is he neutered? If not, that would go quite a long way towards calming him down.

Yes, I agree. If you can confine him to a bathroom overnight until he gets a little older that would probably help all of you. He's a kitten and he wants to play - he'll grow out of it.

He will grow out of it, trust me, I've been through the same thing the past few months. My boys were 10 months old yesterday and the difference in the night behavior is like night and day versus two months ago. How much are you playing? I got this new laser pointer and they go NUTS with it, absolutely bonkers running around. So about 30 minutes before bed I give them a good 15-20 minute workout with it. I go in, brush my teeth, hop in bed and before long they are both zonked out at my feet (normal sleeping place). Just two months ago I would get woken up at least twice per night with one of them batting at the blinds, running around on the bed, chasing each other through the bedroom, etc etc. Now I'd say at 10 months old, I maybe get woken up once a week in the middle of the night. When they were 4-7 months old I thought I was gonna have to kill them!! (not literally of course). Be patient, he will settle down!

I think it took us 4 weeks until Jack slept through the night in our room. Hubby wanted him to sleep with us. The first 2 weeks were heck--constantly waking us. But now he is on a night sleep, day awake schedule and it works great.

Don't get me wrong, he gets up during the night, but usually for a snack (we added a litter box, food and water bowl to our room--since we shut him in the room) and comes back to bed. Now if for some reason one of us gets up in the middle of the night, he attempts to get us to play fetch--I have played fetch with this kitten at 4 am many times--which takes a lot of effort on my part as I do it without contacts or glasses on.

Consistency is crucial regardless of where he stays at night--your room, the office, the bathroom...

I would assume that if he isn't with you it would be hard to "convince" him to sleep all night. So stock up on toys and I wish you good luck.

Leslie

Shermie was that way too when he was little. When he started attacking my feet I'd just layer up the covers so that if he got one, it wouldn't hurt. Then I'd just lay still until he got bored. Also, I feed him dry food right before bed after play and it seems to make him sleepy. Hmm...Another thing I would do was when he walks close to my head i would push him down gently and start petting him. I think this helped him learn to calm down at a certain time. (Now if I do the push-down thing in bed, he almost always stays there for a while even if it's 6am and he wants to wake up). Lastly, if he walks around by your head a lot just ignore him. If he steps on parts of you that you don't like, push him gently, but don't get mad or anything. I think Shermie can sense when I get annoyed at him and he does it more (he wants a reaction, he gets one). So the less reactions you give him the more he'll get bored and go to sleep.

Originally Posted by Miles Mom

We simply, at this point, cannot let him be with us as he is very "rude". He attacks hair and toes. None of that is appropriate for grad students with jobs.

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Most of us have been where you are now and we also work and have to get up early I was the same with Jack for about 4 months, and i was awake every morning by him wanting to play at 4.a.m, but as he got older he's settled down a lot even though he's only 9 months old.

Your kitten isn't rude, he's just bored and wanting to plat that's all.

After you've played with him at night give him a bowl of wet food because he'll have a full tummy then and he'll want to sleep it off

When Moses was tiny and very energetic, I just tried ignoring him at night. Still didn't get a lot of sleep myself, but I wasn't reinforcing his requests to play in the middle of the night. He eventually learned that when I'm in bed I don't play with him. So, I end up waking up with most of his toys next to me in the morning, but he doesn't bother me to play at night anymore.