First post here
Let me give some background info first.
I have a 7-month-old rag doll kitten. I brought her home when she was 4 months old. She is currently my only cat. From an overall behavioral standpoint, she is pretty much as perfect as anyone could ask for. Very playful. Very responsive to "scolding." Usually if we tell her to quit doing something twice with a stern "no" and a little bop on the bridge of her nose, she stops doing it.
She was raised by a respected breeder until the age of 4 months. The cat was around about 10-15 other cats/kittens earlier on. This might have some effect on her behavior now.
Anyway, she gets attention most of the day. One of us is usually home during the day and both of us are home at night. We feed her on a strict schedule and don't cave in when her kitten-alarm clock tries to push back feeding time by 30 minutes. We also do not let her in our bedroom. Ever. It was an agreement my wife and I had when we took the cat home. I'd swear that for the first few weeks, she thought that our bedroom door was an exit from the house and just assumed we were gone
Usually when she is left alone for any extent of time she starts crying. It is rather pathetic. When she realized that our bedroom was just another room that she did not have access to, that was when the crying started to pick up.
For example, let's say we are both in the bedroom getting ready to go out to the store or something. Once that bedroom door closes and we are both out of her sight, within 5 seconds (and I do not exaggerate) she is crying.
What we did to start was we would not leave the bedroom until she stopped crying. At which point, we would ignore her when we left the room for about 5 minutes. We figured this would not allow her to associate "I cry and they come out of the room and give me attention." I think it was the right way to go.
When we would go to sleep, she would cry at the door intermittently for about 5 minutes or so. Then we wouldn't hear from her the rest of the night. For the record, we give her free range of most of the place at night, except for the den that has computers/wires/etc.
At some point in the last month (after we had her for 2 months) she picked up a habit of crying incessantly for about 45min to an hour usually at 4 am. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later. We stood firm and ignored her for about 2 weeks. While most nights were relatively sleepless past 4am when she would start, we figured it was just some phase she was going through.
The problem comes where I don't think I can do the normal "NO!" with a bop on the nose in this case. I think the cat would still see it as "I cry at the door and he opens it up after some period of time."
While I know this is commonly broached subject on cat forums, the threads I usually read have different circumstances. This cat's behavior is nearly impeccable otherwise. She doesn't cry (for no reason) during the day otherwise. She also doesn't keep up with the crying during the day if we are in the bedroom/outside. She'll do it for a few minutes and then stop. But at night, its a crying marathon
Anyway, thanks for reading if you got this far. I'd appreciate any input.
Let me give some background info first.
I have a 7-month-old rag doll kitten. I brought her home when she was 4 months old. She is currently my only cat. From an overall behavioral standpoint, she is pretty much as perfect as anyone could ask for. Very playful. Very responsive to "scolding." Usually if we tell her to quit doing something twice with a stern "no" and a little bop on the bridge of her nose, she stops doing it.
She was raised by a respected breeder until the age of 4 months. The cat was around about 10-15 other cats/kittens earlier on. This might have some effect on her behavior now.
Anyway, she gets attention most of the day. One of us is usually home during the day and both of us are home at night. We feed her on a strict schedule and don't cave in when her kitten-alarm clock tries to push back feeding time by 30 minutes. We also do not let her in our bedroom. Ever. It was an agreement my wife and I had when we took the cat home. I'd swear that for the first few weeks, she thought that our bedroom door was an exit from the house and just assumed we were gone
Usually when she is left alone for any extent of time she starts crying. It is rather pathetic. When she realized that our bedroom was just another room that she did not have access to, that was when the crying started to pick up.
For example, let's say we are both in the bedroom getting ready to go out to the store or something. Once that bedroom door closes and we are both out of her sight, within 5 seconds (and I do not exaggerate) she is crying.
What we did to start was we would not leave the bedroom until she stopped crying. At which point, we would ignore her when we left the room for about 5 minutes. We figured this would not allow her to associate "I cry and they come out of the room and give me attention." I think it was the right way to go.
When we would go to sleep, she would cry at the door intermittently for about 5 minutes or so. Then we wouldn't hear from her the rest of the night. For the record, we give her free range of most of the place at night, except for the den that has computers/wires/etc.
At some point in the last month (after we had her for 2 months) she picked up a habit of crying incessantly for about 45min to an hour usually at 4 am. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later. We stood firm and ignored her for about 2 weeks. While most nights were relatively sleepless past 4am when she would start, we figured it was just some phase she was going through.
The problem comes where I don't think I can do the normal "NO!" with a bop on the nose in this case. I think the cat would still see it as "I cry at the door and he opens it up after some period of time."
While I know this is commonly broached subject on cat forums, the threads I usually read have different circumstances. This cat's behavior is nearly impeccable otherwise. She doesn't cry (for no reason) during the day otherwise. She also doesn't keep up with the crying during the day if we are in the bedroom/outside. She'll do it for a few minutes and then stop. But at night, its a crying marathon
Anyway, thanks for reading if you got this far. I'd appreciate any input.
