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Bad cats as soon as we head for bed

post #1 of 6
1/29/12 at 7:37am
Thread Starter 

First off, I have 2 cats. Pavel is a little older and Kermit is new and less than a year old. Since we've had Kermit both cats will snooze during the day and even into the evening. They frequently run around the house and lay with each other. We feed them in the morning, noon, and around dinner time. Whenever we get ready to go to bed the cats will come out of their snoozing to start tearing around the house.

Pavel will get into the garbage or noisily lick anything that is plastic, and Kermit will just do anything he isn't normally allowed to do and refrains from doing when we are sitting in the living room with the lights on (ie chewing on plants, getting on counters, chewing up boxes, loud meowing, etc). Basically as soon as we get into bed the strange noises start and we continually have to get up to yell or spray them with water. This usually lasts for an hour and is then repeated in the morning before we have to get up. How can we successfully change their sleeping habits to match ours?

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post #2 of 6
1/29/12 at 7:39am
Thread Starter 

*Play with each other*

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post #3 of 6
1/29/12 at 7:54am
Hi, and welcome to TCS!! wavey.gif

The best thing you can do for this is to absolutely wear them out with playing before you go to bed. Set aside an hour or more for playtime right before bed, get out their favorite toys, and go until they will go no more.

Also, try not to respond when you hear them doing bad/noisy things in the night. It might take a few days, but sometimes when a cat wants attention from its owner, it will deliberately do things it "knows" it's not supposed to do, because it misses you. It thinks that bad attention is better than no attention. (Please don't take this kind of thinking to an extreme; cats are not people, and they don't have a sense of right and wrong. But they are smart and can make connections between certain things they do and how you react.) So if you teach them that being "bad" will get them no attention from meowmy, they might stop. Then again, they might just be bored and restless, which is why I suggest the playtime first.

Good luck!! vibes.gif
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post #4 of 6
1/29/12 at 8:01am

I think you have got a combination

. 1. When you are at bed, you can not longer supervise them.

2. Cat are night animals. Your going to bed is a signal it is night now... And thus, time to go up and be busy. :)

3. They take bad habits from each other, being good pals... :)

4. Possibly they have too little to do in the days, if they dont want to play with each other (very good they DO play chase each other and are pals...

 

The standard medicine is to try to play with them perhaps a hour in the afternoon. Use a laser, Da bird, and similiar...

Do perhaps have a bird feeder just outside your windows...

 

My suggestion would be, try to learn them to sleep with you. If they dont find it natural to sleep with you at nigh, laying down to sleep, you sleep a little with them in the days... :) Pretend to, take a relaxing moment if you dont want to day sleep for real... Hopefully they will continue the day snoozez on you or between your knees in the nights too.

 

Good luck!

 

ps Welcome to our TCS site and Forums!

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post #5 of 6
1/29/12 at 8:20am
Thread Starter 

Thanks for the welcome, guys.

I will definitely try to be more active with them before bed, especially the younger one. I just realized they don't have many toys anymore - mostly because the little one like to eat them. They definitely learn bad behavior from each other. Pavel will come to bed with us about half the time and spend the night in there. We often can't get them both to sleep in bed because the kitten will try to attack Pavel through the blankets and Pavel gets super annoyed with that. They do well sleeping near us on the couch otherwise. So, today I'm planning a trip to PetSmart for toys!

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post #6 of 6
1/29/12 at 10:27am

You should provide them with their very own plants and boxes to chew on; direct them to theirs if they mess with yours. Chewing is actually good for their teeth.

 

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