help! he won't let me sleep!!!

I've had my kitty Rufus for about 2.5 months now, but recently he's started a new behavior. he will not let me sleep at night. he does anything and everything (from knocking over garbage cans, to scratching at the plastic over the windows, to actually biting me) to get me up. i am not home all day, but i've been making quite an effort to play with him for a while when i get home....hoping to tire him out. also, it seems like he doesn't eat much when i'm not around and a lot of the times when he wakes me up in the night he goes and eats, even though he's had a full dish of food the whole time. unfortunately, i live in a tiny studio apt and i can't really put him anywhere at night where he could play without bothering me. i'm at my wits end. any suggestions? thanks!

Hi your baby kitty is just that. A baby and they have to learn. A frim no or a little spritz of water helps,It will get better...When they become a little older they mellow a bit. Cats do love to play and roam at night. I know my cats do, They sleep in the basement at night in there beds,because Newman is so verbal ,loves to talk to us at 3:00 in the morning..Good luck,,and hang in there,because in the long run it is worth it.....They really are the best pets to have....

It could be that your kitten is simply missing his littermates. He is still awfully young in the world, and during the time period that you are talking about is when his prey drive is the most alert. If he were with mom in the wild, she would be taking him out about this time of morning to teach him to hunt mice and other small rodents. Have you considered getting him a buddy perhaps?

Does he have a nice tall cat condo he can climb, plenty of toys to help him when he gets active? How about trying a snugglekittie for him to give him company? http://www.valueseek.com/snuggleme/kitties.html

When he is this active in the early morning hours, you need to ignore him. Let him run amuck (invest in ear plugs and sleep with them) You can turn a classical music station on low at night and see if that helps to soothe him, but getting up and feeding him is just programming him to continue in this mode. Don't get angry with him, you are fighting a heridatary instinct that is what would keep him alive if he were having to fight for his life outside in the world. He will also calm down over time, and after neutering.

thanks for the help...although i was afraid that was what you were going to say! i know, i know, he's a kitty. i thought maybe there were a trick that i didn't know about. well...i guess i'll have to get some ear plugs and try to relax about the whole thing. i feel terrible being away from him all day, and i'm sure this is partially because of that. any idea of what age they grow out of this?

Awww Rosie was like that when she was a kitten. They do just want to play!.

Your kitty will grow out of it eventually. Hissy gave you some very good advice. Another kitty around the home would help too, would give your kitten a play mate while you are away, but since you live in a studio apartment, that may not be possible. The ear plugs work great, I use them all the time. Playtime before you go to bed works well and like Hissy stated, when your kitten wakes you in the middle of the night, just try to ignore him, he will get the idea and go eat on his own. As you can see by my name, I also have a bobcat living in our home with 7 other cats. She is 7 months old, 16 pounds, still runs around here like a little kitten and yes, likes to wake us at 4 am She was A LOT worse, but she is learning and does not wake us like she used to.

John, I can't even begin to imagine the types of antics your bobcat went through as a young one. I know that her wild tendencies are a lot closer to her core than a domestic cat's would be.

When the three trips get going and start trampolining off of us in the middle of the night, Mike usually rolls over groaning and says "Tell me again why we rescue kittens?" LOL

Yes Hissy at first I thought, did I do the right thing? No, not really, I was prepared . But picture this. You know how little kittens just go crazy running through the house. Well, Amber still does that and she is now bigger than all my other cats. But, she pretty much sleeps at night now. She has taken a good liking to the dry Eukanuba that we keep out for the other kids, so she doesn't wake us because she wants to eat. I know you can wake up tired many mornings when your cats romp all over you, but hey, they are so cute, it is well worth being tired

well, the earplugs worked! either that or i was just way more tired than the previous nights. i slept really well, finally! now the only problem is waking up to an alarm clock! today i overslept, but thankfully rufus has a pretty good internal clock and starts licking/biting me if i'm not up!

Glad you could finally sleep. I usually wake up to the alarm, but it may take a little longer than without the ear plugs. 2 of my cats that sleep with me HATE the alarm. One will run away but the other will bite me if I do not shut it off

Is there anywhere else you can put him? Like in a bathroom or bedroom? Maybe he is lonely...you could get another cat and they would play with each other!

I recently added a six week old kitten to my house.

And I have now been reminded of all the lovely things kittens do such as using humans as a bouncy castle, running and thudding into the walls in the middle of the night, (I'm quite sure my older cat Russell taught him that one, he did teach Esper that one).

But glad to hear that you can finally sleep.