Cat Won't Let Us Sleep!

Hello,

I am new to this site and excited to have found it! Anyway, my problem is this. We have a kitten that is about 6-7 months that we recently adopted. She has adjusted well to us but, she won't let us sleep! I need my sleep! She constantly jumps on my bed or my son's bed and she won't lie down. She attacks my feet and legs through the blankets and she walks all over us.

Please help! What to do?

Thanks in advance.

She is just being a kitten and it is difficult to curb that enthusiasm. She is more than likely experiencing kittenhood for the first time, settling in with you and understanding her life is safe now.

I would play with her interactively before bedtime. Use a toy like Da Bird, don't get your hands or feet involved with any playtime activity with her. Don't play the most tempting game of moving your hands and feet underneath the blankets so she will attack. Use a toy on the end of a fishing pole, or something that she can attack directly. Follow up each heavy play session with a tasty treat, or a bowl of warmed up canned cat food- so she will have a reward for the prey she captured.

Make sure she has a cat condo to scamper up and down on- www.felinefurnture.com has some nice, inexpensive models that kittens love-

Hi there, I can relate... My cat is a year and a half and she still does that. Lately though, I thought of bringing the spray bottle to bed. We have been using a water bottle to spray her (not a JET of water, just a sprinkle) when she does something bad - from scratching the carpet to jumping on counters... It has worked well for anything. You just have to be consistent. So I started keeping the bottle on my nightstand and spray her if she starts playing with our feet, jumping around on the bed. It has helped tremendously. I also play with her as much as possible before bed... Hope this helps. Consistency, just like with kids, is the key

Hi
Just my prerogative, but I don't like the spray bottle idea..not even a sprinkle.
My 2 year old cat wakes me up in the a.m too but will wake me up even earlier if he has not had adequate playtime the night before.
I would tend to agree with Hissy in this case. Try the preventive methods before you try the punishment methods.

I just wouldn't want my cat to think that I am spraying him for coming near my bed, which is what your cat might think. Cats are nocturnal so you can't really punish him for wanting to play at night. And he is a kitten at that so he has increased exuberance. However, you can alter his playtime so that he gets used to heavy playtime before your own bedtime and not in the middle of the night.

Hopefully it works out for you...

I understand the last post, and I was worried about that too. But she seems to understand that we don't punish her for being on the bed, just when she acts up. When she gets frisky and I spray her (and at this point, she stops when she simply hears the bottle move), she often just stops in her tracks and goes to cuddle near our legs. Then later in the morning she comes to cuddle next to me... Somehow she understands she can still sleep with us! I might be lucky - other cats might react differently, but that's my situation. Good luck!