i just want to get some sleep

screamnyak

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My wife and I have two 8 month old kittens (Red and Blue). when its time to go to sleep we put them out of our room and close the door. This allowed them to do whatever they wanted during the night, and let us sleep without kittens wrestling on top of us. Recenetly (a month ago) we moved into a bigger appartment. Now when its time to go to sleep Red goes about her usual routine, and Blue will cry and claw up the carpet under our bedroom door. We've tried spray bottles, anti-cat-scratch spray on the carpet, and about a million other things. this cat will not give up. We've even tried changing their sleeping schedule so that they'll sleep through the night. she still wakes up at about 2 and starts scratching. we get up and squirt her, and she runs away, then comes back 20 mins later.
The girls have access to their litter box, and food. They have both trained extremely well with the spray bottle in other instances. They stay off the coffee table, the kitchen table, and don't scratch anything but their post. These are some of the best cats i've ever had the pleasure of knowing but Blue is driving me nuts!

What am i missing? Thanks
 
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screamnyak

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the problem with that is that they wrestle on top of all night, and sprint in and out, ontop of the bed, underneath the bed. like a mentioned, we're trying to adjust their sleeping schedule, but we both work full time jobs, so there's no one at home to keep them awake during the day.
 

arlyn

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Play with them, good hard play for 45 minutes to an hour before bed and leave the door open. At 8 months old, they should be starting get into the snuggle with the humans mode.
But tiring them out first makes things much easier.
 

eatrawfish

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Do you have any old towels or blankets you can jam around the door so that they will at least not be tearing up the carpet when they do that?

My girls wrestled on us at night when I first got them, they were about a year old. After several months they stopped, I think they just grew up a little.
 
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screamnyak

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absoloutely. we started out with old towels, but she just drug it all the way under the door. we even stacked boxes outside the door so she couldn't get to the carpet, she just went and clawed under the door to our roomate's bedroom. I eventually went and bought a bath mat, soaked it in anti-scratch spray, and wedged it under the door. she still scratches it, but can't get it out. the clawing doesn't bother me, but it wakes my wife up, who wakes me up to do something about it. marriage is tough.

as for tiring them out, i personally ran laps with the cat around the appartment for about 30 minutes, played with her for another 45 mins with a pocket-fisherman type of a thing. The next step is to get a laser pointer and just tie it to the ceiling fan on low so the cats chase it all day while we're out so they're tuckered out when it's bed time.

i appreciate all the advice. if anyone else has some suggestions let me know.
 

journey

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Well, the first thought that came to my mind reading your post was the moving thing. When did you move? Maybe Blue is still really insecure and adjusting to the move and just wants attention 24/7?
 
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screamnyak

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that could be it... i guess the problem is i don't know how to get her to either just sleep with us and be quiet, or run around outside the room and leave us alone.
 

ccsr79

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If you just let them sleep with you, eventually they'll catch on and actually sleep through the night. Lucas was very hyper when I got him, and wouldn't let me sleep much, but now he knows that when the lights are off I'm sleeping, and there's no playing and he either sleeps with me, or goes off to the living room to do his own thing (though every morning when I wake up he's sleeping next to my face). I work full time too so it was hard that first week, but he did adjust.
 

loraandjeff

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screamnyak,
I don't know if this will help you or not...but this is what my husband & do and it's worked very well, and ours are currently 4.5 months old.

First of all, kitties (of any age) DO NOT like a closed door. No matter WHERE it is, but especially if mommy or daddy is on the other side of it.

We let our kitties sleep with us, and of course, at first they would wrestle and wake us up at night. What we've done to counter that and get them settled into actually "sleeping", is to teach them that the bed is for sleeping & cuddling - not for wrestling. How do you do that? We go to bed 10 minutes before our usual bedtime and take both kitties with us. They then get a full 10 minute petting session (one for each of us) where we get them in full purr mode and comfortable laying down. The better into purr mode they are, the more likely they are to just settle down and not be tempted to "wrestle" since they're getting pets AND they get to be with mommy & daddy (which is what they want!).

We don't have any more problems with them at all. They LOVE bedtime and happily follow us to bed, knowing what's coming next for them LOL. And a sound sleep we do get out of it.

Hope this helps.

Lora
 

ubasti

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Do you have a cat tree?

I also have two 8 (almost 9 month old kittens) that loved to wrestle on, under and around the bed at night. This effectively stopped once we put a seven foot cat tree in the living room. They love to chase each other up the post of the tree, hang off, drop to various platforms and start all over again. When they are tired they come to sleep in our room, but the bedroom play sessions completely stopped. We are currently in the middle of a move and have to store the cat tree so they are once again playing on the bed at night. Seems that they will find the best piece of furniture to play on, so if you can give them one that is more interesting than the bed they will leave you to your slumber.

I agree that cats hate being kept out of a room and especially one that you are in, so if you could provide them with something more exciting to play with outside of your bedroom and thus be able to keep the door open, you may have better luck.

Ubasti
 

elizwithcat

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She loves you and wants to be with you at night.

Maybe you could try to let her in to see how it goes?
 

maherwoman

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This might not help a whole heck of a lot, but ours used to do the same thing. Sunny was just fine with sleeping with her brother (the two of them are VERY lovey dovey with each other), but Hobbes just couldn't let go of the fact that he wanted IN THE ROOM!! He eventually grew out of it (after our trying all sorts of things). There are rare moments that he just HAS to cry outside the door and claw under it a bit, but it's rare and no longer a problem.

The funny thing is that my husband was bugged MUCH MORE than I was about this. I've lived most of my life around cats, so it didn't bother me. I personally wanted to let them in, but whenever we did, they would do the same thing yours do...get all hyper and mistake our bed as one of their playgrounds.

At any rate, I hope it's encouraging that they grew out of it! My best advice is to wait it out. Eventually Blue will get the idea that you're not opening that dang door, and to go to her sister to sleep with.
 

cjblackwood

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

Play with them, good hard play for 45 minutes to an hour before bed and leave the door open. At 8 months old, they should be starting get into the snuggle with the humans mode.
But tiring them out first makes things much easier.
Arlyn is absolutely right. My kitten is only 4 months old and has tons of energy. And, it all seems to surface most frequently at my bedtime. Over the last couple of weeks I started playing with her about 45 minutes to an hour before bedtime and that helps alot. She'll come into the bedroom and go ballistic for just a couple of minutes. After that she will crawl up on her blanket which I lay along the side of the bed and is fast asleep in no time. After the lights go out she wants to snuggle for a little bit, and then it's back to sleep for the rest of the night.
 

loveysmummy

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Well, I commiserate with you as I sleep like a brick but my BF does not and around 5 am, I am woken by him muttering that he really is going to "kill the cats any second".
(not that he would even harm a hair on their head, mind you...I tell him he just sleeps too light
)

And I tire mine out as well...They just have a ball sprinting around the bedroom or if locked out, Lovey will scratch and whine to be let in.

However, one suggestion I yet don't have the heart to try is one recommended by a veteran on this site (Hissy/MA)

The trick is to put your vacuum cleaner in the off position right outside your bedroom door. Then run the cord with plug in end into your bedroom under the door.

When Blue starts to scratch and whine, plug the vacuum in (on your side of the door so Blue can't see you doing it) for a few seconds. He should associate his scratching with the being terrified by the evil sound of the vacuum and not do it again...I hear it only takes maybe two times maximum for this to take effect.

As I said, I don't have the heart to do this to Lovey yet. But its a solution!!

Cheers
 
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screamnyak

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Thanks to everyone. These are all fantastic ideas.. i will be giving everything a try tonight!

-YaK
 

bigorangemenace

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I used to have the opposite problem actually. We moved into my mom's friends house because she went to move in with her ex husband, and they had an old doberman (about 8years) so to avoid stress since he was so old, and since we liked him, she left him with us, but this meant that I had to shut elliot in the room at night, so elliot wouldnt go attacking the poor old dog, and so the dog wouldnt come in the room and eat all the cat food!!! (He'd eat the whole bag if you gave him the opportunity)

Elliot would stick his paw under the door, and unfortunately the outside frame was loose so all i would hear was *thwack**thwack*

This wont help you much but I ended up sleeping with cotton balls in my ears, at least three clean pairs of jeans on my head, two pillows on the side to kill that noise, and to top it off I put a giant thirty pound stuffed bear over all of that, and then, blissfully, I could sleep in silence (I am a light sleeper and cant go to sleep if there is any noise except my fan)

Unfortunately I now cant go to sleep unless I put a pillow on top of my head.


If you get desperate enough, try that.
 

loveysmummy

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Duh..I meant leave the vacuum in the "on" position so it goes on when you plug it in...

Tell us if any of the solutions here worked.

Did you get any sleep last night?
 
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screamnyak

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i got some sleep.


I went to petco and bought a laser pointer, and seriously made the kids run laps from 6:00 till 9:00. We left the door open and the cats were out most of the night. At about 5 they woke up and wandered into the room. One slept on the bed, the other under the bed. They played a little first, but not bad. i think this is going to work out.

Thanks again to everyone. I'm going to use the vacum trick when we do have to close the door.
 

carla

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Hiya

We have the same kind of problem, it's been going on for a while now, wierd cos they used to be fine anfd sleep on our bed all night.

Now I've started letting them stay in our bedroom on Friday and saturday nights when we dont' have to worry about getting up, plus we try to play with them before we go to bed. it hasn't worked yet but I haven't been doing it for long. Anyway, let me know if you manage to sort things out.

Carla
 
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