My kitten is making me extremely exhausted

[mikes julie]

I have 2 kittens.. my oldest Bruin is 9 months old and my youngest is Calvin 4 months old. They really are brothers...they have the same mother. They both sleep with my husband and me at night. But here is the problem. Calvin seems to have an internal alarm clock. He is up at 3:15 - 3:30 am every morning and meows to wake up not only Bruin but even to wake up my husband and I. When he sits on the floor near our bed and meows i call him up and he does jump back up on the bed and will lay with me for about 2 minutes then he gets up and meows more and moves to a different spot to lay they he jumps back to the floor and meows some more and this can keep going on until he falls back to sleep ususally about 2 hours. It seem like he is a little confused on what he wants to do. A little bit about his background...we took him in when he was 8 weeks old and had litterbox issues and sleeping issues...he would not use a litterbox until i got the kitten attract litter and would not sleep for anything. Finally we were out of those issues and all was going well until recent...now he doesnt want to sleep again. Does anyone have any clue as to why our little baby crys all the time and seems like he doesnt know what to do??

Thank you in advance

Julie

 

[mystik spiral]

I'm sure others will have more helpful advice, but I think you just need to get him on your schedule. Ignore him when he cries at 3 in the morning (unless he's in pain, of course!). When I first adopted my kitten at 5 months old she wanted to be up all night and sleep all day. Eventually she got herself more on my schedule of sleeping and being awake.

 

[mikes julie]

Thank you Mystik Spiral for your reply

we have tried to ignore him but i dont know if i mentioned...what ends up happening is he wakes up my big guy Bruin and then when Calvin finally goes back to sleep Bruin is awake and out in the hallway or the kitchen calling Calvin...LOL It is a crazy house of cats...lol

 

[mystik spiral]

Well, we're a single cat household so I don't have to deal with that! Kittens also have a lot of energy, so maybe he just wants to play. I'd make sure that he has access to self-play toys, but I do think it's important that you don't "coddle" him too much when he wakes you up, otherwise he'll just learn that waking you will get him what he wants!

I don't have any advice for you about him waking up the other kitty other than to say I hope he grows out of it!

 

[bunnelina]

Try leaving some food out before you go to bed. He may just be hungry.

If he wants to play, try wearing him out with a laser toy or something before you go to bed.

Ignoring him during your sleeping hours is important, so you don't reward him for making racket.

 

[fifi1puss]

I leave dry food out for my cats for this very reason. I need my sleep desperately so I keep out enough food to last the night. You could also do a feeding dish on a timer, set it for around that time. It may give them something to look forward to and they can stop looking to you for attention at that hour.

 

[mikes julie]

Thank you for all the suggestions...but.....i have tried all of them.

fifi1puss...like you i desperately need my sleep too but i am not getting it. lol

I try to ignore him for a while but i cant do it for long because he wakes up my kids that need to go to school in the morning.

Oh well maybe he will get out of it soon...i hope.

 

[stephanietx]

Just before bedtime, have a seriously rough and tiring play session with him. Then, feed him a big sized meal of yummy canned food. This should help keep him asleep through the night, or at least for a bit longer.

Does he have a bed in your room? If not, get him one or make him one from a box and line it with old towels, an old shirt with your smell on it, and/or a blanket. When he cries, put him in his bed, pet him, tell him he's a good boy and go back to your bed. Be consistent. He'll soon learn that he's not to bother you during the night.

 

[silva_unt]

I agree with stephanietx! Play and feed before bedtime. If he's like my Neko, then he probably wont go play outside of the bedroom without you! Neko is this way. She's always trying to wake me up to play with her around 6 or 7am, not as bad as 3am. I leave some quiet toys on the bedroom floor to keep her occupied when she wakes up. That girl will NOT leave the room unless its for a potty break

 

[merindah]

We tried all the previously mentioned suggestions to no avail. When our cat meows and wants to play during the night we lock her out of the room- don't like to do it but need we need sleep. Some nights she's an angel and others she's a pain in the butt. But she's a nocturnal animal so her behavior makes sense.

 

[killerapple]

How about ear plugs

 

[stephanietx]

The other thing you can do is to park the vacuum cleaner next to the bed and turn it on, unplugged. When the cat starts whining, reach over and plug it in. It'll turn on and he might learn to associate whatever behavior to the vacuum coming on. Of course, it'll wake up the entire household, but it might be worth it in the long run.

 

[silva_unt]

Originally Posted by stephanietx

The other thing you can do is to park the vacuum cleaner next to the bed and turn it on, unplugged. When the cat starts whining, reach over and plug it in. It'll turn on and he might learn to associate whatever behavior to the vacuum coming on. Of course, it'll wake up the entire household, but it might be worth it in the long run.

I've tried this! It was advice to me from someone at Petco when I was having the same problem. Neko was 4 or 5 months at the time. She's ten months now and much better. The first time we tried the vacuum it scared her away, accomplishment. The second night we tried it again, she went away for about an hour, and came back mewoing and scratching. Used the vacuum, she went away and then came back 30 min. later. The time frame kept getting shorter and shorter

She was like "I'm not scared of you anymore... well, maybe just a little... but i'll be back!"
Now... she sleeps with us... but she sleeps most of the night

Good luck!

 

[stephanietx]

Yeah, I'm really not much help with these type situations because I don't mind if my cats get in bed with me. The DH doesn't like them in the bed, but he's learned to live with it and they only jump up on my side anyway.

They do have beds of their own in our bedroom and 95% of the time that's where they sleep. The only time they're in the bed is if it's cold, if the alarm clock's gone off, or if I'm off and trying to sleep in. Sleeping in doesn't really happen for me!

 

[icklemiss21]

At 4 months he is in the terrible teens, Quincy was the exact same, so much worse than the others when they were young but like Calvin he doesn't sleep much and he had a rough start - he was found as a stray at 4 months and had another adopter before I took him home too - seemingly their dog didnt take very well to him. Originally I thought he was scared to sleep because the previous adopters dog would attack him when he slept or something but eventually he got over it. But 4am without fail he was awake.

Now we play with him for 30-40 mins before bed, feed them at night and make sleepy spots outside the bedroom. If he really starts, I put him in the living room and close the bedroom door behind me. But he spent a few nights locked in the spare bedroom so everyone could get some sleep (even the cats were hissing at him), now I also do not encourage him to sleep in the bedroom, he has a cave in the livingroom he likes and a small dog crate he likes