Sleep----Help

[karkel59]

Let me start off by saying Aug 30th was one of the best days of my life. That's when I became the Mom of 64. She was about 5 /6 weeks old. My questions is...we both work and 64 has plenty to do in our home, I mean plenty..I've gone cat wild. She has a cat condo, cat tunnels, scratching posts, toys etc.....We get home around 4 and play with her a lot till we go to bed around 930/10...she sleeps with us. It never fails shes up by 4 am, I feed her cut lights on downstairs and she has the run of the house, but she gets back in bed with us and walks on us and meows till we get up....where do your cats sleep ?  What should I do ? I need more sleep, going thru menopause and the cat waking me up is starting to get to me....

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• karkel59
• Dec 14, 2013

 

[sarahgalore1]

It sounds like she's in her own little routine and she has you wrapped round her little paw to carry on with it! My cat used to be the same, and at weekends when I wanted to sleep a little longer it wasn't fun! She would get hangry (hungry angry) and bite me, so I had no choice but to get out of bed. So I purchased one of those battery operated automatic feeders that you can fill with food the night before and time it to open when it's breakfast time. At first I had it outside my room, then I gradually moved it downstairs and then where her feeding bowls are. Now I don't get woken up at all.

 

[karkel59]

Thanks but 64 has one kidney and eats wet food per vet.

 

[sarahgalore1]

You can put wet food in the automatic feeders, no problem.

 

[sivyaleah]

You should not put wet food in the feeder unless it is a type  of feeder which has a cooling feature.

Wet food will begin to loose quality quickly,, pathogens will begin to grow if not kept at a correct temperature.  Considering your kitty has a health issue, it would not be advisable unless the food is kept cool.  

 

[betsygee]

@sarahgalore1:  "Hangry"!  That's funny.  

I have one 5 a.m. yowler who's pretty annoying (especially on weekends when I don't want to get up early!), so I've been researching auto feeders myself.  Some of them use ice packs to keep the food fresh. There was a thread awhile back about it:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/255988/wet-cat-food-timed-dispensers

 

[sarahgalore1]

Yes, the one that I use has cooling packs with it that you place underneath the trays with the food in. However you have to be careful they aren't too cold as really cold food can upset a kitty's stomach.

 

[barbgee]

I'm having a similar problem with my Kitty.  Our routines are that I play with her, and give her her dinner in the evening and she will jump up into bed with me.  She stays for awhile, sleeps or lies next to me.  I then seem to wake virtually every a.m. at between 4-4:30 a.m., usually go to the bathroom then, and it seems like she'll then come in my room every hour on the hour, jump up on the bed, jump down and repeats, until I get out of bed between 7:30-8:30 a.m.  It's making me nutty, because part of me wants to just shut the bedroom door after my bathroom visits, but I feel bad shutting her out, since she's only been an indoor cat for about 3 months now.  The weird thing is that I can hear her paws on the wood floor, and that wakes me.  I've put down runners, but she's also a three-legged cat, so she kind of "galumphs" when she walks.  I do ignore her, when she jumps up, so she gets no reward for disturbing me, but she keeps trying.  I've tried putting down her morning food when I wake that first time, but seems she wants company, not necessarily food.

Is it okay to close the door for the last few hours of my sleep in the morning? 

 

[deborahlee]

Don't feed her until right before you go to sleep, and give her a major workout to tire her out right before feeding her.  That might help.

 

[karkel59]

64 doesn't really want to be feed either she just wants me to get up with her.....I've only had her since Aug 30 and she is so sweet and cute, I can't bring myself to be mad...lol   she has me wrapped.

 

[blackcat416]

Time for kitty #2. I am up to 8 cats. Just got my last 2 on Dec 28. A 10 yo and a 4 month old. All the rest are between the ages of 2 yo and 20 yo. Before the newbies came 3 always slept with me and 2 with my hubby, the other is a basement cat who guards the house when we are all sleeping. Since the new adoptees have arrived our sleeping schedule is a little off. Since the kitten wants to run and play every 3 to 4 hours. So my older cats take care of this for me. If I happen to get up around 2 am I will go down and open a couple of cans of food then jump back into bed. But I do go to bed each night at 8 and I am sound asleep by 830 - 9 the latest. My problem is I find myself playing with the newbies at 2 am. Not their fault. But my cats do an excellent job on the kitty sitting. Our house is one long straight run from living room to den to dining room then kitchen. So there is a lot of running thru the house. We have a tree house 3 pole beds, cat beds all on the sofa's oh yeah their favorite a kids hockey net that's like 3 x 3 and lays face down so all the cats use it as a trampoline. Kittens are about three things play, eat and poo/pee. Welcome to the wonderful world of kittens.

 

[lamiatron]

 
64 doesn't really want to be feed either she just wants me to get up with her.....I've only had her since Aug 30 and she is so sweet and cute, I can't bring myself to be mad...lol   she has me wrapped.

both my kittens do the same thing. 4 am on the dot every day, weekend or not. you'd think they'd keep each other buys. 

unfortunately, she's mostly nocturnal at this age. I've read until they're about 1 years old, cats are mostly nocturnal. I've gotten used to my cats waking up, and i'm able to manage with no sleep, but i'm not going through the same thing you are. you might want to keep her out of the bedroom. close the door and no means no. Maybe keep the tv on downstairs so she doesn't feel alone, but she needs to get used to the fact that you need your sleep. 

I don't know if you sleep with an alarm clock but you might need to. When she comes to you at night IGNORE HER. even tho she's meowing and on top of you. and you're awake, just pretend to be asleep!!! just ignore her. And set an alarm for a time that's reasonable for you to wake up. and once your alarm goes off, then acknowledge her and pet her. Over time she'll learn that the alarm signifies play time and she'll start to bother you closer to the time your alarm goes off. if you wake up in the middle of the night and give her attention, she will keep waking you up for attention. but you HAVE to be diligent! i read about this somewhere...on a really old post here on thecatsite. I was trying it and it was working well, but i was not consistent with it (difficult to follow through with this when the boyfriend spends the night because he will wake up to play with them when they want). My cats would come running to me once the alarm went off and go crazy!!! with the purring and the walking all over me, licking/chewing the hair, kneading, the whole 9. but like i said, you have to be consistent. they would be good all week or for the most part, then on weekends it will be back to the old habits cus of the boyfriend...and then when he started to stay over more, the whole thing just went out the window.

lol

i hope this helps you.

 

[lamiatron]

 
both my kittens do the same thing. 4 am on the dot every day, weekend or not. you'd think they'd keep each other buys. 

i meant busy*** oops

 

[catlover1991]

Out cat Pikachu has been doing this since we have had him. Every morning never fails between 4 and 5 am he comes and  nudges us with his nose and purrs and tries his best to wake us up. We have ended up having to put him out and shut the door a couple of times. He goes away for a bit and around the time my husband and I wake up he will come to the door and start meowing .. I think its just what kittens like to do . 

 

[karkel59]

So when they become cats...they no longer do this ?

 

[lamiatron]

So when they become cats...they no longer do this ?

When cats become older they're less energetic and less nocturnal (depends on each individual cat) and from what I've heard from my friends, who have owned cats for years, their sleep patterns begin to imitate ours, and even if it doesn't, they won't really wake u up in the middle of the night for play and immediate attention. Kittens wants constant play and attention.

 

[catlover1991]

We have noticed that when we play with our cat several times during the day even if it is just for maybe 10 to 15 mins at a time he will atleast do this later in the day, but if he comes to bed with us and falls asleep with us he doesnt do this as much . We are thinking about getting him a cat bed to put in our room because he doesnt always like being on the bed with us but maybe if you tried playing with it more during the day it will wear him down . 

 

[cprcheetah]

Only one of our kitties is allowed to sleep with us, he is a lazy butt so he sleeps in as long as we do.  DeeJay spends the night causing earthquakes on the bed (scratching like a mad woman), Cedes wiggles around too much, Tiggs wakes us up at 4 am, and Mini Dee pees on the bed.  Munchie is very calm, stays at our feet until hubby moves to his chair (3 or 4 amish) then snuggles next to me till I get up. 

 

[catlover1991]

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• catlover1991
• Jan 15, 2014

My cat sleeps between my husband and i like a human when he does decode to get in bed with us

 

[chasetheblue]

My girls weren't allowed in my bedroom until 4 months of age (and still wouldn't be, I'm allergic to them, if we didn't have the dog now). At first they would wake me up at 2am every morning, and just generally were really really annoying throughout the night (my face is a great place to sleep apparently).

When they got really irritating I just pushed them out of bed and rolled over (my bed is a mattress on the floor so a drop of about 6 inches, not far). They now don't wake me up until 5ish (and I get up at 5:30 anyway) and they are much more respectful of my face. Just ignore as best you can