My cats keep us awake at night

[Tan]

Hi Flame and   to Purrs
What were the cats like when you allowed them into the bedroom the 3 mths before?  Did they settle when they were allowed in and were happy?  If so it may well be that they are jealous of your little lad and trying g to get back into the room again.

There is a good article on Cats that are showing signs of being jealousy with a new baby on Messeybeast here http://www.messybeast.com/cat_baby.htm
but i think the site is down at the mo.  

From what i have read from cat behaviour books, the thing to do is try very very hard to ignore them, even a look or a shout will signal to them that the scratching gets a reaction from you and will learn to continue doing it.  You have to be totally quiet and show nothing. Also their needs to be a comfy place for them to want to settle down in with all their needs elsewhere, have you tried a radiator beds in another room, somewhere temping they want to go.  That and ignoring them works after a while and they learn that the attention seeking just doesn't work anymore.
 In the books i have read on this by cat behaviourists, they say the attention seeking can get worse before it gets better, one cat who used to scratch at door and keep the humans up all night, went to jumping on the kitchen units and knocked a item over to make a loud noise. That def had the effect he wanted by the humans running downstairs to him. Crafty cat!!  These people did solve the sleepiness nights by making sure their was nothing the cat could push over in the kitchen and persevered over a number of night ignoring the door scratching. They did provide in an alternative a snuggly  hide away new bed in another room where the cat loved to sleep.

I hope this may help

Let us know how you get on  

[blackcat]

doubt it, I think Smidgen is on a roll!!! He has a toy whcih is essentially a ball trapped in a circular track which he is wrestling from one end of the sitting room to the other. As the floor is timber, you can imagine the noise!!! He is an abyssinian cross so a completely manic kitty!!

[Flame]

No they have never gone onto our room during the day ever.

I would like to be in bed to but we have the baby shouting and the youngest cat is running round like a loon  Hope yours calm down soon for you.

[blackcat]

but are they allowed in during the day when you are not in there? If so, then banning them permanently from the bedroom seems like a sensible idea. Also, if the game can be finished about half an hour before bedtime then they will have already settled down for a nap before you go off and leave them. BTW the only reason I am posting at this hour of night is because my cats are going silly playing games and I can not sleep. Otherwise I would be well abed as I have to get up for a 7 am train ...

[Flame]

Our bathroom isnt really big enough to have the cat tray in unfortunately otherwise i think that would be a really good idea.

My boyfriend plays with them for about half an hour before we go to bed but that doesnt seem to help anymore, it did at first but not now.

The cats are fine with him during the day and the younger one always seems concerned when he is crying and i one time caught her sat on the chair looking down at him meowing at him while he was crying like she was trying to sooth him which i thought was really cute, i dont think they would harm him at all purposfully but i would still rather not risk it at all.

We did used to let them in the bedroom about 3 months before he was born but that was only because of the scratching at the door, but we tried to get them to stop coming in the room for the 3 months before.

[Angiew]

The only thing you can do is restrict them to another room. If you don't like the idea of them being in your kitchen what about your bathroom?
You could try a mad half hour of playing with them before you go to bed.

Cats normally learn quite quickly when they are not allowed in a room.

If you're not already doing it, don't allow them ANY access to your bedroom - during the day or at weekend when you're having a lie in. That will only confuse them as they do not have the same appreciation of time as us mere humans.

[Ralph's mum (angie)]

When I had my son albeit a few years ago now, I put a cat net over his cot and aloud the cats access to the bedroom, if the truth be told they peeped in but never went near him,

How are the cats during the day with baby around, why wont you allow them into the room with you, do you think they would bother him

where did they sleep before baby arrived

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

No accusations there that I can see, just questions and to be able to help we need answers to some of them 

When did the scratching at the bedroom door start?
How old are the cats?
How long have you had them?
Are they still going in all the parts of the house that they were before the baby and if not what has changed?

And anything else that may help us tio help you.

[Flame]

One simple answer to those questions

No i dont leave my cats out because i have just had a baby and if i didnt want them i would have got rid of them by now.

Useful solutions to this problem please not accusations.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

I think I am having a bad night so I am grumpy   

I think we need to get to the thrust of this.

Do you like cats?

Do you want the cats?

How old are the cats?

How long have you had the cats?

Do you really want a solution to this problem.

Where did the cats go in the house before the baby arrived?

has this changed?

Do you know cats believe that they come first and when a baby comes along and they get shut out or do not get any attention, they get jealous?

Did this behavior happen before the baby was born?

As I said I am feeling grumpy tonight!

[Flame]

I dont let them into the kitchen as they walk all over the sides and i think it is unhygenic and also unhygenic to keep the litter tray in there, at the moment there litter tray is in the entrance hall.

[blackcat]

Even if they have a litter tray?? Surely you can keep them confined to the kitchen with a litter tray, food, water and some bedding??

[Flame]

I prefer them not to stay shut downstairs as they will poo or pee and scratch things downstairs and walk all over baby stuff.

[blackcat]

can you shut them downstairs or are you living all on one level? They just wanna get in a play!!! Mine would go nuts if I shut them out of the bedroom. I do sympathise, particularly if they are waking the baby, but maybe you just need to have more than one door between you and the cats??

[Flame]

Hiya

I have two cats who always scratch and cry at our bedroom door at night and keep us awake and i dont know what i can do to stop them, We have let them into our back bedroom but they still come scratching and yowling at our door. We have a 3 month old baby and they regularly wake him up with it to. We really are not getting a lot of sleep because of this. I have asked my parents if they would take one of the cats but my boyfriend wont let us get rid of the other one and she causes more trouble out of the pair of them. I am going insane and am really starting to get fed up with them but i love them to bits so dont really want to get rid of them. Really dont know what to do.

Please help.