This last December we got to lovely 6 month old kittens. Things, as I remember, were pretty good during the first month or so, but since then its almost been a living hell. Here's the situation. They would get in our face at 2 or 3 in the morning so we started locking them out of the bedroom. Then they started scratching on the door like there's no tomorrow. We thought we had that solved by putting them in the spare bedroom. Same thing. Scratching on the door. So in the last few weeks we've been leaving all doors open and they can sleep with us. This seems to work fine, but at about 4:15 in the morning, they start wanting to be fed and they are just down right obnoxious. We thought the water bottle routine would cure that but it hasn't. They just run away for 5 minutes and come back and it starts all over again. To say the least the wife and I are running on fumes (from lack of sleep) right now and I'd hate for it to go much further. We're debating on whether to put them in crates or not when this starts happening. Another thing to mention is that we've been feeding them aroun 6. We just read something where we should probably feed them at a later time? Do they adjust as fast as this post told us they do?
Any advice is appreciated.
Sleepless,
CDORR
Help: cats waking us up and odd hours
Re: Help: cats waking us up and odd hours
If you are scheduling their feeding times, try free-feeding, since they are still growing and developing, they are expending energy and need their kitten food for energy requirements (since they are 9 months of age now, they can be graduated onto an adult maintenance food).
I'd also suggest spending a good amount of time interacting with them (playtime) in the late evening before you retire, this may help tire them so they sleep alittle longer during the night. Also provide a cat-tree or scratching posts, interactive toys, etc to keep them entertained late at night.
Cats are nocturnal, and they don't sleep for long periods of time at night like humans. Don't be surprised if they make a habit of waking you early in the mornings, but with the applied tips above, you can lessen the frequency.
Btw, crating is not the answer...
I'd also suggest spending a good amount of time interacting with them (playtime) in the late evening before you retire, this may help tire them so they sleep alittle longer during the night. Also provide a cat-tree or scratching posts, interactive toys, etc to keep them entertained late at night.
Cats are nocturnal, and they don't sleep for long periods of time at night like humans. Don't be surprised if they make a habit of waking you early in the mornings, but with the applied tips above, you can lessen the frequency.
Btw, crating is not the answer...
..........Traci
Re: Help: cats waking us up and odd hours
iif all the above don't (doesn't ??) work, you might ask your vet for low dose benadryl for a few days to try to break the habit...works pretty good with dogs-=----but only with your vets OK
Re: Help: cats waking us up and odd hours
Traci, thanks for the info. We haven't done free-feeding, if I correctly understand what that is, because one of the cats likes to eat. He'll eat just about anything in site if given the chance. I suspect that if we put down an allotted amount of food in the morning he'd have it all eaten 10 minutes later (is this a sign for something else?)
Right now we're going to try feeding them at a later time to see if this delays their activity (if they start acting up at 6 instead of 4 it will be great because thats what time we get up!).
Thanks again for the help and if you have any more please let me know.
CDORR
Right now we're going to try feeding them at a later time to see if this delays their activity (if they start acting up at 6 instead of 4 it will be great because thats what time we get up!).
Thanks again for the help and if you have any more please let me know.
CDORR
Traci wrote:If you are scheduling their feeding times, try free-feeding, since they are still growing and developing, they are expending energy and need their kitten food for energy requirements (since they are 9 months of age now, they can be graduated onto an adult maintenance food).
I'd also suggest spending a good amount of time interacting with them (playtime) in the late evening before you retire, this may help tire them so they sleep alittle longer during the night. Also provide a cat-tree or scratching posts, interactive toys, etc to keep them entertained late at night.
Cats are nocturnal, and they don't sleep for long periods of time at night like humans. Don't be surprised if they make a habit of waking you early in the mornings, but with the applied tips above, you can lessen the frequency.
Btw, crating is not the answer...
Re: Help: cats waking us up and odd hours
We free feed (have 2 cats and one new kitten) , that seems to keep the peace for all until around 7 a.m...when I have to be up for work anyway. But I still get woke up around 4 a.m with the night time play time LOL..My 2 youngest cats (one is 1 1/2 years old and the other one is about 5 months) they run and race around the house and always manage to hit the bed a time or 2. I just grumble and go on...been kinda tired some days..but have adjusted I guess..