Cat keeps my wife and I up all night...

[sun2mid]

Okay, so here's the problem - my wife and I have a short-hair 1 year old and at night, she will wake us up (though usually she focuses on my wife) by licking our faces, scratching and clawing at the sides of the bed, or crying until one of us wakes up and goes out into the living room. At that point she will sleep quietly for the rest of the night – this usually happens around 4:00 am.



So far, we’ve tried using a water bottle by the bed that we spray her with when she claws at the bed. We’ve also tried the method where we close her out of the room, then when she claws at the door or cries to get in, we open the door quickly and spray her with a water bottle. Unfortunately, our cat likes being sprayed by water, and just thinks we are playing a game with her. We also tried just shutting the door and ignoring her, but after a couple weeks of even less sleep (she never stopped crying and clawing) we gave up.



Finally, we recently purchased a bottle of “Feliway” to keep her from clawing at the bed, but it hasn’t done anything. We never feed her in the night, because we don’t want to reinforce the bad behavior, but we’ve run out of ideas. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks

[Ash]

I would stop the water bottle treatment. For once it doesn't work with her, and also it won't help you figure out what she really needs from you.

When you go into the living room with her, does she then immediately fall asleep in the living room? Is it a favourite place, basket, blanket etc she's sleeping on/in? If so you could try taking that favourite sleeping place into your bedroom, next to your bed.

Does she want to play before falling asleep? If so you could try tiring her out before YOU go to sleep by lots of interactive, wild play involving a lot of running.

Have you tried taking her onto your bed when she wakes you? Does it seem she wants to sleep with you in the bed? If so let her.

Does she want food when she wakes you up? If so, try and feed her a larger amount in the (late) evenings (and a little less in the morning to make up for it). Or (if it turns out that she is indeed hungry) you could try to free feed her, leaving some dry food out for her at all times.

How much time in the day do you usually spend with her? If you are both very busy she might just be bored from being left alone for too long.

Do you have other animals?

Could there be anything that scares her? Is she a nervous cat? Is there dog barking at night in the neighbourhood or anything else that could make her feel nervous at night?

Is she spayed? How long have you had her?

[Tambrey]

How long have you had your cat?
Does she get plenty of attention and playtime during the day?
Does she have plenty of cat toys to keep her occupied?
Does she get plenty of food and water during the day?...I just free feed dry food 24/7 and they have it any time they are hungry...
Do you ever let her outside?...Keeping her inside only is the best to do...
Is her litter box clean and convenient?...If you have a multi level home, is there a clean litterbox on each floor?
Maybe getting her a playmate would help...they could run around and wear each other out, and play with each other during the night if they choose to do so...

If all else fails...has she had a vet visit lately to rule out anything physically wrong with her?...cats are not too good at shhowing us their pain, and when they are, sometimes they choose the oddest ways to do so...and sometimes we cannot interpret their actions as attention getters that something is wrong with them...

Good luck and I hope you and your wife can both get a good night's sleep soon!

[Tambrey]

Seems Ash and I were both posting and about the same time

[sun2mid]

thanks for the quick replies!

Let me see if i can cover everything here:

we've had her for 8 months now. We both work during the day, but we are usually home for the evening, and we do play with her for a good amount of time each evening. I'll see if doing it right before we go to sleep helps.

The strange thing about when we wake up and go into the living room is she usually just lays down at the end of the couch and sleeps. It's like she is lonely, but we leave the door open into the bedroom so she can join us there if she liked.

Often she still has food in her bowl, so i dont' think she's hungry. Still, i'll try re-proportioning her food so she gets the majority of it in the later evening.

She's not a nervous cat. We don't have any other pets, though, so we have thought about getting another cat that she could play with. However, we have a small-ish apartment and two cats would be a big difference from just one. We do keep her litterbox clean, and she's an inside only cat.

I hope that better explains the situation, and thanks again.

[Ash]

Mmmmh, beats me! She is like a baby that wants to be tucked in by mommie, right? Does this sofa place where she sleeps have a special meaning for her? Like, is that where you always sit and play and cuddle with her? Maybe you could try playing and cuddling in the bedroom with her more often. Maybe out of some reason she doesn't like the bedroom so much? Or maybe tuck her in on the sofa before you go to sleep?

How large or small is your appartment? A second cat might help. Although they might then wake you up with their wild chases!

Cats are night creatures by nature. I have been woken so often by mine, I can't even count it. Although mine usually want food. (We don't free feed cause the dogs would just eat it.) I'm by nature a long sleeper, I don't like to be woken before 9am. But Tommy of course, doesn't know that. So at 6am he wants his food, and there I am, staggering into the kitchen, feeding, watching that nobody steals from the next, and then back to bed for another 40 winks. I got used to it. Maybe you will to. Or maybe your kitty will grow out of it. Cats often change habits after some time.

Yes, Tambrey, we pretty much said the same things as well!

[kehorner]

I can sympathize... I have one who will wake me up by nibbling on my chin and sticking his cold wet nose in my nose or ear! It seems to happen mostly when I sort of half wake up or roll over or something and he thinks that I'm going to be getting up. I think he gets all excited that I'm going to be getting up, and then he is disappointed when I don't get up. It seems that the only way I can get him to leave me alone is to pull the covers over my head so he can't see me. Even then, he paws at the covers because he knows I'm under there.

[sun2mid]

sounds a lot like my jersey..


anyways, last night we fed her a little extra and we spent the early evening playing with her in the bedroom so that she thinks of it more as "the place to be". Obviously it's still a little early, but things did seem better last night. I also talked to our vet, and she reccomended pretty much the same things that you've all mentioned here. Thanks again for the help, and I'll keep you posted on how everything turns out!

[kehorner]

Another thing... If your cat is scratching on your springs and causing damage (as well as being loud in the middle of the night), you can try putting a fitted sheet over the springs. Most cats don't scratch on smooth cotton surfaces like sheets (they prefer surfaces with looser weave, such as your couch...), so that can put an end to the damage. I have a navy sheet on my springs and my boys never touch them (even though they clawed them a lot before). It won't fix the problem of her waking you up at night, but it can limit the damage to your bed.

[Tina B and crew]

Hmmm....I guess we are just lucky...5 cats and they rarely wake us at night Sounds like she just prefers the couch to the bed and wants someone to keep her company while she sleeps. I know my cat Willow sleeps on the bed with us and she as a certain spot that she sleeps. If I'm out of town she will wake my hubby during the night because I'm not there. Some cats are creatures of habit. Maybe trying to change her habit by shutting the door at night with her in the room and see if that helps. One thing I did was to put a fleece throw at the foot of the bed...it seems cats like the feel of fleece and Willow always lays on it to sleep. Can't hurt, and they are relatively cheap at discount stores.

Good luck!