Cat lovers/experts: I need advice

[Phillycat]

Well, my little boogerhead is now 6 months old:



and he really is not getting the concept of "we sleep at night, when it's dark". I am thinking of crating him. My best friend had a lot of success with the method and she's already given me some advice, but I want to hear your advice and experience with crating, or other methods to encourage a kitten/cat to sleep at night. Thanks in advance! :hi:

[LaurenG]

1. I have no advice

because my cats do as they please with or without my permission. As they got older they started to calm down though. When one of mine was tiny she'd crawl in bed at night and purr so loud she'd wake us up. x(

[Phillycat]

3. Prince Charming sleeps on my head.

Like, draped across my forehead. :eyes: I have a hat made from a cat. I have a cat hat!

[yellowdogintexas]

2. give him lots of play time from the timeyou get home until your bed time

also,they grow out of it. Trust me. Most cats sleep about 20 hours a day anyway
the older they get the more they sleep When my 3 young cats were under a year old, they were perpetual motion, and they kept one another pretty worn out, so they slept when we did.

Do you let him in the bed with you? If he likes to cuddle w/ you, he will get in that habit fairly quickly and it will be come automatic snuggle time.

he sure is cute though.

mine lurk in the bed and wait for me to get in the bed and compete to get nestled in by me ...before I can even get the covers arranged over me. LOL. When it is cool/cold outside, I have one on my stomach and one on each side of me. The 4th cat has taken up residence in the attic, which is really a couple of roughly finished out rooms, on a pile of blankets my husband put there for kitties to lounge on when he is working in the office he has up there. Sometimes the cat comes down to join the rest of us but he is more of a solitary soul.

[Phillycat]

4. He comes to bed with me.

And he snuggles down and is fabulous for the first half of the night. Then along about 3:00AM, he decides he's rested and it's play time! If I've had the forethought to take away all the loud toys the night before, (which I don't always do), then he just finds something else to make noise with, and if he absolutely can't find a suitable crackling/banging/popping object to play with, he attacks my feet. Last week, I inadvertently kicked him in the head so hard (I was SLEEPING, and he BIT my foot HARD), I was terrified I'd given him brain damage. (He's fine, of course.)

[LostinVA]

5. Kitties are often nocturnal creatures

One of mine sleeps on a pillow next to me, but the other two are quite active at night.

[Phillycat]

9. I live in a studio apartment.

There's no place for him to be active without waking mommy up. :banghead:

[radfringe]

6. get him a night job

Our old lady cat (Kudra) is in charge of Wood-Warm up.

[Phillycat]

12. HA!

That's a great pic. It's almost hard to pick out the kitty - if it wasn't for her tail. :loveya:

[radfringe]

14. imagine my surprise

when I went to grab a piece of wood to toss into the woodstove and it was furry....

EEEeeek!

[radfringe]

18. other jobs for kitties

Pookah (aka The Pook) is in charge of bag security


Gato (aka catzilla) sink monitor

[Arugula Latte]

7. Maybe he needs a little kitty friend to help tire him out.

:D

[Phillycat]

13. 2 in a studio apartment...well, I won't say I haven't thought about it

I am probably crazy for even considering it. :D

[Betty88]

8. he will grow out of it

Our cats know when its bedtime and tell us if its getting late. They also dont like us going to bed at different times. If one mommy is asleep the other mommy should be too.

[Phillycat]

15. Yes, but I need to sleep NOW!

:D

[ceile]

10. My little ones did not calm down until they were 2.

There were times when I considered making them permanent outside kitties. I feel for you. Age, I think, is the only cure.

[Phillycat]

16. Aargh!

That's not what I want to hear. :D Thank god he's the cutest thing on 4 legs or I'd have to drown him. :loveya: :banghead:

[begin_within]

11. Cats are nocturnal by nature - they sleep in the day and hunt at night.

You'll have to change your own sleeping patterns, if you want to be his person.

[Phillycat]

17. Helpful, reeeeal helpful.

:eyes: :D

[begin_within]

29. Try this...

http://www.perfectpaws.com/noct.html

[Phillycat]

35. Thank you! This is great. nt

[VaTF1]

19. You have a Calico Classic !

Is your Calico Classic a double Bulls-Eye ? What a lovely cat ! I have owned a Russian Blue, 2 Double Bulls-Eye Calico Classics, am now the proud owner of a Maine Coon. One thing I've found to keep the cat from going on the "prowl" you can sprinkle catnip in his bed and have a catnip toy handy, in his bed.

Keep all shots up-to-date, including the feline leukemia, and since they have the teeth of a very small dog, try to have his teeth cleaned on a yearly basis. My Russian Blue lived to be 17 years, because she did not suffer any tooth rot, chipping, etc. Once their teeth start to go bad, they will quit eating and you can face the loss of a beloved pet. Lovely cat !:hi:

[Phillycat]

22. I do???

I thought that I had a black-and-silver tabby cat, but I've been wrong before! Another shot of him:



And another:



I thought calicos were orange and black??

Thanks for the info! :hi:

[VaTF1]

27. True about the colours, if you're talking about a Calico,

But you have a cat that CFA would classify as a Calico Classic, and the 3 colours your have as a Classic are Black, Grey, and White. Did you check to see if your cat is a Bulls-Eye Classic, or a Double Bulls-Eye ? CFA loves Bulls-Eye Classics.

[Phillycat]

32. How do I know?

I don't know what a bulls eye is! Also don't know what CFA is...I'm clearly uninformed. Educate me, o wise one! :D

[VaTF1]

34. Check both sides from your cat's abdomen to spine area,

If you can notice a circular bulls-eye pattern on your cat's spine to abdomen area, then you have a Bulls-Eye Calico Classic. And you may notice that pattern on both sides of your cat, so then you have a Double Bulls-Eye Classic Calico.

[BikeWriter]

20. Uh... who is the boss here?

[Phillycat]

24. As with all cats...he is. :)

No, I'm quite willing to be the boss, but I live in a studio apartment and so even if I lock him out, I can hear him.

[VaTF1]

28. To anyone who has a cat as a pet,

You pay the mortgage, or rent, and the cat is the Master, or the Madame in your home. I own 10 dogs, a McCaw, and my Maine Coon owns the home. I just pay the mortgage ! :-)

[BikeWriter]

36. Okay, I'm sorry to hear that., but it was expected ;-)

[Lyric]

21. Crating a cat will lead to

loss of sleep due to insistent and loud meowing at the travesty and horror of being a crated cat.

Even a studio apartment has a bathroom with a door. Stick him in there at night with his food, water, litter pan, and some toys. Just make sure that he can't get to your medicines, toiletries, toilet paper, or the trash can--otherwise you'll have a mess in the morning.

Cats are naturally nocturnal, so you really can't "force" them to be otherwise. However, they do grow out of the excessive romping about the time they turn a year old.

[Phillycat]

25. Thanks.

I've been doing the closing of two doors between us (my bedroom/living room has a door too) but I can still hear him scratching and whining on the door. :eyes: He is so freaking cute I have to laugh, but mommy is getting a little sleep-deprived over here. :D

[Lyric]

31. I know it's hard to handle.

Perhaps you could buy a box fan and place it in your room, to help cover up the noise the cat makes? Fans are very soothing--I couldn't sleep without one. :)

6 months old is still "kitten", so living with a cat that age is a lot like living with a human baby. They tend to be rather noisy and demanding. *smiles*

Good luck to both of you! I have five cats at the moment--one of them is about the age of yours, and one is only 3 months old, so I have *two* little fuzzballs rumble-thumping through the house at night. I am completely empathetic. But still--they're a joy. :)

[Phillycat]

33. Oh, he fills my heart with happiness.

He is the sweetest, smartest, most loving little furball you've ever met. I adore him. The only time I don't adore him is at 3AM. :D The fan is a good suggestion - thanks! :hi: And good luck with your menagerie!

[lizziegrace]

23. Widget finally calmed down between 2 and 3 years old

before that, I would have paid someone to take him. He drove me crazy. Now he's 13 and the sweetest cat I've ever been owned by.

[Phillycat]

26. Awesome.

Perhaps some heavy-duty earplugs... :eyes: :D

[lizziegrace]

30. It's like having a toddler in the house

:(

[HCE SuiGeneris]

37. Have just gone through the first year with my newest

addition. I think the nocturnal instinct declines for the cat after it becomes more used to cohabiting with humans. She still gets an adrenaline charge around midnight, but is not furtively going "nuts" all night long. I cannot sanction locking the cat up in a crate for the night. If you have a full sized room -- it might be less traumatic for the cat -- but I feel that the cat senses the imprisonment and that it is not a healthy choice. As was mentioned earlier, in adopting a kitten, the responsibility for caring for an infantile entity has to be assumed.

Hope it works out well for you :hi:

[RiverStone]

38. Try lots of play at night then the handy spray bottle.

Long time cat lover here; currently share my house with 2 cool cats rescued from a no-kill cat shelter.

Ya got a tough problem there, as kitties love the night for wild antics. My guess is you'd have a tough time crating him - he will cry and scratch the walls even louder. Dogs can be crated; never heard of a cat doing the crate thing???

So I had an awesome calico that lived over 20 years. She had a habit of waking me up almost always about 3:00 a.m. by scratching the wall next to the bedroom door. That meant she wanted to go outside and play (or mouse around). She was very persistent.

Finally after giving in way too long, I got one of those plant squirt bottles. Every time she scratched, she got sprayed (and hated it). Of course, it did not hurt her...but it annoyed her more then she was annoying me. Alas, a quiet night.

I live in the woods so I feel OK letting my cats out at night (they have to watch for coyotes). But that assures me of a nights rest without interruption. Though on balance, my current cats sleep through the night - but they are 5-7 years old and have calmed down lots.

Good Luck!

[texas1928]

39. One of ours wanted to play at night.

I started about an hour or so before we went to bed. Make her wake up and move around and if I caught her sleeping I woke her up with one of her toys. After about a week she was sleeping at night cause I wore her out.