Does anyone put their cat somewhere at night?

[Bonita]

Did he just start doing this, or has it always occurred but just not at the same time as baby?

[Deleted]

I've tried doing this before, but it usually backfires (resulting in MORE crying, body-slamming the door, etc).

I'm sure you've probably tried this, but can you bring out extra toys at night for kitty to play with? They are nocturnal, and right as most of us are ready to go to bed, kitty decides it's play time. And if your cat is anything like mine, he just wants to be where the humans are.

Do you have a large-ish area of your house that you can leave the kitty in so he's not too confined? Like maybe the whole downstairs can be shut off from where you sleep? If it's a big enough area for the kitty to play in, and has access to food/water/litter box and a comfy place for the kitty to sleep when he's ready, then maybe after a few days the kitty will decide it's more fun to be able to play than to be around sleeping humans.

[Deleted]

My parents have always put our cats in the basement at night (litterbox was there and some water). Some handled it better than others. When I took one of them to live in an apartment with me, she liked to do obnoxious things at night, especially when DH (then FI) slept over - paw the mirror, gnaw on my headboard, knock things off the nightstand, etc. She needed more attention during the day and when she got it, she was less likely to act up. If we tried locking her up, she would yowl, scratch the door, jump on the handles, etc.

[melindafelinda]

My H does an aversion training thing. He turns the vacuum on and plugs it into the extension cord right outside our door. Then he hooks up the extension cord to the outlet by our bed. We shut the door. As soon as the cat starts crying/pounding the door, he pushes the plug in and the vacuum turns on. Repeat. This has stopped her from doing it.

Granted we don't have kids. You would have to do it when your kid was not sleeping.

[allibally]

I bring him to bed with me and tuck him in with the covers. He only cries and attacks for food.

The vacuum aversion thing seems very usable though.

[Ohhmm(bligo)]

Feb 27, 2013 2:50:59 GMT -5 melindafelinda said:

My H does an aversion training thing. He turns the vacuum on and plugs it into the extension cord right outside our door. Then he hooks up the extension cord to the outlet by our bed. We shut the door. As soon as the cat starts crying/pounding the door, he pushes the plug in and the vacuum turns on. Repeat. This has stopped her from doing it.

Granted we don't have kids. You would have to do it when your kid was not sleeping.

Your man is BRILLIANT.

[blueballoon]

We put them in the spare bedroom if they are being really annoying,like when our two boys start play wrestling on the bed at 3am. Otherwise, they usually sleep on the bed with us.

[Deleted]

One sleeps with us and one sleeps with Rocco. Sorry your cat is being pesty. I'd try hard to give it lots of attention and play time. Maybe the cat is having a hard time adjusting to the baby?

[underwaterrhymes]

Our cats sleep with us.

This has solved the problem of crying and banging on the door in the middle of the night.

It will be interesting to see how they react to the baby. Our plan is for them still to sleep with us, though, but I'm sure there will be an adjustment for everyone.

I realize this doesn't help you with your problem, though. I agree with lots of play time and attention during the day if you can. When our girl cat randomly decided to start crying at 4:00 in the morning for attention, I filled a little water bottle with dried beans and any time she pulled that I would reach over and shake it, which scared the crap out of her and sent her running from the room. She stopped crying at 4:00 AM after about four or five days and hasn't done it since. Maybe that would work (although it might also scare the crap out of the baby, too.)

[peanut2202]

This has changed my life: www.thundershirtforcats.com/

I have two cats, one of whom has the worst anxiety I have ever seen in a cat. The second the lights go out at night she cries...it's almost like she thinks we have left her forever even though we are still in the house.

We put the thunder shirt (we have dubbed it the "thunder buddy") on her whenever she gets anxious, and it seriously transforms her into a different cat.

The adjustment period was only 1 or 2 wearings before she was laying all over it and cleaning it each time we took it off. She loves that thing.

[verycontrary247]

In bed with us!

As we're getting ready for bed they will cry until H or I retrieves them and puts them in their designated spot on the bed.

[Deleted]

She likes to lick her crotch near our bed in the middle of the night. It's so gross, so if she is being really annoying we put her in the laundry room. But for the most part she does ok.

I've put her on a diet because she is a fatty and now she has been meowing for food a lot.

[papie]

We did that the first few months of Anna's life.  For various reasons, we thought it would be easier to just lock the cats in the LR at night, we lived in a tiny appartment.  I a never doing that again, it made Puce's behavioral problems worse.  She started chewing on all the wires in the LR, freaking out every time she saw us, eating random crap like rubber bands, etc.  It was awful. 

I would just give it time. 

[cheeseandcrackers]

My cat has been outside our bedroom when we sleep since we had him. He whines sometimes by the door, but he got used to it for the most part. So yeah, he hardly ever sleeps with us because he doesn't let us sleep peacefully.

[papie]

Feb 27, 2013 7:46:31 GMT -5 peanut2202 said:

This has changed my life: www.thundershirtforcats.com/

I have two cats, one of whom has the worst anxiety I have ever seen in a cat. The second the lights go out at night she cries...it's almost like she thinks we have left her forever even though we are still in the house.

We put the thunder shirt (we have dubbed it the "thunder buddy") on her whenever she gets anxious, and it seriously transforms her into a different cat.

The adjustment period was only 1 or 2 wearings before she was laying all over it and cleaning it each time we took it off. She loves that thing.

I can't believe I have never heard of this.  I think I'll get one before our next (yet to be conceived) baby. 

[papie]

Do you have a catdancer? This and the laser pointer are the only things that get my cats playing.

[papie]

Feb 27, 2013 9:45:27 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

I'm curious about this b/c I'm going to have to find a way to keep the cat out of the crib, and I'm not doing that mosquito netting thing. lol. I'll have to close the door to the nursery, which means crying cat.

Or who knows, maybe she won't give a shit. She's sneaky that way.

LHC, our cats didn't care about the closed nursery door.  The problem we has was the first few weeks we had the baby in our room, and the closed door was driving them nuts.  But more with the first baby than the second. 

[Kit]

My cats sleep with us. They come to bed when we do, and usually sleep through the night on the bed with no issues. Sometimes the kitten gets a little active but she's doing much better and it hasn't been a problem in a while.

[peanut2202]

Feb 27, 2013 9:45:27 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

I'm curious about this b/c I'm going to have to find a way to keep the cat out of the crib, and I'm not doing that mosquito netting thing. lol. I'll have to close the door to the nursery, which means crying cat.

Or who knows, maybe she won't give a shit. She's sneaky that way.

I shouldn't admit this outloud, but I have watched that Cat Whisperer show in the past.

Anyhow, one couple had a newborn and the cat stalked the crib constantly.  The fix the whisperer gave was to put the cat in a pack and play in a common room a few times a day with a piece of your baby's clothing (preferably dressed on a doll of some sort).  This way it was a safe way for the cat to explore and learn what it was all about without impacting your baby.  Eventually the cat loses interest.  

Maybe you could try something like this?

[peanut2202]

Feb 27, 2013 9:37:27 GMT -5 papie said:

Feb 27, 2013 7:46:31 GMT -5 peanut2202 said:

This has changed my life: www.thundershirtforcats.com/

I have two cats, one of whom has the worst anxiety I have ever seen in a cat. The second the lights go out at night she cries...it's almost like she thinks we have left her forever even though we are still in the house.

We put the thunder shirt (we have dubbed it the "thunder buddy") on her whenever she gets anxious, and it seriously transforms her into a different cat.

The adjustment period was only 1 or 2 wearings before she was laying all over it and cleaning it each time we took it off. She loves that thing.

I can't believe I have never heard of this.  I think I'll get one before our next (yet to be conceived) baby. 

Papie, they come in small, medium, and large.  I think it cost us $40.  Best $40 I have spent in a long time!

[Cioccolato]

he's in my bed at night, taking up most of the bed.

[melindafelinda]

Feb 27, 2013 11:11:08 GMT -5 kooshball said:

Feb 27, 2013 11:07:10 GMT -5 mofongo said:

Not if you're not home during the day! Maybe I need a nanny?

She said she's home during the day. Is this all about you?

Kooshball is a doucheball.

[marissa]

My one girl sleeps between hubby and I on her own pillow and our other girl sleeps in her cat bed.

[Deleted]

Ours sleeps in a large dog crate at the end of the tiled hallway leading to the laundry room and his litter boxes.

We aren't sure what's going to happen when I'm getting up with a baby at night since for him noise = food, but we can't hear him whining with our door closed and a fan running so maybe he'll just get bored and stop after a few times? *said without much hope at all*

But to answer the original question - he likes the crate, we feed him in it too, and it works for all of us. I think he thinks it's a really big box

[agnes]

Princess Larrie sleeps with us. I try to play with her for a good 20 minutes before bed. I make sure she has her toys to play with, her water dish is full and a little bit of food. She doesn't usually wake us up in the middle of the night. Lately, she likes to sleep inbetween H and I.

She has very quiet meows but doesn't meow very much anyways. Sorry I'm no help.

[Deleted]

we started doing this a year ago, usually halfway through the night. our cat is old and senile and gets confused and will come in again and again and again and cry for us, no matter how much loving and soothing we give her.  and she's going deaf so her meows are SO loud.

we put her in the downstairs bathroom, with water, food, her litter box, and a cat bed. it's helped immensely.

[chalupabatman]

I love my cats, but those fuckers are not allowed to sleep with me at night. I wind up covered in cats and then they climb all over me and meow and NO.  One of them eats my hair when I sleep.  We have a door to the third floor where our bedroom is and we shut it at night. We also have feliway diffusers and they tend to get really loud and moody when they run out, so they seem to work

[LeggsBenedict]

We don't have a door to our bedroom, and we have one cat that likes the run back and forth across the bed and leap over our faces. He goes in the bathroom at night. I don't feel bad about it, because cats are crepuscular and he should be sleeping anyway, dammit!

[toepick]

My cats tend to steal my pillows at night, so I'm probably no help.  But it seems to me that it's adjusting to the new baby, and trying to confine him to a room will make it worse.  Where did he sleep before the baby? 

[thatgirl2478]

Feb 27, 2013 1:43:16 GMT -5 Loco Coco said:

I think we are going to have to do this. He has been crying a lot at night and I cannot deal with a crying baby AND crying cat, if its not one it's the other and I need sleep. H is ready to throw him out a window. He's been to the vet and is fine, so it's behavioral. I try to spend as much time with him as possible during the day, but it doesn't help. I feel bad, but man, you don't fuck with a tired mama's sleep!

Yep.  We close all 3 of our cats in the basement at night because they all have different annoying behaviors:

one sticks her tail / butt in your face as you sleep - she also has a high pitched meow that she uses approximately 30 min before the alarm goes off to tell you to feed her.

one is fine at night - he sleeps at the foot of the bed and doesn't bother you - but he likes to start requesting food at 3am...

the third likes to sleep on my chest or bladder.  never anywhere else.  She also tries to get under the covers with me so she can kneed me... with her claws.