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Help: My kitten thinks the bed is to play in at night!
I recently got a got new kitten - he's probably less than a year old. He used to be a outside cat and I've adopted him. The first night went well and but second night wasn't as great.
He slept for about 2 - 4 hours and then decided the bed was meant to be played with and started to scratch everything. And I ended up being one of the things he's scratched more than once and it's not something I want to put up with in the long run.
I don't want to give him back because I feel that'll be a tad rude, but if I can't change the behavior I might just have to. What can I do for him to sleep more at night? I did read on here to make his own room but I'm afraid of him destroying furniture. If anyone can help me with advice I'll be grateful!
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Simba
on Jul 27th 2011
in Scratching
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Answers
About bedtime: Cats are nocturne animal, so they active at night. To make Simba less active at night, he has to be active during the day. Does he pass all day alone? Maybe he sleeps all day and he is full of energy at night. To solve this you should found a way to make him “work out” his kitten energy during the day. I solve this adopting another kitten. They play all day long and sleep at night (no all night, but they play with each other at night). Other possibility is play a lot with him before bedtime, so he gets tired. Other advice, feed him after the night playtime and before bedtime, so he gets sleepy. About your furniture: Clip his front claws every 15 days and his back claws every month (look for catster advice about it). As sooner you do it, sooner he will get used to. Buy him a cat tree and show him that there is right the place to scratch. If he scratches your sofa (they love it) say NO and put him gentile at his tree and reward him when he scratches it.
Bigode
answered on 7/27/11.
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Welcome to kitten-hood. It shall pass. I remember back when my TWO keep me up all night (it was like having twins waking up for bottle feedings) they would walk on me, chase each other around the house, meow, and all kinds of crazy stuff. It passed and they learned that nighttime is for sleeping with momma. Now as soon as im in bed, they are right along side me thru the entire nite. I did not have to scold them, or put them in a separate room, they did not damage anything. Get a large scratcher, remember patience is a vertue. Check out Purr-fect post cat scratchers.
KuJu Ku
answered on 7/30/11.
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It really does get better once they get older.
Giving Simba his own room at night might be a good idea. My friend has a fairly spacious bathroom which she uses to confine her cat at night. Bathrooms are easy to cat proof since there's no carpet to shred, and tile is easier to clean should something happen. She just clears off the counter top, throws a few cat toys in the bath tub, and kitty is happy all night long!
If separating yourself from the cat is not an option (Skaara howls if he gets shut out of my room) it's just a matter of separating play space and sleep space. This means not letting your cat play on the bed at all. If Simba wants to play, just gently move him from the bed to the designated play area and play with him there. Skaa'ra caught on to this pretty quickly, and it's worked really well. He's still a bit noisy at night, but nothing headphones or ear plugs can't fix.
Skaa'ra
answered on 7/31/11.
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