# HELP! My cat is clawing/digging at my bed every night!!



## emilym1987

Hi

I have a 6 month old, male neutered, indoor cat. Recently he has started digging/clawing at the bed covers.....especially when we are under them! It is very frustrating and annoying and I keep putting him out but all he does is cry....all night!!

Can anyone suggest reasons why he's doing it? Or ways to stop him? He has a scratching post which I regularly rub catnip on and uses! 

We need help pronto because im losing sleep here!! 

Thanks


----------



## ella

Hi

Is it a rhythmic kneading, or a rough scratching? Do you leave food out for him?

If the former, he is treating you like his mum and would settle after a while. He certainly sounds like he is anxious to be with you.


----------



## emilym1987

Hi

Thanks for responding. It's more a rough scratching/pouncing! He usually scratches at the covers where our feet are....and more so if we move them! He has food and water left out! If I let him get his way he would literally do it for hours! 

Sounds ridiculous but I actually sleep clutching onto one of his toys lol and dangle it out the bed......which sometimes distracts him for about 5 mins! 

Have bought one of those felliway plugins so will see if that calms him!


----------



## ella

It sounds like he wants to play then.... And probably a kitten thing.... Do you give him a good play each day? Something like Da Bird or a laser toy that will give him a good run around before bedtime, so he can associate it with bedtime. Feliway is good, but only works with some cats and can take a couple of weeks to work

My own cat is scared by the moving bedcovers so sleeps elsewhere!!

You'll get more answers during the day!


----------



## carly87

This is only a play behaviour and most cats will do it. All of mine will still have a smack at the covers now, and I've got one that's almost 6! The way I stop it getting out of hand is to treat them to what I call the cuddlemonster. Whenever they start and I want to sleep, I pick them up and cuddle them into the quilt with me. I repeat every time until they show signs of settling. They get bored because you keep pulling them away from what they want to do, so they eventually stop. With very, very stubborn kittens (I've had many), I will lift them off the bed and put them on the floor each time they do it, repeating as often as necessary. It's a pain, but start young and they get the message really quickly, within a few days. I found shutting mine out useless as the adult girls get so distressed if they can't be with me, and keep the whole house awake anyway.


----------



## Tao2

Kittens can be a quite active at night and get very excited about foot attack games even when you are not playing!! He will get less excitable and get into a sleeping at night routine. Eventually....although it may be difficult to put up with now.

My 2 used to thunder round the house chasing one another at night when they were kittens and every so often I would get a horrible awakening as a cat ran over my face, closely followed by a second cat. They stll do a bit of thundering but thankfully they stopped the face thing as soon as they were grown up, don't think my nerves could have taken it any longer.


----------

