# Desperate for sleep



## Travis (Jan 13, 2009)

Hello fellow cat owners. I am a new member to this site and I have a few cat problems that I am hoping some of you could help me with. I have two cats, male and female, brother and sister. The female cat is no problem but the male cat wakes me every night for food/attention. I have tried closing our bedroom door but he then starts digging away at the carpet outside the bedroom which, of course, has me jumping out of bed to see to him. If I leave the bedroom door open he scratches at the side of our wardrobe to make noise to wake me up. He usually wants feeding but sometimes just wants attention. I have tried leaving dried food out for him but this sometimes disappears with neighbours cats coming and going through our cat flap through the night. Which brings me on to my next problem.

We are visited each day by around 2-3 neighbours cats who come into the house to eat, spray and sleep. There is one cat in particular who appears to be the dominant cat in the area who sleeps in our house when we are not there. He is a very dirty cat so I have taken to leaving a large beach towel on the sofa where he has taken to sleeping. We are both out of the house for most of the day and therefore I leave the cat flap unlocked so that my two can come and go as they please. I have tried the magnetic cat flaps in the past but collars getting lost/stolen made me change back to the manual flaps. If I lock my cat flap at night my male cats batters it so loudly with his front paws that it makes me jump out of bed to let him in. So as you can see with these two problems I am lucky if I get 5 hours sleep a night and it is driving me nuts.

Does anyone have any advice?

From

Sleepy Travis


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## lizward (Feb 29, 2008)

Surely the first problem is easy - just shut the cat downstairs at night.

If I were in your position I would either block the cat flaps completely so the other one couldn't get in, or simply accept that my cat would be going out at night as well as during the day. People will say you shouldn't do that because the risk of getting run over is higher, but I have my doubts about whether that is really true, it would be far lower where I live, depends on the area I suppose.

Liz


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## Cody (Nov 17, 2008)

Hi Travis,

I sympathise with your lack of sleep. I can't have my 2 kittens in our bedroom at night as they have a tendancy to sleep across my neck (and fight each other for the best spot!). I found that placing a large floor cushion in front of our bedroom door (on the other side from our bedroom!) has stopped them from scratching at the door reasonably successfully. When they pulled this away a couple of times, and scratched at the door, I went and said "No" very loudly, accompanied by my trusty water spray bottle, replaced the cushion and went back to bed.

My kittens hate being sprayed with water, so for me this works very effectively.

You may find that spraying the cat invaders with water when you see them works also - but you must only do this as they come in the cat flap - so they associate the water with coming into your home...

Fortunately for me, however, this is not a problem I have had to deal with so others may come along with better suggestions.

For your info, I also tried shutting them in downstairs, only to be plagued with the loudest yowling I have ever heard! But it might work for you - so give it a go! 

Good luck with catching up on your sleep...


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## PoisonGirl (Oct 24, 2008)

Hey, I know they are a bit more expensive than normal cat flaps, but have you thought about getting a magnetic lock catflap? Your own cats get a collar with a magnetic 'key' and oly your cats can get through the flap.

When we first started shutting the cats out the bedroom (because Milo started waking me up at stupid o clock) they would scratch, dig and yowl to be let in. 

I bought 'canac get off spray' and asquirty bottle for water.
I sprayed the door where they scratched it, and the carpet where they dug. That night I hid behind the closed door ready with my water. They came upstairs, and I wish I had set up a video camera, I can only imagine the look on their face when they smelled the spray. lol

Not more thana minute later they started yowling, so I opened the door a crack, they came to try and push it open and were rewarded with a nice biy spray of water in the face! Lol I have never seen them run downstairs so fast! 

That was the only time I had to spray them, they hate water.

We are sleeping in the living room atm til the bedroom is renovated, and they can push that door open, so I still put the spray on at night. They dont even bother coming to the door anymore though. 

By morning the spray has worn off and they can push the door open to cuddle up.


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## sazzyuk (Dec 15, 2008)

Have a look at my post....

http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-training-behaviour/24620-cat-keeping-us-awake-all-night.html

We're having the same problems with one of our boys, sometimes we're up until 3am because of him.


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## kelly-joy (Oct 14, 2008)

I suspect your male cat is waking you to tell you there is a strange cat in the house and he doesn't like it so I would make sure you lock your cat flap or block it at night and put a litter tray down for your cats to go in if they need to. also get feilway plug inns and put rescue remedy in their water this will help them to feel safe in there own home and calm them down.
If after that your cat is still waking you up then put him down stairs in one room away from the cat flap as you know that wakes you up and put a litter tray in with him and don't get up to him at all if you hear him just ignore him he will soon give in. My birman used to do the same and I now leave him shut in the dinning room and he doesn't bother making a noise now as he knows hes in there for the night and nothing he does will change that.Make sure you give him a litter tray,food,water,a bed and some toys he soon get the hint that thats where he goes at night.good luck hope that helps


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## JoWDC (Jan 11, 2009)

Hi Travis

Reading your post, it could have been us when we first got our two - they scratched at the door and are fascinated by the sliding wardrobe doors. Do yours have play fights in your bedroom as well (ours do this under/ around the bed). 

A couple of weeks ago we decided we needed sleep more than they needed more space, so we shut them out. We got a bit of pawing at the door each night, but we ignored them and they stopped and went to their own room. So far we've not been woken up by them and now get to lie in at the weekends without being stared at in the mornings (telepathic food thoughts being beemed at us by Lucky).

Have you considered a PetPorte cat flap - it reads your cat's microchip and only lets your cats in. They are expensive (there may be some deals out there) but seem to work well and have different modes so that your cats can go in and out.

Hope things turn around soon.

Jo


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## Janee (May 4, 2008)

JoWDC said:


> Have you considered a PetPorte cat flap - it reads your cat's microchip and only lets your cats in. They are expensive (there may be some deals out there) but seem to work well and have different modes so that your cats can go in and out.
> 
> Hope things turn around soon.
> 
> Jo


I have that cat flap and it is brilliant. No collars needed and does what it says on the tin. It has to plug into a power supply but you can get a rival which is cheaper that works off batteries.

Means you can let your cats out anytime without fear of other cats coming in.

(I actually lock it during dark hours so that my two are in the house)


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## JoWDC (Jan 11, 2009)

You do have to watch out for power cuts with the PetPorte as it resets to normal mode. Mine did that on Saturday night & the cats got out - result, £340 spent so far at the Vets as Patch managed to hurt his leg whilst on his nighttime escapade.

But don't let that put anyone off.


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## Travis (Jan 13, 2009)

Many thanks to you all for your helpful replies. I will be buying the micro-chip cat-flap when I get paid at the end of the month. I didnt know these existed!! Having tried and failed with the magnetic flap I think this is a great idea. I know Im a saddo but Im really excited about it as I think it will solve both my problems as I expect my cat is waking me through the night as he is scared of my neighbours cat....though you wouldnt think it if you saw the size of mine he's much bigger than my neighbours. I'll let you know how I get on! Travis x


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## xpalaboyx (Jun 17, 2008)

Do not forget to update us about your pets...


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## Carrie968 (Jul 9, 2008)

£102.50 + £6.95 p&p from Pet Porte Microchip Cat Flap. probably get one cheaper one ebay.


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## 0nyxx (Aug 9, 2008)

Might not be the solution for you, but my 1st 2 kittens were semi feral & only 4 weeks old, so at night I used to snuggle them up in a fur cat bed & put them into our spare dog crate, with a litter tray & food.

This helped as they were easier to litter train & because I have large dogs too, 2 of whom wouldn't bother them but the youngest is very excited by the kittens/cats so I didn't want to take the risk they could be hurt.

As they got older Mogwai was quiet but willow was a pain when I tried leaving them out of the crate at night, so I just used a larger crate & added a shelf to sit the cat bed on, as well as toys & treats etc, now they know the routine & when they see me locking up they know theres food & treats in the crate & they go to bed themselves, they often go in for a sleep during the day too as the doors left open I dont let mine out at night because we have a lot of people with hunting dogs in the area.

I dont hear them through night they curl up together & sleep once they've eaten their fill, they aren't in for long periods Im rarely in bed before 2am & let them out again about 7am thats when they usually want outside for a few ours, then theyre free to do as they please all day.

Marley & Tilly sleep in my room, they are much calmer cats than mogwai & willow, they curl up in a huge cat box, once theyre asleep I close the door too, & because theyre right by my bed they mew if they need out, but again they usually sleep from 2am till 7am if I get back in bed they either do the same or jump onto my bed to sleep.

Ive trained them this way from small kittens because I have large dogs & because willow is also quite a destructive cat, he scratches wall paper etc & plays with the blinds!


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