# Cat wants to play with us all night



## troublecat (Feb 1, 2011)

Candy is driving us mad.

She jumps up on the beds during the night - ours and the kids - and bashes our faces to wake us up. Her mission seems to be to get us to go downstairs with her. When that doesn't work she gets under the duvet and starts play-attacking our feet. She'll do this for ages, several times a night.

I'm guessing that she's been allowed to play with feet under duvets in the past - she also plays with hands and arms so again I think that probably goes back to kittenhood when she was smaller and that kind of thing was cuter!

Anyway, we've tried giving a late night snack before bed and having a good play session, neither of which has worked. We tell her 'no!' in a firm voice when she goes for us but she just keeps coming back for more. Her bodyclock is clearly set to 'nocturnal' as she sleeps most of the day. The layout of our house is such that we don't have anywhere to shut her in, and we keep the bedroom doors ajar so that we can hear the children if they need us.

Does anyone have any advice?


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## ClaireLily (Jul 8, 2008)

Oh dear, I feel your pain, my eldest is 3 and woke me up at 5am the other morning for cuddles, was the first time in ages though. As a kitten she used to lie on my pillow and put her paw in my eye till I woke up.


We have now adapted, I sleep fully under the duvet with my feet tucked up inside so they can't get me. I have no idea what to suggest because my girls are just spoiled rotten and I let them away with murder


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## ibbica (Aug 9, 2010)

troublecat said:


> Candy is driving us mad.
> 
> She jumps up on the beds during the night - ours and the kids - and bashes our faces to wake us up.
> 
> ...


I'm ashamed to say that I giggled at your 'bashes our faces' line :lol:

Ahem. Alright, so you've tried the snack and playing just before bed... might be time to up the ante and see if you can get her on a more acceptable schedule. Is anyone home during the day? (Could try waking her up to play earlier each day.) Do you leave food out at night? (Could try either taking it up, or leaving some down; whatever you're not doing now.)

Playing _right_ before bed seems to rile our kitties up, but we sometimes have an extended play session a few hours before bed if we know we want to get a good night's sleep.

Finally, if she's an only pet, maybe consider getting a second cat? Sometimes they just need an outlet for all their energy and pouncing/zoomies, and another cat may be more capable of keeping up with Candy than mere humans. Of course, there's a slim chance you could end up with _two_ nocturnal monsters... but at that point you could always get baby-monitors for the kids' rooms and keep the doors closed at night


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## troublecat (Feb 1, 2011)

Thank you for your replies. 

Candy has a 'companion', Molly, but unfortunately so far they loathe each other and we have to separate them at night o/wise the hissing and handbags would keep us awake! We've only had them for 5 wks so hopefully they will at least get to the stage where they will ignore each other with dignity. 

I've never been able to find a baby monitor with more than one unit (i.e. one for each bedroom) and I believe that if we used multiple sets at once then they would interfere with the reception on the others. Besides, I just think Candy would yowl and scratch at the doors instead.

Hopefully she'll get more tired out once she goes outside.


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## Jansheff (Jan 31, 2011)

We have 3 - a tabby cat and 2 Burmese. We have to shut them in the kitchen all night or we would simply get no sleep - nor would the kids. Even if they were happy to go to sleep when we did, the Burmese insist on going down the duvet, rather than sleeping on the top and it's impossible to sleep with them there. They're used to being shut up, their beds are in there, they like to have them on top of the kitchen cabinets (I know, but that's where they chose to sleep, so we put the beds up there!), we feed them, then shut them in at night and they settle down quite happily. No miaowing or scratching to get out. We usually get up about half an hour before breakfast time, let them out and they come into the beds for a cuddle, which they love. 

A few months ago my husband and children went for a weekend away, which I couldn't make as I had something on at home. I left them out all night, thinking they would be company, but sure was to regret it later. The Burmese dashed around, galloped over, under the bed, raced the house, jumped on me regularly throughout the night. Everytime I tried to catch them to put them in the kitchen they flew up the attic and hid, then sneaked down again to restart their games when I'd given up and gone back to bed.

Eventually, at 6 in the morning, just as it was getting light, they crept under the duvet and settled down to sleep. I was shattered - and had to get up in about an hour. Never again! I love them to bits and wouldn't have them any other way than the crazy, mad little things they are - but I need my sleep!


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## honeysmummy (Oct 17, 2010)

Honey was like that to begin with..but have to be honest..she just seems to get it now...might have a little play..then just settles down and sleeps on our bed !
that was after about 8 wks of having her. Now i love her 6am plodding up from my toes all the way to chest..then plonks herself down...gives me a kiss..tap on the nose and then back to sleep......sorry have been no help  xx


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## troublecat (Feb 1, 2011)

Jan, we can't shut Candy in, at least not at the moment - the only practical room is my office, which has been taken over by Molly, our other rescue. The two aren't getting on at the moment and I can't shut them in together.

Otherwise our ground floor is pretty much open plan, except for the shower room!

Candy is also the first cat I've had which has liked going under the duvet!

It's driving me crackers and I can only hope that once she's going out she'll wear herself out a bit more, she's very active.

Honeysmummy, that sounds good...so there is hope!


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## Sparkles87 (Aug 30, 2010)

Ah, I'm afraid I can only second advice that has already been given 

William gets shut in the living room at night and this has been the way since we brought him home. If we give him access to the rest of the house we simply get no sleep whatsoever (we've tried it a few times). I wouldn't mind just not allowing him in the bedroom and giving him the kitchen etc but he can easily open the bedroom door the rascal 
He doesn't appear to mind being in the living room at night and we don't hear anything from him till the following morning when he gets to come into bed for a snuggle. He loves this and likes to get right under the duvet before wrapping himself around your legs and falling asleep :001_wub:

Hopefully she'll soon settle down and you'll be able to get a good nights sleep  If she gets no attention when she behaves like this she may well realise that it's a waste of time! 

Good luck!
Sparkles
x


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## carly87 (Feb 11, 2011)

Have you tried feeding her a very high protein snack before bedtime. I was told by a knowledgeable friend of mine that, because the food is harder to digest, they are more inclined to sleep while they're doing it. At the time, I had a naughty little monkey who was doing pretty much the same things. The friend suggested chicken which I tried. I fed her as much as she wanted, and left some down for her to nibble when she did eventually wake up. This worked an absolute treat. She slept for about four hours on a full tummy, then when she woke up, I totally ignored her, only engaging with her if she got too rambunctious. Even then I just picked her up and put her off the bed. She'd go and have a look in the food bowl just in case there was something to do there, and once she smelled the chicken, she'd eat again and sleep. It took about two months, but she gradually started to understand that the bedroom was for sleeping in, not playing in. I only let her in there when she'd been fed at night time, so she got very used to climbing on the bed for a sleep. During the day she was locked out of the bedroom to reinforce this.

Hope this helps.


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## Jenny1966 (Feb 7, 2011)

Would love the answer to this 

Molly is a pain in the behind at night!! Though to be fair to her she is getting better  She has a little routine going at the moment ..... once all the lights have gone out she will climb on the bed and lay between us ... I gently hold her paws stroking them so she doesnt swipe us, other half stokes her ears .... she purrs for about 10 mins then silence till the snores start :lol: after about 5 mins she jumps up and settles by the bedroom door. 

Only problem we have is, she's not quite got the not waking up verrrry early to start the routine all over again :lol: and woe betide if I lock her out the bedroom!! She can meow non stop, which is even more annoying than the swipe round the head we get :lol:


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## darkshines (Feb 22, 2011)

Gizmo is the same. I often sleep in the living room (long story) and that isn't a problem for him, he will quite happily curl up next to me and sleep through til about 5.30am. Then he will decide he can hear the birds outside, therefore he is hungry and wants pets and noms.

In the rare times I do sleep in the bedroom (about three or four nights a fortnight) he will try to break in the bedroom, to the point where my partner has to block the door with furniture. He has no issue getting his claws out and miaowing loudly, so in the end we either have to get up to feed him, or allow him in. He then stomps on us, smooshes us in the face, purrs and chirps EXTREMLY loudly and makes a butt out of himself. The other day he woke my partner up by farting in his face!

I think the only soultion is to keep him in the bathroom at night and ignore the cries until he gets used to it.


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## springfieldbean (Sep 13, 2010)

honeysmummy said:


> Honey was like that to begin with..but have to be honest..she just seems to get it now...might have a little play..then just settles down and sleeps on our bed !
> that was after about 8 wks of having her. Now i love her 6am plodding up from my toes all the way to chest..then plonks herself down...gives me a kiss..tap on the nose and then back to sleep......sorry have been no help  xx


Our kitten Kinvara sounds similar to Honey - she would bat our faces and bite our toes throughout the night when we first brought her home, but after us ignoring her, and making sure the sides of the duvet were firmly tucked under us so she didn't have an entrance she learned that we are never going to play with her at night! In fact, she's learnt it so well that we can have a lie-in for as long as we like at the weekend and she just leaves us to it.

So, I don't know how long Candy's been doing this, but if you carry on completely ignoring her she might just stop naturally, without you having her to shut her out of your room...


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## Aurelia (Apr 29, 2010)

Cats spend a huge amount of their day sleeping. Especially when there is nothing else to occupy them, or keep them company.

Once you get to the stage where the two of them can be left together things should ease up a little, as they will spend their day burning off the energy and sleeping a little less.

In the mean time here's a couple of suggestions:

A feliway plug in, or even better ...2 one upstairs and one downstairs. This will help ease the situation between the two kitties. It might take a couple of weeks to start working though, so keep that in mind.

Secondly, if you can adjust (OK, manipulate) their sleeping patterns to fit you it would work better.

So, if they are asleep in the day and early evening wake them up for play. By all means let them settle after eating to help them digest their food, but only give it 30 mins or so. 

If you can make it so they sleep perhaps 5 hours less during the day, then they would hopefully sleep through those hours during the night.

Ways to keep them occupied during the day if you're not there ...

Play tunnels and cubes
Pingpong balls by the dozen as 1 or two will get 'lost' very quickly (though if you can get slightly bigger ones it's best. Some cats rolleyes can pick them up in their mouth)

Basically any 'safe' toy that won't hurt the kitties if they 'misuse' them. If you'd like more suggestion on safe toys, please ask. If there is one thing a lot of us like to do for our kitties on PF is spoil them with toys :lol:

EDIT: sorry just thought to add a bit more... Toy rotation is also important, else they get bored quickly. They don't have to be expensive toys (pingpong balls for instance) you can get a good supply going. Change them around weekly (so lock some away in a cupboard and get fresh ones out), or more if they get bored VERY quickly.


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## troublecat (Feb 1, 2011)

Thanks for all the advice! I will suggest to OH that getting some chicken for Candy might be in order! 

We're all around at the moment, it's the madness of three kids at home for half term who spend all day saying, 'where are the cats/ can we play with them?' and me saying, 'no, sweetheart, they're asleep'!  And Candy will be fast asleep in the middle of all the mayhem! :eek6: And I'm around pretty much most of the time at the moment, too. Mind you, Candy has bonded with OH. 

I've decided that it's company that she wants more than anything, she wants someone to come downstairs with her. It's odd because we don't object to her being upstairs, and once we come down she is happy to go and do her own thing again. Really weird.

Apart from the duvet thing, that is definitely some kind of scary bedding monster scenario. 

Toy wise they have ping pong balls, yucky mice things, catnip toys...just ordered a Da Bird and made Candy huge cloth catnip mouse that she can kick. They have boxes to hide in, things to climb...and anything on the floor becomes a toy anyway. 

Here's to hoping she outgrows it!


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