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Naughty Kitty Help! (Update in first post)


AmandaVT
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Update: Kitty was undeterred by tape. It finally occurred to me that an almost 11-year-old boy is easier to train than a kitty.   😁 We buttoned up his room best as we could and then I told him to bury his head under his covers and do his best to ignore her, thinking she'd calm down once she wasn't getting the attention. It took a few days, but it is starting to work well. She does still try to be a mischief maker in the middle of the night, but she has been giving up on DS's room and bothering DH and I and we're expert at ignoring kitties when needed. Now, instead of being up for an hour or more, I'm only up for a few minutes and DS hasn't been waking up at all for the past couple of days. Lesson learned - logical boy is easier to train than kitty! 

 

We recently (September) got a kitty who is lovely and sweet approximately 23 hrs a day. The other hour, usually around 4:30 am, she is a mischief maker and I need help! Her favorite activity is to go into DS's room and make as much noise as possible. We've worked on locking down all of the toys and books in his room the best we can. I have books that I use like shims to secure lego storage boxes, I've tucked blankets securely into and around tubs of toys to keep her out of those, I've secured cords, whatever I can do. DS is great about keeping things tidy as well. She still finds things to get into  - a week or so ago, she jumped up onto his bookshelf and managed to knock a stack of books onto his floor, waking us all up. After a little while, she settles down and goes back to bed.

DS and I hadn't been getting great sleep for months, so I decided to start shutting his door at night, which worked great for a few days. Then she started attacking his door. I tried bringing her into DH and my room at this point but she attacks our door and has managed to actually get a piece of wood off of it! Last night I was googling at 5 am and tried duct taping a towel to the door to make it less attractive to scratching. She thought it was a lovely game and ripped it off of the door. I'm at a bit of a loss right now. I don't have any place to keep her during the night. We have an open floor plan downstairs, no way to block off her access to get upstairs and no great place to put her overnight. She also has trauma from before we adopted her and has separation anxiety, so I really don't' feel good about crating her.

Is there anything I can try that I haven't already? She's really loud, otherwise, I'd just tell DS to ignore her and wait until she settles back down. She almost knocked a lamp onto his head a couple of weeks ago. Cute kitty picture attached! 

 

 

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Edited by AmandaVT
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Make loops of wide tape and stick it on your doors. Put the loops fairly close together and as high up as kitty can reach. It's not aesthetically pleasing, but IME cats learn to leave the doors alone in a few weeks and then you can remove the tape. It might not work (nothing works for all cats), but it's an easy thing to try. Also, cats can be crated at night. I wouldn't assume that SA would make her any more likely to dislike crating than a cat who doesn't have it. IME cats tend to like crates even more than most dogs, since most of them have more of an instinct to hide themselves than dogs do. You can put a large towel or throw over the crate to make it even more of a hidey hole.

Edited by Pawz4me
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1 minute ago, MissLemon said:

Does she have toys to play with at night, to keep her occupied? Cat tree, a play tunnel, jingle balls, toy mice?

 

Yep - lots of toys. And DH feeds her right before he goes to bed too.  

 

Pawz - I like the tape idea. What kind of tape would be good, I wonder? Painters tape? Regular scotch tape? Duct tape would probably be too sticky- I don't' want her to hurt her paws. I tried aluminum foil on some of her favorite mischief spots because I read that kitties hate foil. She thought it was great fun and had a new toy to play with. 😂

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Aww ... but she looks so sweet!  😻

Sorry, I got nothing!  Is she still a kitten?  My cats evolved to be more chill over their first 18-24 months.  They're 3 now.  They can still be really funny and playful but they aren't disruptive at night and don't destroy stuff anymore.  

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I posted a very similar issue recently. Kitty sleeps with us in bed (usually snuggled up next to DH under the covers); she comes in sometime in the middle of the night. Around 4 am she wakes and goes WILD until we get up. Like you, we don't have another room to keep her overnight.

So far our best solution has been to keep her awake all day so she's totally exhausted and (hopefully) sleeps through until our 5:30 alarm. We have had some success, but we aren't usually home all day to keep her up. 

 

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4 hours ago, AmandaVT said:

 

Yep - lots of toys. And DH feeds her right before he goes to bed too.  

 

Pawz - I like the tape idea. What kind of tape would be good, I wonder? Painters tape? Regular scotch tape? Duct tape would probably be too sticky- I don't' want her to hurt her paws. I tried aluminum foil on some of her favorite mischief spots because I read that kitties hate foil. She thought it was great fun and had a new toy to play with. 😂

You can buy sheets of double sided tape made for this purpose, or strips of double sided tape. https://smile.amazon.com/Pioneer-Pet-Sticky-Sheets-Packs/dp/B01IFF15UU/ref=sr_1_8?crid=AKQ3S2NNUMQ3&keywords=sticky+paws+tape+for+cats&qid=1553128958&s=gateway&sprefix=sticky+paws%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-8

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FWIW keeping kitty awake all day yesterday didn't have the desired effect. 

When she woke up at 4, DH went downstairs and turned a bird video on for her on the tv. Apparently she calmed right down and we got an extra hour and a half of sleep. :).

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4 minutes ago, MEmama said:

FWIW keeping kitty awake all day yesterday didn't have the desired effect. 

When she woke up at 4, DH went downstairs and turned a bird video on for her on the tv. Apparently she calmed right down and we got an extra hour and a half of sleep. :).

This made me laugh.  My kitty has really calmed down in the couple of weeks we have had her.  Except most nights she wakes up around 4:30 acting nuts. This morn8ng 8 put her in the laundry room.  I expected her to meow but she didn’t.  

This is a pic I took a few days ago.  She is so cute it is hard to stay mad at her.  

 

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2 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

This made me laugh.  My kitty has really calmed down in the couple of weeks we have had her.  Except most nights she wakes up around 4:30 acting nuts. This morn8ng 8 put her in the laundry room.  I expected her to meow but she didn’t.  

This is a pic I took a few days ago.  She is so cute it is hard to stay mad at her.  

 

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She is cute! I love how she sleeps half out of her bed. 😻

I'm convinced they know how adorable they are so we can't get too mad.

 

image.jpeg

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Our rescue cat is crazy at about 4:30 am, which I blame on DH's schedule that has his alarm go off around then  (sometimes). If I'm not awake at 3:30 with hot flashes, then I'm definitely awake at 4:30 because of his sometimes-schedule, even when he's on nights and doesn't get home until after 6. She's loud and has taken to starting the Roomba with her antics.

I'm glad you've figured something out!

20190224_205745.jpg

Edited by RootAnn
Mandatory cat picture inclusion
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2 hours ago, RootAnn said:

Our rescue cat is crazy at about 4:30 am, which I blame on DH's schedule that has his alarm go off around then  (sometimes). If I'm not awake at 3:30 with hot flashes, then I'm definitely awake at 4:30 because of his sometimes-schedule, even when he's on nights and doesn't get home until after 6. She's loud and has taken to starting the Roomba with her antics.

I'm glad you've figured something out!

20190224_205745.jpg

 

"What, I'm just cleaning the house? You humans should be grateful!" 😂

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