Night-time behaviour - Help

She most likely will grow out of it, or at least will eventually calm down,
& you'll then have relative peace & quiet at night. My calico was in
*constant* motion up till about the age of 4 or 5. She's now 12, & is much
more sedate. Thank goodness. ;-)

Cathy

--
"Staccato signals of constant information..."
("The Boy in the Bubble") Paul Simon

"Jeannie" wrote in message
...
I have recently adopted a DSH cat called Lily from the local Cat's
Protection League. She is between 18 months and 2 years old and she
really
is a lovely cat but some of her behaviour is starting to drive me mad and
I
would appreciate some advice as to how I can train it out of her!

First let me start of by saying that I have lived with cats from being a
child but all of the others have been much older than Lily when they came
to
us. I have no experience with young cats or, to be honest, with house
cats
as all the ones we've previously had were mousers who generally slept in
the barn rather than the house.

During the day I am at work and Lily comes and goes
from the house via a cat flap so she is getting plenty of excersize. She
is
fine at night when I get home from work too but as soon as I turn the
lights
off to go to bed she goes CRAZY. She runs all over the house, jumps all
over me while I am in bed, scratches EVERYTHING, constantly tries to break
into the fridge / break out through the cat flap, which I lock at night
etc.
I am now constantly tired and at my wits end. So far I have tried:

1) Not letting her into my bedroom at night (she cried at the door for
about
an hour until I relented and let her in)
2) Playing with her to wear her out before bed (Didn't work)
3) Feeding her just before I go to bed (I thought that if she was full she
might sleep - Wrong again!!)
4) Leaving the lamp on in the bedroom as the manic behaviour seems to be
triggered by the dark (Total failure - I couldn't sleep anyway because the
light was on and she acted exactly the same as she always does).
5) Ignoring her when she started being manic as I thought that the
behaviour
might have been encouraged by the attention she got from me (Tried this
for
2 weeks and it made no difference)

I am hoping that you're all going to tell me that she will grow out of
this
but in the mean time is there anything I could do to make her less hyper.
Understanding WHY she is doing this would even be a start, but I haven't
got
a clue as at all other times she is a perfectly placid normal cat.

Any help would be much appreciated

Jeannie

On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 16:13:49 -0000, "Jeannie"
wrote:

"Diane L. Schirf" wrote in message
.net...
In article ,
"Jeannie" wrote:

I am hoping that you're all going to tell me that she will grow out of
this
but in the mean time is there anything I could do to make her less
hyper.

Train her to be an indoor cat. Right now, she's got you trained.

I don't let her out at night anyway and I never have, but I don't really see
how being an inside cat all the time would help her be less manic at night.
Needless to say, I don't want to get into the inside vrs outside cat
debate....

"Iain & Deb"
wrote:

Congratulations on your adoption!


Thank you very much :-)


I think she just misses you when you're at work all day, and
wants attention (and doesn't understand why you have to go lie down and
sleep).

I think this may be it. She is a very "in your face" kind of cat which
admittedly I am not used to but I have been trying to give her as much
attention as possible before and after work to try and re-assure her (she
was in the shelter for quite a while too due to an injury and I think that
has contributed to her need for lots of affection).

I seem to often see that the people who have the most trouble with their
cats' social behaviour - toward them and other humans - is people who
have only one cat. I'm a firm believer in having at least two;

Unfortunately, my tenancy agreement says that I can only have one cat at a
time, although I do think that probably another cat would calm her down.

She's still young, and will probably get more used to your sleeping hours
as time goes on.

Oh, bloody hell I hope so, I am totally knackered!!!

Wendy" wrote in message
...

You said she's scratching everywhere. The first thing is to get her
scratching where it's acceptable.

I have got a scratching post for her which she DOES use in the day. At
night she tends to scratch things that make a noise. Her favourites are the
divan base of my bed and the front of the fridge and oven (this makes a
nosie like fingernails down a blackboard which is exactly what I like to
wake up to obviously!!) and it is this noise which generally wakes me up in
the first place. When I first had her, I trained her to use the scratching
post by picking her up and moving her to it when she was scratching
furniture. Obviously because I am in bed when she starts scratching the bed,
I can't get up quickly enough to catch her and move her to the post but
being as she doesn't do it during the day I assume that she knows that it's
wrong but does it anyway to wake me up.

If you have to, close the bedroom door and put a radio on low to provide
you
with some background noise so you can ignore her begging at the door. You
need your sleep.

I am going to try this tonight and I will let you know. The crying business
breaks my heart but your right, I do need my sleep.

Any ideas on how long it will take her to grow out of this habit?

Jeannie


Another suggestion: Put her in a room with a radio on so she will feel she has company.

On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 16:13:49 -0000, "Jeannie"
wrote:

"Diane L. Schirf" wrote in message
.net...
In article ,
"Jeannie" wrote:

I am hoping that you're all going to tell me that she will grow out of
this
but in the mean time is there anything I could do to make her less
hyper.

Train her to be an indoor cat. Right now, she's got you trained.

I don't let her out at night anyway and I never have, but I don't really see
how being an inside cat all the time would help her be less manic at night.
Needless to say, I don't want to get into the inside vrs outside cat
debate....

"Iain & Deb"
wrote:

Congratulations on your adoption!


Thank you very much :-)


I think she just misses you when you're at work all day, and
wants attention (and doesn't understand why you have to go lie down and
sleep).

I think this may be it. She is a very "in your face" kind of cat which
admittedly I am not used to but I have been trying to give her as much
attention as possible before and after work to try and re-assure her (she
was in the shelter for quite a while too due to an injury and I think that
has contributed to her need for lots of affection).

I seem to often see that the people who have the most trouble with their
cats' social behaviour - toward them and other humans - is people who
have only one cat. I'm a firm believer in having at least two;

Unfortunately, my tenancy agreement says that I can only have one cat at a
time, although I do think that probably another cat would calm her down.

She's still young, and will probably get more used to your sleeping hours
as time goes on.

Oh, bloody hell I hope so, I am totally knackered!!!

Wendy" wrote in message
...

You said she's scratching everywhere. The first thing is to get her
scratching where it's acceptable.

I have got a scratching post for her which she DOES use in the day. At
night she tends to scratch things that make a noise. Her favourites are the
divan base of my bed and the front of the fridge and oven (this makes a
nosie like fingernails down a blackboard which is exactly what I like to
wake up to obviously!!) and it is this noise which generally wakes me up in
the first place. When I first had her, I trained her to use the scratching
post by picking her up and moving her to it when she was scratching
furniture. Obviously because I am in bed when she starts scratching the bed,
I can't get up quickly enough to catch her and move her to the post but
being as she doesn't do it during the day I assume that she knows that it's
wrong but does it anyway to wake me up.

If you have to, close the bedroom door and put a radio on low to provide
you
with some background noise so you can ignore her begging at the door. You
need your sleep.

I am going to try this tonight and I will let you know. The crying business
breaks my heart but your right, I do need my sleep.

Any ideas on how long it will take her to grow out of this habit?

Jeannie


Another suggestion: Put her in a room with a radio on so she will feel she has company.

On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 16:45:06 -0000, "Jeannie"
wrote:


"Mary" wrote in message
news
I assume you would not let her outside unless it is safe. Sounds to me
like she wants to be outside at night. Why not put her out at night?

I don't let her out at night mainly because I know what she's like during
the day. She'll go outside for 10 minutes then come for half an hour then
go back out for ½ hour then come back in for 20 minutes..... The cat flap
would be banging all night and would wake me up just as much as the
scratching and jumping around.

Also, although when I was young we always put the cats out before bed, the
lady from the Cats Protection League told me not to let her out at night so
I was sort of following her advice although she didn't give me a reason WHY
I shouldn't let her out apart from the fact that she might get stolen(?!!)
or get into fights with other cats (she has been spayed so pregnacy isn't an
issue). The thing is I don't think she really WANTS to go outside, she just
wants me to be awake!

Jeannie

Or she might become dinner for something!

On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 16:45:06 -0000, "Jeannie"
wrote:


"Mary" wrote in message
news
I assume you would not let her outside unless it is safe. Sounds to me
like she wants to be outside at night. Why not put her out at night?

I don't let her out at night mainly because I know what she's like during
the day. She'll go outside for 10 minutes then come for half an hour then
go back out for ½ hour then come back in for 20 minutes..... The cat flap
would be banging all night and would wake me up just as much as the
scratching and jumping around.

Also, although when I was young we always put the cats out before bed, the
lady from the Cats Protection League told me not to let her out at night so
I was sort of following her advice although she didn't give me a reason WHY
I shouldn't let her out apart from the fact that she might get stolen(?!!)
or get into fights with other cats (she has been spayed so pregnacy isn't an
issue). The thing is I don't think she really WANTS to go outside, she just
wants me to be awake!

Jeannie

Or she might become dinner for something!

in article , Jeannie at
wrote on 12/1/03 7:38 AM:

I have recently adopted a DSH cat called Lily from the local Cat's
Protection League. She is between 18 months and 2 years old and she really
is a lovely cat but some of her behaviour is starting to drive me mad and I
would appreciate some advice as to how I can train it out of her!

First let me start of by saying that I have lived with cats from being a
child but all of the others have been much older than Lily when they came to
us. I have no experience with young cats or, to be honest, with house cats
as all the ones we've previously had were mousers who generally slept in
the barn rather than the house.

During the day I am at work and Lily comes and goes
from the house via a cat flap so she is getting plenty of excersize. She is
fine at night when I get home from work too but as soon as I turn the lights
off to go to bed she goes CRAZY. She runs all over the house, jumps all
over me while I am in bed, scratches EVERYTHING, constantly tries to break
into the fridge / break out through the cat flap, which I lock at night etc.
I am now constantly tired and at my wits end. So far I have tried:

1) Not letting her into my bedroom at night (she cried at the door for about
an hour until I relented and let her in)
2) Playing with her to wear her out before bed (Didn't work)
3) Feeding her just before I go to bed (I thought that if she was full she
might sleep - Wrong again!!)
4) Leaving the lamp on in the bedroom as the manic behaviour seems to be
triggered by the dark (Total failure - I couldn't sleep anyway because the
light was on and she acted exactly the same as she always does).
5) Ignoring her when she started being manic as I thought that the behaviour
might have been encouraged by the attention she got from me (Tried this for
2 weeks and it made no difference)

I am hoping that you're all going to tell me that she will grow out of this
but in the mean time is there anything I could do to make her less hyper.
Understanding WHY she is doing this would even be a start, but I haven't got
a clue as at all other times she is a perfectly placid normal cat.

Any help would be much appreciated

Jeannie





I think she needs a roommate. My mom's youngest (about that age) would do
the same thing but he has a buddy that he chases around at night and gets
pooped out by. She probably just misses you and that is a natural "play"
time for her. She will grow out of it; mine did. But a friend would also
help.

Karen

in article , Jeannie at
wrote on 12/1/03 7:38 AM:

I have recently adopted a DSH cat called Lily from the local Cat's
Protection League. She is between 18 months and 2 years old and she really
is a lovely cat but some of her behaviour is starting to drive me mad and I
would appreciate some advice as to how I can train it out of her!

First let me start of by saying that I have lived with cats from being a
child but all of the others have been much older than Lily when they came to
us. I have no experience with young cats or, to be honest, with house cats
as all the ones we've previously had were mousers who generally slept in
the barn rather than the house.

During the day I am at work and Lily comes and goes
from the house via a cat flap so she is getting plenty of excersize. She is
fine at night when I get home from work too but as soon as I turn the lights
off to go to bed she goes CRAZY. She runs all over the house, jumps all
over me while I am in bed, scratches EVERYTHING, constantly tries to break
into the fridge / break out through the cat flap, which I lock at night etc.
I am now constantly tired and at my wits end. So far I have tried:

1) Not letting her into my bedroom at night (she cried at the door for about
an hour until I relented and let her in)
2) Playing with her to wear her out before bed (Didn't work)
3) Feeding her just before I go to bed (I thought that if she was full she
might sleep - Wrong again!!)
4) Leaving the lamp on in the bedroom as the manic behaviour seems to be
triggered by the dark (Total failure - I couldn't sleep anyway because the
light was on and she acted exactly the same as she always does).
5) Ignoring her when she started being manic as I thought that the behaviour
might have been encouraged by the attention she got from me (Tried this for
2 weeks and it made no difference)

I am hoping that you're all going to tell me that she will grow out of this
but in the mean time is there anything I could do to make her less hyper.
Understanding WHY she is doing this would even be a start, but I haven't got
a clue as at all other times she is a perfectly placid normal cat.

Any help would be much appreciated

Jeannie





I think she needs a roommate. My mom's youngest (about that age) would do
the same thing but he has a buddy that he chases around at night and gets
pooped out by. She probably just misses you and that is a natural "play"
time for her. She will grow out of it; mine did. But a friend would also
help.

Karen

"m. L. Briggs" wrote in message
...

Or she might become dinner for something!

I don't think that's really an issue. I live in the UK and apart from dogs
(which are generally indoors at night anyway) and other cats, I can't think
of anything that would take on a cat. There are foxes where I live but I've
never known a fox to attack a cat, they're not stupid.

I tried leaving the radio on last night to both drown out the noise of her
begging to come into the bedroom and to keep her company in the other room.
It didn't go too well really. She stood outside the bedroom door for about
2 hours meowing and scratching the door and that together with the 2 radios
going all night woke my neighbours up and now I'm in trouble with them (the
walls are very thin in my house).

The catnip option is out because she doesn't like it so I think I'll let her
out tonight and see how that goes.

I think that it really is going to be a case of waiting for her to grow out
of this but thanks for all the suggestions anyway.

Jeannie

"m. L. Briggs" wrote in message
...

Or she might become dinner for something!

I don't think that's really an issue. I live in the UK and apart from dogs
(which are generally indoors at night anyway) and other cats, I can't think
of anything that would take on a cat. There are foxes where I live but I've
never known a fox to attack a cat, they're not stupid.

I tried leaving the radio on last night to both drown out the noise of her
begging to come into the bedroom and to keep her company in the other room.
It didn't go too well really. She stood outside the bedroom door for about
2 hours meowing and scratching the door and that together with the 2 radios
going all night woke my neighbours up and now I'm in trouble with them (the
walls are very thin in my house).

The catnip option is out because she doesn't like it so I think I'll let her
out tonight and see how that goes.

I think that it really is going to be a case of waiting for her to grow out
of this but thanks for all the suggestions anyway.

Jeannie

"Jeannie" wrote in message
...

"m. L. Briggs" wrote in message
...

I think I'll let her
out tonight and see how that goes.

I think this is best in your case, since you feel it is safe.




I think that it really is going to be a case of waiting for her to
grow out
of this but thanks for all the suggestions anyway.


Hope she grows out of it! If she doesn't want to be put outside, she
might learn to equate the yowling with the ousting--which might work
wonders.