# New kitten in a studio apartment- sleeping is becoming an issue



## karate0kat (Jul 23, 2010)

I've had my kitten Vala for about 3 weeks-ish now. She's about 13 weeks old. I live in a studio apartment, so there's no separate bedroom. The very first night she wanted to play at 3 in the morning, but I had known ahead of time that that would probably be a problem and I had already done some reading on things to try. I knew that any attention, even negative attention, could reinforce the notion that she can get attention that way. So I just ignored her. And at first it seemed to work miraculously well. If she played at night she did it quietly and was sleeping in a basket of aprons on a shelf when I got up each morning. I thought I'd lucked out.

But now the last week and a half has been terrible. She's waking me up at 3 or 4 in the morning, every single morning. Sometimes she's not trying to. She'll jump up on my bed, but it'll be to cuddle and sleep. Which wouldn't be so bad if she didn't role around and jerk and kick me in the face a lot in her sleep. But a lot of times she wants to play.

Last night was awful. Usually when she jumps up, she might try to get under the covers down by my feet, but if I tuck it under my feet she gives up and I can go back to sleep. Last night she was very determined. Any little nook or cranny she tried to burrow into. Now, you might be asking, what's so bad about the cat getting under the covers? Isn't it cute and cuddly? Well, if she just wanted to sleep, sure. But she doesn't. She wants to stab me with her claws. So I basically spent the whole night either getting scratched or constantly guarding every inch of my bedspread against invasion. And when she did finally give up, she came up by my head and stuck her nose directly in my ear, while she was purring, which is very loud in that situation.

I love her dearly, I have no regrets about getting her, but I gotta figure out something. I was using a spray bottle when I first got her, and it worked for awhile, but now she doesn't even notice. She actually seems to like it. She doesn't seem to have a problem with citrus. I've tried playing with her exhaustively to try to wear her out. I've tried feeding her right before bed (hey, I get sleepy after a big meal, maybe cats do too).

I don't want to stick her in a carrier all night, that's not fair to her. And my bathroom is so tiny there's no room for a litter box, and I actually make an effort to shut her out of it because there's some mildewy caulking that my landlord still needs to replace, and she's really into licking things. 

I could really use some advice on other things to try.


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## ibbica (Jul 28, 2010)

I feel your pain! We just got our two cats; one is a sedate two-year old, but the other is only 10 months and is a holy terror at night! Or so I hear... he's apparently been keeping my husband up while I remain blissfully unaware. Well, unaware until this morning when he CHOMPED my toes through the covers at 4am, the little brat! No damage done, but one **** of a wakeup.

Anyway... best I can suggest is:

1. Get another kitten of about the same age so they can tire each other out on their own schedules. Unfortunately, *our* second cat is rather sedate so she won't chase him around the house to burn off energy. So, we're going to try...

2. In the evening... play, play, play! Wipe that little bugger out, just before you go to bed. Some wet food just before (your) bedtime is probably a good idea too; ours at least seem do to be a bit lazy just after eating (by which I mean that the two-year-old will go curl up for a nap, and the 10-month-old might sit still for 5 whole minutes). We have the luxury of a doorway to our bedroom (just not a door... yet), but if you don't and you're desperate you could try putting foil on your bed, over your covers while you're sleeping? Apparently they don't like walking on it much, although I have my doubts with some of them :wink:


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## karate0kat (Jul 23, 2010)

My current landlord has a one cat policy, so getting her a companion would be nice but currently undoable. I'll be moving after I graduate next spring, so if I end up in a place that allows more than one cat I might consider adopting another one then. 

Wet food is another thing I meant to try that I totally forgot about. Thanks!


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## icatguy (May 15, 2010)

When she jumps on your bed, take your arm and with a firm and sweeping motion, sweep her right off the bed so that she gets dumped on the floor. Do this without hesitation and without making any kind of fuss, and then turn over and go right back to sleep (or your best imitation of it)

I guarantee you two things: 1) she will NOT get hurt in the process; and 2) she WILL get the message that she's not welcome on the bed if she disturbs you. She will still get on the bed but will soon discover that if she doesn't wake you up, she gets to stay there.

This has worked for me with every cat I've had but one (and he was devilishly and obstinately contrary).


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## karate0kat (Jul 23, 2010)

I feed her a can of food right before bed last night and I actually slept until my alarm went off! Now, I'm sure the fact that I was home all day yesterday and playing with her on and off all day probably contributed too. But I've done that before on other weekends and she still gets restless at bedtime. 

We'll stick with wet food right before bed for now. But I'll definitely try the arm swipe next time she jumps up.


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## Chieftain (Jul 1, 2010)

I can vouch for the arm swipe thing. I don't do it like that but Marley had a thing for jumping on the bed earlier than wanted. If it was breakfast time it'd be ok but he would do it hours before breakfast time also.

We would either move him to a spot where he's not bothering us (My girlfriend and I) or as icatguy said, sweep him right off and to the floor. If your cat is like mine it'll show how un-cool that was, but hey, we gotta sleep and they already get everything else!

Kitty will get it, Marley did.


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## faithless (Dec 4, 2009)

Ive always made a ritual about her last supper. After serving supper, I go to the bathroom, lights go off, I go to bed. We both know the ritual off by heart, 11.30pm she starts asking for supper, after that she sits and cleans herself somewhere, goes to the toilet and within 20 mins she goes to bed. (I too live in a studio). Shes only woken me up in the middle of the night maybe 5-6 times in almost a year. She'll calm down, but I hope you can get some sleep before then...


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## Olivers-Slave (Jul 25, 2010)

I saw the comment about sweeping and it really does work. My cat used to be a bit worse, he would jump up onto the second shelve above my head while I slept and drop things on my head. I used to have to wake myself up and sweep him off before he got within distance of the shelves. sooo if you have things like that its only a matter of time before she moves on up. nip it while you can because waking up with a black eye is no fun


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