Hello everyone!

Dalila ("Daleela") arrived on Saturday, she's four months, entering the fifth, still a child. (We're going to neuter her as soon as it's possible, but have to wait still.) She's the first cat in the family. For the first days, in order to sleep, I had to put her out of the room. Yesterday, I decided to try to sleep with my door open.

Now: is it possible? Because I didn't exactly sleep, and every hour I waked with a purring cat in my hair, sometimes with a playing cat running all around, playing ...

She's sweet, happiness of the house, but I need to learn how to live with her. I need to sleep at least 7 hours a night, she has a different schedule.

Help, please.

g

First things first, cats are nocturnal. But that doesn't mean that they don't adjust to our schedule. My cats for the most part sleep during the night, at least until about 5 AM.

At 5 months, chances are she's going to play regardless. We taught Jack at that age that night time was sleep time, it took about 3 weeks for him to really get it. We locked him in our room and literally ignored him completely. Yes we were miserable for 3 weeks, yes I went to work with bags under my eyes but it was worth it. The minute you give attention you have messed up the whole lesson, so ignore ignore ignore if you want to sleep at night and have kitty sleep with you.

Our kitten now Pepper, who is just about 5 months, we never forced to sleep in our room but she has chosen to sleep on our bed at night, she doesn't sleep all night but she also doesn't get in our faces, she goes and plays elsewhere when she wakes up. We also have never given night attention.

Consistency is the best thing to teach cats anything.

Good luck. Kittens name? pictures?

Leslie

Yeah, that sounds pretty normal. Cats are nocturnal by nature, but gradually they will shift around and sleep at night with the rest of us. Ours is just 1, and still has a lot of nocturnal activity - pouncing on my feet in the middle of the night - that sort of thing. But our cat is far from typical - we only got her a few months ago, and as we have worked with her, she sleeps less and less during the day.

Sometimes on weekends when I am at home, I go and find her in the middle of the day and make sure she is awake .

What about moving her to the floor, is it possible? I can see she chooses to sleep around me because she's a child, she doesn't seem to like being alone so much. I believe, in the future, she might even choose somewhere else. I decided to let her in because it's all right to me if she sleeps nearby. I'd like she slept on the floor (or anywhere else besides my bed ...).

I managed her not to sleep on my pillow.

Every time she jumped on the bed I moved her to the floor, until I fell asleep, and moved her no more. I woke up, very early, she was hugging my right arm.

It was sweet, but I'd like she kept away from the bed ... It's MY territory or at least shoud be regarded as such.

Dalila (we say "Daleela" in Portuguese) ... (Picture here.)

She's the prettiest little yellow fur thing I ever saw!


It makes sense: if I keep her awake during the day, she'll be sleepy at night!

(She sleeps a lot, during the day ... )

You had me laughing pretty hard when I read that. I'm not trying or intending to say that maliciously. Its just that my whole life I have had cats around me and from what I have gathered( I may be wrong but this is how I see it) cat are territorial and stubborn. They don't care what you think is your territory. They go where they please

My mom just got kittens right now they are the same age and she had the same problem. She said until they are older she is going to take their catbox and put it in the front room and close the door while she sleeps.

What she also did was take a huge towel and she slept on it for a week or so and put it on the couch. Sure enough she would find them on the towel in the morning. I suggest you do something similar.

Actually, I don't think it's impossible to convince a cat that the bed is "your territory." At least, for quite some time Misty maintained that the bed was HER territory from the time I went to sleep until it was time to wake me up in the morning , and enforced it with an iron paw. Stormy was NEVER allowed on the bed until it was time for me to get up. If Misty can do it, I assume we could do it.

But I think the problem is that maintaining a territory requires constant enforcement. It's not like they agreed that the bed was Misty's and then Stormy gave up. Stormy kept pushing and pushing (several times I woke up because a little cat scuffle was going on at the end of my bed) and eventually they worked out a new arrangement, such that I went to sleep at night with Misty and woke up with Stormy.

So I suspect convincing a cat that the bed is "yours" means throwing her off every time she jumps on... and she'll keep jumping on, because anyplace the human spends so much time MUST be good and therefore a desirable place to sit. (The computer chair is the second-most-hotly contested property in my apartment, I suspect for this reason.)

I think teaching her not to wake you up will probably be easier than keeping her off the bed altogether.

Dalila doesn't seem to be much attached to the place where there's noone. (She's still a kitty, 4 months and about a week.) Of course, there are some places she already elected for herself, specially when she's alone (and everyone out, or closed in their places -- my dad works at home).

She's beginning to get more independant, now. However, when I switch the lights off, she searches for me, in my room, because I've been sleeping with the door open. (She already knows that )


"But I think the problem is that maintaining a territory requires constant enforcement."

It does!


Well, I think I'm on my way to that. As I go to sleep, I have to put her on the floor for ... around ten times, a little more, a little less. But then, when she sees that I intend to sleep, she goes search for her toys, or walk around in the house, and I only see her again around seven o'clock, when she decides it's time for me to wake up.

I'm also getting Dalila to learn that the couch is someone else's territory (my mom's, once it's because of her that I do it ...), but I think she's got to figure that I keep that for myself as well. We don't fight. Only, every time she goes on the place, I put her back on the floor, and she says a dull, short and sweet "h'm!" of disappointment with her high-pitched faint voice (she isn't noisy), and it goes until she forgets that I'm there, and jumps on again, with a confident jolly "pr~" ... I don't mind putting her on the floor every time she climbs it. (And one of her elected places are a nearby higher place, so, when she sees that I'm there, she goes to the higher place, and feels well there ...)


She doesn't like much my stool (I write in the computer on a stool ...), but she's always a little curious to know what's going on in the computer but she realized already that there isn't much for her here, so, she easily (and by herself) gets distracted with something else (the floor, the cables, my hair or beard ...)

(By the way: is it dangerous for her to play with the electricity cables? )


Are they male and female, or both male or both female, Misty and Stormy?


g

Hi I tend to agree with everyone here. I have had cats in the past and am a licensed Veterinary Technician and would like to tell you that Cats are most active at night because their prey isnt as active. They see perfectly at night while mice and birds do not see as well. She is a kitten and I am going through the same thing and I find that ignoring my kittens helps. and she has adjusted alittle she still stays up till 3am but sleeps the rest of the night.

Isis likes to play with toes and feet and bite and lick on them so it makes it more annoying and hard to ignore but it works. after ten minutes of ignoring she normally gives up and just lays down and sleeps or she goes to the other room and attacks the other cat lol... so just keep the same routine keep her in your room you wont be able to forcer her off your bed but you can enforce rules on your bed. I live in Egypt at the moment where cats are everywhere and one thing i knew but have really found out here is that Cats are the boss! in their minds.... lol and they demand respect, even if they dont give it they demand it. so just teach her that even tho she is the boss of the house and you are her pet that you deserve respect.

Consistency consistency consistency!!!! good luck