Cat wakes me up at 3 am...

Question

I just moved across the country and now my cat won't sleep. She used to wake me up at 6ish for food - which was fine. Now she is waking me up between 2:30 and 3 am by playing with the blinds, attacking pictures on the wall, and just generally terrorizing me. I play with her in the evenings, she has a kitty tree complete with swinging balls (I thought this would mimic the blind string she loves so much), and she is welcome to sleep on the bed. I've tried locking her out, but I'm renting an apartment and since she is not used to being locked out she claws at the door and whines. This can go on indefinitely (seriously my ex-boyfriend used to make me lock her out of my old apartment bedroom whenever he stayed over - after 3 months, he left, partially because she would whine all night).

Any suggestions for how to get her to sleep? She doesn't respond to a water bottle squirt (she enjoys water), I don't particularly want to spray the curtains with Bitter Apple because during the day she likes to look out the window, and I will need to get sleep at night in about 10 days because I start back with classes.

I tried the whole play, eat, clean, sleep cycle - but someone needs to tell her after the play and eat comes the clean and sleep part. She was apart from me for about 12 days and then flew down to me because I had to move across country in a U-Haul - do you think she's just stressed from the move (she's been in this apartment for a week)?

Answer 1

your cat is just exploring. where do you think they got curiosity killed the cat thing? lol after a while she should get use to it, but if you really need her to stop then you can try closing your door.

Answer 2

you think that is bad, my cat wakes me up by scratching the door a half hour before my alarm goes off...(AHHH !) i tried the squirt bottle and he just ran away (playfully!) he likes to be chased...when he starts to scratch the door i would yell at him or pound the wall, so then he stops..walks around the corner and stares at me...(hello!) if i dont get up and play with him he'll just go right back to scratching...

yep my cat gets in those moods where he'll run around the house then jump "at" the sliding glass door at freak out on it scratching it, then take off running...What a psycho! my cat has ADD or something....

Answer 3

I let mine sleep in same bed and she only woke me up once[swatted at my shoulder].  

Answer 4

get her a friend ...cats disturb you when they are lonely

Answer 5

It could partly be from the excitement of being in a new place, or just typical feline mischief.

Try to keep her up during the day. "Cat naps" are fine, but if she gets to sleep for hours at a time, she'll feel energized when night time rolls around and will want to be up playing all night. I have to do this for my cats, or they'll run right over me while I'm trying to sleep!

Another thing you can do to help is to tuck the blind strings up in the blinds so they're out of reach; I had to do that because one of my cats loves playing with them, and I didn't want her to choke herself or anything. I'm not sure about the picture thing--one of my cats used to do it when she was a kitten, but then the novelty wore off and she stopped all on her own.

Another thing you can do is to get some really fantastic toy, like a "fishing pole" with feathers on the end, and about mid-evening play with her until she tires herself out. I have this toy that's a rod with a nylon cord and feathers at the end of it, and it makes this fluttery sound when you draw it through the air. Our cats love it and will play with it until they're so tired they practically collapse. Then since they've tired themselves out, they sleep all through the night.

Answer 6

all cats play at night unless they are old lol. ive had lots of cats and they get crazy at night. but i think if it had a friend maybe it wouldnt disturb you as much =0)