HELP!! Undesirable behavior that is driving us crazy!

Hello!

Long story, bare with me

I am new here seeking help.

Last year, 2 cats found their way to my house. they were dehydrated and starving. I was pregnant then and not looking for cats, so my husband and I provided an outdoor shelter and fed/gave water to them. One of the cats ended up pregnant as well so we kept taking care of them. In December, another cat showed up, I kept feeding/giving him water since he was also dehydrated and starving. I did not want them to die ( they would have, had we not provided shelter and food).

I ended up spaying the female, and one of the male cats got neutered ( the other was already) - I found a home for the female and the 3 kittens and decided to keep the other two tabby males. They were brought in in December

Fast forward to now, one of the cats is blind and the other cat is FIV+ and leukemia+, I know it's not good to keep the blind one with the other sick cat but I wasn't about to put the sick one down and just hope the blind one does not catch it. I had the vet vaccinate him against Leukemia and hope for the best.

They are the sweetest two cats and my 10 month old loves Sam, the sick cat, he loves pulling his tail and fur Zatoichi, the blind cat, just hides from my son loud squeals lol.

Anyways, I've been treating Sam with steroids and antibiotics to fight his illness ( he kept getting sick every 4 weeks) and I had to treat him 3 times, one time he was at the vet hospital with IV fluids. Anyways, he is doing much better now

Here is my problem, now that Sam is feeling much, much better, he and Zatoichi are up and awake ALL NIGHT!

They run up and down the hallway, they play with each other ( looks like fighting but it's not), they get into friendly fights and they are just plain loud and obnoxious every night! My husband and I get NO sleep at all ( we live in a 1 floor house and its all hardwood floors and sounds like a darn tornado coming through the house!!!!!!)

They are also becoming food hoarders lol, specially Sam. We feed them both in the laundry room and everytime someone goes to the laundry room, he runs like crazy thinking we are going to feed him. I feed them 1 can of wet in the morning and one at night, and leave dry food during the day/night ( they have gotten quiet heavyset, specially Sam, as he eats his food and eats Zatoichi leftovers!)

I think some of the reason for them to be up is because they want MORE wet food at 2, 3 in the morning! If I give in because I am exhausted and want to sleep and feed them wet food, they eat and go back to sleep for a few hours.

I also found that if I let them sleep in the bed with me and my 10 month old, they stay asleep until 2, 3 am, but then they are up and going CRAZY again and waking up everyone!

it has gotten to bad, my husband kicked them both into the garage so we can sleep but they just scratch our door all night so we don't get any sleep. Last night, my husband kicked both outdoors and they just sat there meowing and scratching the door to come in!

I am at my wits end and my husband is about to strangle them both!! luckily, my 10 month old sleeps through the entire commotion LOL

We do have toys and they we let them play at night before we go to sleep, but looks like they have so much energy, they can't sleep for to long at night. Unfortunately, they probably sleep all day because both my husband and I are gone and my baby is at the grandparents, so they stay home all day by themselves and they probably just sleep all day and are partying all night!!

What can I do to help us get some sleep and have them not BEG for food at 2am???!!! They do fight only over the food but most times they are chasing around licking each other and snuggling up lol

Sorry about the long rant

Here they are! public album in facebook

Hi @Joe Poppers

After the evening playtime i'd give them a nice meal.  Play for cats is partly predatory so you get to complete the cycle of predation by giving them the "mouse" when the play is over, in this case wet food.  You could also leave some dry food out for them at night.

As a last resort you could buy 2 crates and crate them separately at bedtime.

I saw their facebook page, super cute!!!!!

Oh yes, few suggestion that will definitely help.

Night sleep
Feed them wet at night right before you go to sleep, each should get 1/2 5oz can. I buy trader joes wet, very economical with great reviews. My two sleep all through the night, in my bed.

Weight
My big cat was 20lb 2 years ago, now he weighs 15lbs. He's how I got him to lose. Cut out all dry food. Cats are not supposed to graze all day. They should have a meal every 10-12hrs. No dry food going forward. I feed trader joe wet. 3 cans a day. 5oz cans split in 2. One in am before work, one at 5pm, last one at around 11pm when I hit the bed. Cats are lean and mean.

Feed separately
I have a 'Sam' too. My boy will eat from my girls plate before his own, his food drive is insane. I long ago started to feed her in a separate room for portion control. It's a little bit of a pain, but results are great.

Paper plates
I switched to paper plates. Easy and fast to throw away. I learned biggest hassle of feeding wet is constantly washing dishes. Cost about $15 for 6 months, 6 inch paper plates in warehouse club.

Trader joe
Why - no by products, great price .65c a can

RarePuss said:

Paper plates
I switched to paper plates. Easy and fast to throw away. I learned biggest hassle of feeding wet is constantly washing dishes. Cost about $15 for 6 months, 6 inch paper plates in warehouse club.

 

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What an obvious but great idea! I too hate washing the constant accumulating build-up of cat dishes.