Cat overly protective when im sleeping

[baconman]

I have a 9 year old persian male. Over the last year he has become aggressive toward anything that is in my bedroom, besides me while I am sleeping. He has always slept on the bed and has not had issues before this with my girlfriend or the other cat in the home. If my girlfriend and I go to sleep at the same time it is fine, but if I am already sleeping and she comes in from work or just watching tv, he will growl at her and on a few occasions has charged her. He has never physically scratched or bit her. With the other cat we have in the house it is worse. If the other cat comes in, expect a catfight and chasing. It is to the point where I will just keep the door shut to keep the other cat out. I have to wait for my girlfriend to go to bed so we go at the same time. I don't know what to think of it. I have tried keeping the my persian out of the bedroom but he will nonstop meow, scratch and whine at the door until he is let in. Trust me I did that for 2 weeks and it just seemed to stress him out. Any suggestions? I have had him since he was a kitten and under all other circumstances my persian is loving with my girlfriend and the other cat.

 

[laralove]

What is your response when he does this behavior? 

You could consider putting him outside of the room for a sort of time out after he does it. If he is unrelenting in his cries to get back in, you could just have it be a couple of minutes or so. The goal being that over time he'll hopefully associate the behavior with the time out and avoid the behavior to avoid the "punishment."

Some of us have had success with this or a variation of it in training our cats to stop initiating play sessions at bed time or in the middle of the night.

 

[baconman]

When it happens I normally wake up immediately and my persian will come back up to me and try to get affection. It is more or less immediate. Once that happens, he is fine and she can lay down without issue, because I am awake. I normally give him the "no!" and put him off the bed, sometimes out of the room for the night. I won't praise him or let him get that affection. When I just put him off the bed and say "no" he will stay under the bed for a bit but will eventually get back up and snuggle up against my girlfriend. That is what I don't understand. If we all go to bed together he is normally snuggling up on her. As for when the other cat comes in, it normally only happens when my girlfriend or myself don't shut the bedroom door fully and our other cat can get in the room. By the time I wake up (you hear them fighting) I normally yell "stop" or "hey" and they both run out of the room and it stops. Admittedly I don't get up and go find them. It ends as soon as they run out of the room from my verbal interjection. So I haven't pursued it beyond that. They have never hurt each other and the persian is normally very loving with all parties at any other points of the day. So its not like it is all the time. Its just a night time (while i am sleeping thing). I will definitely try just putting him out for a few minutes when it happens to see how it works in the long term. If I put him out for the night, it is as you say unrelenting. Crying, whining, eventually scratching at the door and carpet until he is let in. I have encouraged my girlfriend to try to be more assertive with him because any other time he listens to her and he normally shows her way more loving then me haha. She gets scared of him when he starts growling at night though and will normally not approach any further. She says she will just keep waking me up cause he stops after that.

 

[StefanZ]

The easy solution is to put up a Feliway adapter, making him more relaxed inside the bedroom.

Relaxing, calming music may also help.  It will also make your sleep more nice too.  

The real problem is of course, to know why he is doing this.  Do you got more ghosts in there, than your usual rate?

Is his  health detoriating?   Cats arent really old and prone to sclerosis already at 9.

  Is YOUR health detoriating??

Some new vibrations from outside, which make him unsure - and giving him the feeling you need now his extra protection??

Good luck!

 

[baconman]

I'll give the Feliway adapter a look. He is in fine health as am I. I thought maybe it was that he had some issue with my girlfriend but like I said he sleeps up against her way more then me. That and he acts similar to our other cat. So I don't think it is that.