Kneading at Night

[sousaphone]

My cat sleeps next to me at night, which I enjoy. However a behavior of his is getting worse. He wakes up many times throughout the night, and each time he wakes up he starts kneading his paws and purring until he falls back asleep. The kneading wakes me, which causes me to get poor quality sleep. 

I know I could just kick him out of the room, but I enjoy having him there. I would like to teach him not to knead and am so far unsuccessful.

For a while I tried to just ignore it, but it is so disruptive to my sleep that I often cave and push him into a lying position to get him to go back to sleep.

I've recently starting pushing his paws away when he does it, but I worry that I'm giving him attention, which could make it worse.

Advice? 

 

[Primula]

He is remembering when he was a kitten and kneaded on his mom. It's very comforting to him. We don't let our cats sleep with us at night.

 

[nathaliewhite]

My cat does this through out all the day since we've got her except she sucks on the blanket and kneads it and falls asleep. She does it anytime during the day and night when she's going to sleep. I just got used to it, I don't mind it. My cat won't grow out of it as far as I can see. She'll be 1 next month on the 17. She was weaned really early maybe that's why mine does it but she only does it to wool. Have you tried buying your cat a kitty bed he can knead on instead of kneading where you are?

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

My cat does this through out all the day since we've got her except she sucks on the blanket and kneads it and falls asleep. She does it anytime during the day and night when she's going to sleep. I just got used to it, I don't mind it. My cat won't grow out of it as far as I can see. She'll be 1 next month on the 17. She was weaned really early maybe that's why mine does it but she only does it to wool. Have you tried buying your cat a kitty bed he can knead on instead of kneading where you are?

My cat Milly does this too, kneads and suckles on fleece blankies, and she'll be two next month. I hope she doesn't grow out of it! She was orphaned at four days old, and in human care ever since, so I agree with you: persistent "PushPurr kitties" may have been taken from their mom at an early age!


S sousaphone , just like one often has to wean kittens off of biting human hands and arms by giving them a kicky toy to play with instead, maybe you could wean your cat off of kneading on you at night by putting a fleece blanket under his "PushPurrPaws" when he does this. It will take some time, but eventually, with training and luck, he will go to the fleece blanket to start his push-purring instead of waking you up each time. You could put the fleece blanket just the right distance away from you on your bed so that you can still sleep without him waking you.

 

[ReallySleepy]

@Sousaphone, just like one often has to wean kittens off of biting human hands and arms by giving them a kicky toy to play with instead, maybe you could wean your cat off of kneading on you at night by putting a fleece blanket under his "PushPurrPaws" when he does this. It will take some time, but eventually, with training and luck, he will go to the fleece blanket to start his push-purring instead of waking you up each time. You could put the fleece blanket just the right distance away from you on your bed so that you can still sleep without him waking you.

This sounds like a good idea. My own cat does not knead on me or my bed, but he will knead on a blanket that often lies in a bundle on the floor when I don't use it. I was going to suggest that you find a blanket and fold it into a nice pad which is softer than the bed, but the idea quoted above may be better.

As for growing out of it, my Turbo was 10 yesterday, so he probably will not grow out of it, nor is there any reason why he should. It's really moving to see him kneading for several minutes, purring emotionally and (probably) thinking about Mama.

 

[nathaliewhite]

Pushpurr. I hope mine doesn't stop either, its cute

 

[sousaphone]

This is a great idea to try!

 

[LeiLana80]

Growing up, I had a 20 pound cat named Boogie (he was an active dancing little kitten in his young days!). Boogie LOVED to "pound" knead. I swear his paws would turn into iron fists and he would absolutely just MASH his body weight onto whatever he was kneading on. Which happened to always and only be my tummy. It HURT!

So I had a flat-ish teddy bear that I would sneak onto my tummy, and I would gently push redirect him to knead on the bear. He usually wound up trying to go back to my tummy, but eventually, it was normal and he would seek out the bear to knead on (while I petted him, right next to me). So it was HIS bear, and my tummy was happy, and so was he!

So yes, try to redirect him to another item- maybe one that has your scent.

 

[nathaliewhite]

"Iron fist" "pound knead" lol so cute that's funny. My kitty is kneading my leg right now through the blanket

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

... , maybe you could wean your cat off of kneading on you at night by putting a fleece blanket under his "PushPurrPaws" when he does this. It will take some time, but eventually, with training and luck, he will go to the fleece blanket to start his push-purring instead of waking you up each time...

... I was going to suggest that you find a blanket and fold it into a nice pad which is softer than the bed, ...

...

... Boogie LOVED to "pound" knead. I swear his paws would turn into iron fists and he would absolutely just MASH his body weight onto whatever he was kneading on. ...

So I had a flat-ish teddy bear that I would sneak onto my tummy, and I would gently push redirect him to knead on the bear. ...

...

I think what to use when you are trying to redirect your kitty's kneading behavior depends a lot on what the cats are used to kneading.

With my cat, she always liked soft fleece or sherpa blankets, and the human was incidental after the first few months. LeiLana80 brings up a great point which I think might work better with Sousaphone's cat... either using a bulky (soft, feecy?) stuffed animal to redirect the kitty, or maybe even putting a stuffed animal underneath a soft fleece blanket, so that the cat feels a bumpy, uneven surface underneath. That might work. (The only thing is, if my cat feels something hard and bumpy underneath a blanket, like a stuffed animal or a toy or ball, the whole thing turns into One Big Toy and she spends the time biting and bunny-kicking that rascally toy hidden under the blanket, lol.)