Separate room due to night crazies!

[jenny82]

Has anyone else had to put one of their cats in a separate room at night?  I don't like it, but I can't think of any other option now.  Mia has had night crazies for years (everything is ok at the vet).  She will meow loudly in my face, bat at my head and face, chew on my hair, run around meowing, etc.  This can go on for hours, and she doesn't care if I ignore her.  I put my head under the pillow and she still finds my face.  

 

She wants to both play and eat.  I play with her a lot and then feed her right before bed, but she still goes crazy early in the morning.  First I was able to solve it by using an automatic dry feeder that would go off around 5am, but then Chessy got diabetes and kidney disease and is on a canned-only diet, so that doesn't work anymore.  Over the past few weeks, she has been waking me up earlier and earlier, and now she's starting around 2:45am.  I'll be awake for at least an hour until she finally quiets down, and then she wakes me up again at 5.  I have to get up at 5:30 for work, and I need more sleep!

Also, sometimes if I feed them early and then try to go back to bed for an hour, they start fighting.  I know Mia is the aggressor because I've seen her sitting in the bedroom door staring at Chessy, and she'll swat at and chase him if he tries to go back into the bedroom (he usually sleeps on the bed).  Then he gets scared and starts crying.  It's really sad

I think I need to put her downstairs at night, where she'll have a bedroom and adjoining bathroom with water, litter, scratching post, and multiple beds.  I know she'll be lonely but I don't know what else to do.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or similar stories?

 

[Columbine]

Bumping this in the hopes that others will chime in.

I've never been in this situation apart from when introducing a new cat into my home. It does sound like Mia has given you no choice though. Her nighttime antics are unacceptable, and Chessy needs to feel safe at night too. Don't feel bad about shutting Mia out. I'm sure she'll be just fine downstairs.[article="22303"][/article]

 

[randommusings]

Karma does this - it started when he was little and he'd come on the bed and try to suck on my earlobe (does NOT make for restful nights); he now bounds across the bed and  rampages up and down the stairs (3 flights), crying up from the bottom that he's "truly lost, please help".

I tried putting him in the spare room, but the only place noiser than our side of the door is him on the other side of any closed door (even with everything he could possibly want/need in there with him).

Unfortunately, I have no magic solution so I'm not much help but I'll share a tired "know what you mean";  (I'm going to be closely watching this thread) - we've kind of adapted to the point where we just ignore him and he usually settles down on his own.  It has seemed to abate, at least in length of spurts, over time.

Now, we just have to get Miracle to stop talking to herself, from under our bed...

 

[randommusings]

PS - just noticed that we're so not the only ones...there's an older thread called "Felines running on my head at 6 am.." from June 2011.  We could start a club!!

www.thecatsite.com/t/234021/felines-running-on-my-head-at-6-am

 

[kittyluv387]

I close the bedroom door once its time for bed. I too, need my sleep! Its really not a big deal.

 

[jenny82]

Thanks for your responses!  The first night Mia was downstairs she started howling so loud at 4:30am that it woke me up through the door and up 2 flights of stairs!  The last two nights have been better and she has been pretty quiet until she hears me coming to let her out at 5:30.

 

[picklespepper]

My kittens get the night crazies too.  They usually settle down eventually but last night they were play fighting and crawling on my face for hours and I was too tired to kick them out.  Then I had Pickles sleeping by my feet underneath the covers and Pepper kept jumping on her from the top of the blanket, trying to start a play fight.   I like having them sleep between my husband's and my pillows but the lead-up can be annoying.  Some nights I do have to kick them out.  My old cat would never tolerate being shut out (she would claw at the door for hours which was louder than anything else she could do) but so far, the kittens do accept it a bit better.  They do start caterwauling early in the morning for food though.  Pickles is also kind of clingy and gets sad if she can't find us.

 

[meowmmy_aprile]

I feel you on the night crazies. I have nice claw marks on the side of my face right now where someone (not sure which it was dark) jumped on my bed and ran across my face as I was laying on my side. They must have used my face for traction because they dug in as they crossed my face and jumped off the other side of the bed. They love to play at night and I can't lock them out as like someone else said the crying, scratching and throwing themselves against the door to get in is worse than the pounding running sounds, squeaky mouse toys, running across bed using it as a trampoline is,.

As far as waking me up to eat. I do not have that issue at all. I don't feed them first thing in the morning, I get up have my coffee, read the paper and when I get around to it they get breakfast. I try to do it as close to leaving time as I can and on weekends it is 10am before they see breakfast. They have learned that I don't wake up and serve breakfast so they don't wake me up to eat. My mother in law feeds as soon as she gets up in the morning and hers know it so they smack her in the face, walk all over her until she gets up and feeds them.

 

[turtbat]

My cat is 15 and still gets night crazies, when we were still living with my parents she would walk all over their faces and tangle her paws in their hair at 4am but she doesn't bother me much. Sometimes she wakes me up to let me know she is awake but she's considerate

 

[mtgal]

Yep - one of mine is often crazed at night. It has no relation to the amount of exercise or attention she receives or anything else I can identify. Her favorite thing is to sit on the steps and sing -- loudly! She also likes to get the dogs going and will crawl into their beds, bat them on the nose and then try to get them to chase her. I decided to treat her like a would a dog that couldn't settle. At night she goes into her large condo and as soon as the lights go off, she falls asleep and stays there until morning. No more singing -- or at least much less. I don't feel bad because she gets all sorts of attention during the day and seems perfectly happy in her own space.