What Is She Doing?

[Sassbot]

One of my cats keeps waking my partner and I up in the night and I have no idea why. It's been going on for a few weeks now and need a rest.

Both cats have access to our bedroom in the night as none of the doors in our house shut (something that has been raised with the landlord a number of times). The other cat, Frankenstein, happily curls up on the end of our bed or the windowsill and sleeps all night. If he does get up he goes downstairs, has a munch then goes back to sleep. Trixie will not.

Around 4am she wakes up us by scratching and the wardrobe door - she's not even actually scratching, she pushes it with her paws over and over and and it makes a banging noise which we are worried the neighbours can hear. We've put a number of scratch posts and mats in front of the wardrobe and she does sometimes use these which is fine as they don't make as much of a noise. However she has also taken to scratch the carpet! There are big chunks missing now.

The only way to get her to stop is to call her into bed where she then cuddles up around my neck and suckles which stops the noise but still keeps me awake. I'm also sure it's not very healthy for either of us.

Trixie has always gone through periods of doing this but they usually stop after a night or two. She had toxoplasmosis (sorry about the spelling) as a kitten and the vet said she would never stop being a kitten. The suckling thing is something I know she does for comfort (I ended up going to work after bomfire night with love bites from her ) but I can't figure out what is upsetting her every night or why this period of night disturbance is lasting so long.

We're in the process of buying a new house which we are hoping to move into by March so hopefully the change will stop this behaviour although I'm not overly confident.

Any ideas on what we might be able to do to stop this? I've tried spraying the wardrobe and carpet with the citric stuff but it's not really done anything.

 

[Columbine]

Hi, and welcome to TCS

It sounds like Trixie is maybe getting bored overnight, and is just looking for fun things to do. Cats are crepuscular by nature, meaning they're most active at dawn and dusk. In this context, Trixie's 4am wake-up call makes perfect sense....not that that makes it any less frustrating for you

You mention several issues, so I'll address them one at a time. The best way to keep Trixie from scratching the carpet is to give her plenty of suitable alternatives. I know you have cat posts and mats, but they're clearly not hitting the spot for her when it comes to horizontal scratching. In my experience, the most satisfying type of horizontal scratcher is a cardboard one. There are tons of different designs out there, so you'll have plenty of choice. My guys have lots of cardboard scratchers of different types, and they love to use them both as scratchers and as beds. I'd suggest starting with one that is big enough to double as a bed - that way she can get all four paws on the scratcher and really go to town on it in the same way that she does with the carpet. It's possible that she ignores the scratching mats you have simply because they're too easily movable and she can't put her back into it in the same way that she can on the carpet. My guys can take or leave scratching mats, but all will use the cardboard scratchers in preference to the rugs You can get various horizontal scratching posts (like these beautiful ones from Art Motion & Sound

), but they are a bigger investment and need more space than the cardboard sort.

It really does sound like Trixie is playing with the wardrobe doors. It might be worth getting a couple of interactive toys (e.g. a Catit circuit or Petstages tower of tracks) to give her something more appropriate to play with. It'll still make some noise, but not as much as a banging wardrobe door Also, some cardboard cat scratchers double as toys too - my guys love this type

These articles should give you some more ideas :-
How To Stop My Cat From Waking Me Up At Night
How To Set Healthy Boundaries For Your Cat
Cats And Night Crazies
How To Stop Your Cat From Scratching The Furniture

 

[Sassbot]

Hi Columbine, thanks for the welcome and advise.

Trixie has never shown interest in cardboard scratches although it might be worth getting some bits of cardboard as you suggested. I'm wondering if some off cuts of carpet would also help, although I'm not sure encouraging her to scratch carpet is a good idea. She has the cat tower thing but it is downstairs. Perhaps if brought into the bedroom it might be more appealing when she is waking up.

Will check those links out and report back how we get on. Fingers crossed!

 

[Columbine]

If you give the cardboard scratchers a go, try spraying or sprinkling them with catnip or valerian to get Trixie interested. All the cardboard scratchers I've bought come with a little sachet of catnip, but I'll often use a spray instead as it's less messy

Carpet offcuts can be helpful for carpet-scratchers, but it does blur the boundaries, as you said. I'd say they're ok for the short term, but aren't really a long term solution. I've just thought - I have old sheepskin rugs and rag rugs down in my room, and the cats all adore 'killing' and scratching them. That might be something else to try, especially as you can get faux sheepskin rugs pretty cheaply these days.

 

[Sassbot]

I didn't realise you can get cap nip spray - Frankenstein will go nuts for it. Trixie doesn't seem to understand cat nip.

A rug that's a different texture to the carpet might be worth a shot and help to keep a boundary between carpet = no. We have a rug in the living room which is fuffy and she does try and scratch at that when bored. Since we close the living room off at night she can't get to it. Good thinking batman

 

[Sassbot]

We popped a towel down on Trixie's usual scratching site and we've not had much from her the last two nights. Not sure if it's deterred her or if she's just come out of her 4am faze for a bit. At least we're sleeping better now

 

[Columbine]

Great to hear tha Trixie is letting you sleep again Fingers crossed that it lasts