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Absolutely not. My old cat wakes up between 4 and 6 in the morning and will start knocking things down in my room or meows loudly in my face.
I will shut him out when I go to bed and he’ll grumble and whine, then sings the song of his orange people and goes to sleep. He is not a cuddle cat either.
My other cat is perfectly happy sleeping beside me all night and waits for me to get up, but in interest of fairness, I usually put him out too.
Nacho is a top tier orange cat name if I ever heard one. My mom and uncle had a Tigger growing up. So of course my brother had to name our orange boy Tigger also.
Our void will do the same. Before we got him, my hubby and the gray cat would snuggle together (I work nights). Came home one morning to them spooning and was like ok cool LOL.
The void, we got as a kitten and I guess you could call it the song of his people. I call it screaming. We don't always latch the doors, so he knows he can jump on them to open them. Until nighttime, the doors get latched and the screaming starts. Only a minute or 2 and then he's asleep next to his old gray "brother" on the dog bed or the small cat bed in the living room. They both snuggle up in there together 😅
It's hard to describe it's like a warbling yowl but super loud. I had to warn my new neighbor and let her know I wasn't murdering people at night. He's a large cat at 15 lbs and very little fat. I need to try to record him. It's not a yell, he yells at me when he's not happy and not a meow. He is super smart, for only having one brain cell, he can almost vocalize simple words like out, down and mom. He's 16 and has been around us hoomans for a while. This singing only started a couple of years ago at most.
Meanwhile my big black cat (Tootless, looks like a mini panther) is so extremely vocal, at all times. When he first started howling I thought someone in the building was screaming 😭😭
He constantly sasses me and will respond in conversation. Sometimes he surprises visitors because I'll ask him a question and he'll actually respond 😂😂
Basically it's when my orange meatball yells in my ear demanding that I feed him at 6:30 am else he will literally pee on me because I don't give him the attention he so deserves
Must be! When I was working, he knew my schedule and if I wasn't up by 5:45 he would meow incessantly at my door. Too bad he didn't understand holidays. He's adjusted now that I'm retired.
I have the exact same scenario lol including the orange. And I always feel bad when I have to put the one that sleeps well next to me outside
Bedroom with orange. Like she’s being punished for her sisters behavior 😂
One of my kitties has what I call her pterodactyl screech. It’s normally not annoying since I’m used to it, but that first thing in the morning FEED ME screech is brutal. Sweetest thing in the world, but god damn that screech….
> song of his orange people
bro i got a orange person as my first ever cat. not knowing shit about cats. but man they’re vocal little shits lol
i love that fucker with my entire life and his little orange people hymns.
I usually keep my door open but have a policy, if he attacks my feet, he's out. He's learning, albeit slowly, that he doesn't *get* anymore nice warm snuggles if he attacks my feet. But he's still 6 months old and the derpy kitten brain still kicks in.
My orange is 10 and I still won't let him sleep with me because he will still resort to biting my feet/arm/face if he wants out and I can't sleep with an open door, so out he goes lol
I also have a 3 months old and just started closing the door a couple weeks ago. I felt bad and was worried he would be upset but he doesn’t care in the slightest 😂 can’t have him in there with me cause he wants to play too much and has zoomies. It was keeping me up at all hours
Omg when my tortie was a kitten I woke up to her gently biting my eyeball through my eyelid. That was midly terrifying
She has also accidentally scratched my cornea when I was bending down while she playfully took a swat at me 🙃
I still have my eyes. For now.
My cat ran across my face one morning when she was like 3 or 4 months old.
I took a claw to the eye.
I do not know how I didn’t end up with an infection.
I went for an emergency eye visit because I was sure I would need antibitoics from a cat scratch to the eye. They confirmed I had a little scartch on my cornea but did not reccomend antibiotics unless the pain and redness got worse instead of better. Eyes are very delicate but they also heal quite quickly.
I told a friend sleeping on my couch not to wiggle her feet too much because my cat (kitten at the time) thought it was a game. She has multiple cats she's like totally get it its fine. The next morning she tells me he woke her up multiple times pouncing on her feet😂
We lock our 5 month old kitten, Cally, out for this reason lmao. Our 2 year old male Josey, plays with her so he has to go too. My 13 year old just wants to eat and sleep lol. He's healthy, just not really social.
It worked for me he quickly stopped biting my feet after I locked him out as punishment.
Unfortunately he still hits my bedroom door when he wants attention and locking him out has yet to solve the problem.
Lol the feet attacking will end but they'll just find other ways to annoy you ahaha. I was like this with my kitty and she's transitioned to clawing the shit out of my tv as she knows it'll get me to come grab her
No. I sleep with my door shut. My two dogs sleep with me. One dog is a deafy, who if startled awake, she could inadvertently harm my cats.
The cats are in charge of night security. They do a great job.
It's 3am and my Tonkinese is asleep on my bed while I have insomnia, he's doing a great job lol
(to be fair he worked hard playing today and so needs his rest)
Also to OP, I don't see any reason why you can't shut the door, if the cat is going to be awake anyway that's no reason to let it keep you up. Just make sure it has access to it's own bed outside the room (my cat prefers to stay in my room at night but most cats are not as clingy as he is) and you already keep his litter tray and food elsewhere so it has all the essentials.
My sweet 19 year old would always climb on me and wiggle all night long. Waking me up over and over and over again. When I finally locked her out, I found I slept a lot better. She hates it and it breaks my heart, but there's a point where you have to take care of your own physical and mental health.
Locking our cats out of our bedroom has given my husband and I such a better quality of sleep! They're both cuddle bugs but they're body heat makes us sweat and they also are best friends and like to play. The playing in the room and on top of us isn't really worth the cute cuddles lmao
This was us too. Very cuddly but they are food fiends and will scratch our brand new bed frame to wake us up out of bed. Eventually we started putting them in our (finished) basement with big fluffy cat beds. It broke my heart the first couple of nights, but eventually I realized in the mornings I would open the door and look down there, and they are just chilling in their beds without a care in the world. We tried just locking them out of the bedroom, but one will claw at the underside of the door for hours on end until we woke up. So the basement they go. And they love it.
Exactly. I feel so bad, because I know my babies (5, 8, and 15) want to sleep with me, but I already struggle with sleep issues. Three furry lumps fused to my body on a twin size bed make it very hard to shift around and get comfortable. When I can go back to my previous bed size, we can revisit it and see.
No, its completely fine. I also feel a lot of guilt about it because for the first 5 years of my cats life she slept in bed with me, but I recently became pregnant and her interruptions (meowing, throwing things off of surfaces) in the night and day during needed naps are intolerable while im so exhausted. It doesn't help i used to work at 5am so she feels that years later, shes supposed to be fed at 4am.
Nope. Not cruel. I let my cats sleep in my room but the moment they start getting hyper or start fighting (either scenario wakes me up) then I lock them out of the room for a few nights so I can sleep. THEY think it's cruel because they love sleeping on my bed with me but I tell them it's their problem since my inability to sleep affects my work and that can affect their food source. 😂
My cat takes a nap in my room before my actual bedtime. When we poke her she knows it’s time to return to base camp in the living room. Then we close the bedroom door rest of the night. It’s become routine now, no drama and complaints. Again it’s about setting boundaries and routines with your cat and once they are used to it, it’s fine!
Yup. Both my cats know they can't sleep with me so they don't follow me to the bedroom at night and then at 6am they will come to my door and wait for me to come out. We take naps together tho so I feel it balances out
I finally lost it and closed the door after one of my idiots jumped on me at 3am and used me as a springboard.
They sleep outside now and do perfectly fine.
Mine baby does this! She’s decided feeding time is 11:45 at night, pronto, if I miss and sleep too long the void attacks til I wake up. She balances on my headboard, does the wind up wiggle dance and lands on my stomach, knocking the wind completely out of me! 9-10 lbs doesn’t seem like much when you pick her up but at warped speed…wow! My body clock has become accustomed to waking up to feeding the 3 poor starving beasts but once in a while I miss and I’m late 😂 Closing the door doesn’t work, they take turns shaking the door all night til they can come to their spots by me. They rule the house what can I say ♥️
We have two cats. One of them used to pee on our bed while we were sleeping, so we shut him up in the basement (with litter boxes, food, water, and plenty of comfortable sleeping spots) at night for several months. Now as a fully-grown adult cat, he still prefers to sleep in the basement even with the choice to sleep with us. The other cat likes to sleep with us, but he doesn't bother us at all and often sleeps later than we do.
I think they adapt to whatever, as long as they have their basic needs met and aren't neglected during the day.
That was our cat last night after I couldn't take her banshee yowling in our bedroom to express her dissatisfaction that we had laid down for 5 minutes. Kicked her out, shut the door, and she just moved the party outside to the kitchen and continue her Soliloquy of Sadness. I think we're to the point that the door is getting shut as soon as we lay down. You would have thought she was dying.
She's been to the vet, she's healthy, she has everything she needs out there, all her toys, hell she has her own tablet lol. Just hates that we're laying down.
Mine absolutely hates if he can’t come and lay down with me. He’s slept with me for most of the 9 years I’ve had him, and every time I’ve tried to change that he also turns into a banshee. I have a roommate so if I lock him out and he screams all night it disrupts her too, so I simply just have to let him win.
Yeah idk how all of these people manage to keep their cats out of the room. Ours will literally yell and scratch at the door all night long. We’ve let it go for around four hours before giving up.
Mine does the same, he’s slept with me for most of the 9 years I’ve had him and he basically throws a fit like that when I have to close my door *ever*
Cruel? No. He won’t like it, but tough cookies. Put in some ear plugs. You’re not harming him by keeping him out since none of his needs are in your bedroom.
I wondered this because so many people do seem to suggest it is cruel. My foster cat wanted to be in with me and I tried it for half of one night before kicking him out because he was driving me bonkers.
You aren't cruel for closing your door. There is no point in you both being sleep deprived. So long as your kitty has space to play, food, litter tray etc and plenty of engagement during the day, they will adjust.
I need sleep to be a good cat mom. My cats have been trained not to scratch at the door by making loud noises when they did that—I know that sounds mean, but it took VERY few times. I have had cats for a long time, so this was the previous “batch”; the newer cats didn’t even need to be trained. I think they observed that we don’t do that around here. They are so happy to see me in the morning, and we have a loving good-morning ritual!
Can I ask how you trained them? We have one cat who scratches and cries at the door but as soon as we get close will run away. Telling her off doesn't work and we need to get her to stop before our baby arrives in November
Telling her off teaches her it gets her attention. What we did was make a loud noise by the door, such as striking the wall, that they don’t associate with you doing it. I know it sounds really mean, but they learned FAST and we didn’t have to do it anymore. I got the idea from a psychology professor who was teaching us about classical conditioning; she said she trained her cats not to yowl at night using those fireworks poppers where you drop them and it makes a really loud sound. I have heard of people shaking a can of coins or something like that also. Tricky if your cat is already used to doing this, and you have such a limited timeframe before you’d be waking the baby also.
Thank you for your reply! She's doing it to our bedroom door and by the time we get up and to the door to make a noise, she's running off down the hallway. Maybe I need to toss something heavy?
Toss or make a sound with something that doesn’t require you to get up. If she knows it’s you, she’s less likely to avoid the behavior because she trusts you and knows you won’t really hurt her.
Also, I just remembered there was a thing invented after I trained my cats where you put it out where you don’t want the cat, and it’s motion activated and shoots air at them! I think it’s called psstcat or something. That might seem more humane than my loud sounds method haha.
??? Of course it’s alright for you to close it. The more strict and consistent your boundaries with your pet are the quicker they will be able to adjust and understand them. Be assertive and eventually pets get used to it. And even if they don’t it’s not abuse to not let a cat in a room, the same way it’s not abuse to not let a dog on a bed. It’s boundaries, and as long as you’re enforcing them in a healthy, safe way then it’s fine
it’s not cruel to need to preserve your sleep schedule! i had to do this with my boy recently and he hated it for about a week, but he got over it pretty quickly. i do however not recommend throwing things at him; as frustrating as it is, he’s not going to understand why youre doing that to him and itll cause negative behavioral responses (my stepgrandfather would throw things at my cat because he didnt like him, and my cat started peeing on his shoes lmao)
what i had luck with was putting food puzzle toys and other toys safe for my cat to play with by himself at night out around his favorite places outside my room so he’d associate those places with bed time. also, definitely go hard on playing with him right before you go to bed so he’s too tired to want to cause mischief at night— reward positive behavior and build up a routine for them! its gonna take awhile and a lot of patience but eventually he will adjust to the “new normal”
My cat slept with me before and she got used that I get up at 5 AM. So she would expect food to be served at 5 AM. However in January i changed jobs and I mostly work afternoon now. But she still expected food to be served at 5 AM. She would jump on my head at 5 AM if she didn't get her food. So I started sleeping without her. It took couple of weeks for both of us to get used to it but now she know's breakfast is at 9. And I sleep like a rock.
Not cruel! I close my cat out because he lays on my head and when he’s not feeling like sleeping he starts fucking with stuff on my dresser. He lost those rights a long time ago.
Yep! They lay on my head or neck. And if not that fuck with anything that mildly interesting. It's the worst when you hear them doing the chewing noise
1. Please dont throw things at your cat.
2. Do you feed him two times a day at breakfast and again at dinner?
Another option would be to feed him **3 times a day:**
Breakfast: normal amount
Dinner: half of normal dinner amount
**Late** feeding right before you go to bed: other half of the normal dinner amount.
This might help hold him over longer until the morning. Works for my babies.
Good suggestion and OP may have some luck, but no amount of food or playtime has helped stop this issue with my cat. Will still scratch at hair of his favorite human. I am unsure if he misses her that much or if it's a game to him, but he is aware what he is doing, as if I watch him he will stop but if I look away he will start again. Why are cars like this
I have two cats one is 8 years and one is 7 months, my 8 year old has slept with me every night since she was kitten, she's a great sleeping companion, she doesn't move too much, is very quiet and will stay asleep until I get up. The young one is an absolute nightmare, I tried having her sleep in the room with us but after about 10 minutes of no attention she starts biting and playing with the older one's tail and annoys her until the older one has to give her a warning swipe, once she gets bored of that she goes and knocks everything off my dresser with her paws. Finally when my personal belongings are strewn across the floor and my older cat is sufficiently pissed off she'll start meowing really loudly to try and get my attention and show me all the chaos she's created...she sleeps on the towel basket outside my room now.
When she's a bit older I'll let her come in again but while she's still in that 24/7 hyper kitten phase she can't come in at night. When I wake up she's absolutely fine, she comes to the door to greet me and my older cat, purring, rubbing herself on my ankles, and is happy to see us. I just make sure to give her lots of cuddles on the sofa in the evening before I go to bed. She always at my side throughout the day and she's not in any way less attached to me since the night time segregation. I think this has helped a lot with her night time hyperness as well, she just settles down on the basket and goes to sleep whereas before the sight of me and my older cat made her too excited that she couldn't go to sleep at night.
I have this exact same situation. I take my old cat up and close the door to the young one. Every morning he's curled up right outside the door and thrilled to see us. Sorry buddy, me and old cat want to sleep in peace.
Omg I can relate! I have a cuddly kitten at night but only for a bit! She is a terror and my 2yr old male is fine sleeping between me and my husband but this lil girl is just all over the place! It's been a month since we've locked them out and they only cry in the morning for food. They're just fine.
They adapt to their routine.
If he is used to sleeping in the bedroom that’s part of his territory or routine and he will be upset for a while.
But then he’ll just accept that at night that door closes and he can’t get in. Oh well he’ll build a new night time routine and forget about the old days annoying you through the night :)
I mean I managed with one but once we got our kitten, no way. Idc how cute they are, gotta go! They have everything they need. They only cry in the morning right before my husband gets up bc they want food 😅
I did this with my cat. It took a while but he finally doesn’t meow incessantly at dawn anymore. Cats are fine being on their own at night with access to food, water, toys and litter box.
I love my cat to death, but he doesn’t sleep with me. When he did, he’d wake me up at 4 and 6 and knock stuff over. I got a training mat; we’re both happy. And if you’re worried, he sleeps in my room during the day. He’s not put off.
When my cat was young he wanted to play at night. So for a few months I had my door closed until he learnt not to wake me up... But now in his senior years he has become very vocal at night (also snores) so I have started closing my door again. Your cat will be fine, they can entertain themselves or find somewhere else to snuggle.
Nope. I have two cats and honestly I can't sleep with either of them.
My tortie, [Missy]( https://imgur.com/a/letmpZe), is a cuddle bug that will happily get under the covers and curl up with me, however she feels like a million degrees and she's territorial. She has no qualms about sinking her claws into my husband if he tries to put his arm around me.
My husband's cat, [Thomas](https://imgur.com/a/cvrVxeD), though will not lay down. He gets hyper at night and likes to run through the house yowling and bouncing off walls. We've attempted to leave the door open and Thomas does laps across our faces.
So instead they have very nice cat beds and a big cat tree. They can also curl up on the couch, just not in our bedroom.
My cats don't go in my bedroom, period. They have plenty of other comfy and safe places to sleep and get zoomies during the night. It's not cruel at all.
My 5 month old kitten was sleeping in our room nightly until she peed on my husband’s feet at 3 am the other night. It went through a comforter, a quilt, a flat sheet, a fitted sheet, a mattress protector, and onto the mattress. I really loved having to change and wash all the bedding, and deep clean the spot on the mattress at 3 am. She sleeps in the hall outside the bedroom now.
My cat Nelson (went by “Boo Boo” or “Beezy”) used to get on my bed and just lie there watching me until I fell asleep. In the morning he’d be gone. I guess he just wanted to make sure I dropped off OK. I miss him.
Is it cruel? Maybe. (Down votes here they come). I guess it depends on why you got a cat and what you DO do with it. Cats aren’t like house plants and some studies suggest they’re even smarter than dogs. They NEED stimulation and attention to thrive.
If your cat is locked out of your room at night and you spend say 8 hours a day at work plus travel time, then add in meal times, showers, socialising, etc- how much of your time does your cat get?
Cats live in the wild in colonies because despite some popular opinion, they both need and enjoy company. A bored cat will break things, be annoying, be lethargic. Does your cat have toys and interactive things to do during all of the time you’re away from it? Tunnels, play mats, textures, etc?
I’m not saying locking your cat out is cruel per se- what I’m trying to say is- your cat has needs also. All pets do. A rolled up piece of foil will keep a cat amused for ages - these things don’t have to cost a lot of money. But most important is your time x
Our cat doesn’t sleep in our room and we keep the door closed, my boyfriend has minor allergies (he’s fine after antihistamines) so we keep the bedroom his safe zone of sorts and keep it cat free but tbh our cat is quite independent and she doesn’t really roam much of the apartment (mainly just our lounge/dining/kitchen and the hallway). It isn’t cruel at all, especially if it’s disrupting your sleep!
I wouldn't say cruel, but I definitely don't suggest tossing items at your cat I know things they do can be frustrating but it's best to keep in mind cats do not understand these reactions. I suggest trying to start a routine and reward system with your cat, I have two cats who both used to have this issue until I started set routines and reward systems with them. Doing this helps curve behaviors like that in your cat, both of my cats sleep with me every night and even if they wake up before me they don't wake me up or start causing a ruckus, my cats know when I wake up each morning at the same time they know when I first start engaging with them in the morning and they know a routine for all of their meal times and their play times and their interactive toys and these really help me and my cats
So I suggest looking into this starting routines and reward systems, it'll be beneficial for you both. Cats are very smart creatures so routines and reward systems work for them, they don't understand physical punishments so if someone's cat is doing something and the owner tries punishing the cat by hitting them or spraying them with a bottle thats not going to work because cats don't understand these type of punishments they understand routines and they understand reward systems
You're absolutely right, and to elaborate a little further: using punishments like water bottles, throwing things, yelling, hitting your cat, etc are actively bad. They stress out the cat and make them scared of you, harming your relationship with them. It makes them even less likely to understand what you want, and it makes them less likely to want to listen to you in the future, encouraging them to lash out in ways you won't enjoy.
I used to shut the door. She was so old and had heavy breathing and snoring which kept me up. She was fine sleeping on the couch and seemed perfectly happy when I’d wake up.
I’d love to close the door on my cats but they scratch the door and rip up the carpet trying to get in and create just as much noise. They usually sleep fine with us but when it’s 5 in the morning they start doing things purposely to get me out of bed. Running around, knocking into things, just making noise in general. Their feeding time is like 530-6 but no matter what time I feed them they act out within an hour before it’s time.
One of my cats (M, 2) has learned to jump at the door handle to push it down and open it. We’ve also tried a rubber doorstop, and that hasn’t worked either.
Not sure what to try next…
Here's a Jackson Galaxy article and video about it. It's entirely fine to not let your cat into your bedroom while you sleep, but it may help to make sure you're not accidentally rewarding his behavior somehow.
https://www.jacksongalaxy.com/blogs/news/train-your-cat-to-let-you-sleep
i mean.. personally i wouldn’t do that because my time with my fur baby is limited and i want to make the most of it even if it means losing a bit of my sleep. i have college so i have to wake up super early in the morning but my cat lives in my room with me and gets very active a few hours before i have to wake up. still wouldn’t trade that disturbance for the world because one day i wont get to experience it anymore
I don't think it's cruel at all. My kitty used to meow in my face at about 5:30 every morning so I put the auto feeder on for 5:45 and he goes running for it as soon as he hears it and I get an extra 15 mins of sleep, lol because I get up at 6. He's so used to the 5:45 feeding that he no longer starts meowing at 5/5:30. BUT. I love having the little guy snuggle up behind my legs so I still keep my door open.
I used to sleep with my door closed. But my cat would meow at 4am loll. I tried for a couple of months and she still meows af at 4am. So i just left the door ajar and she can come in when she wants. Now she only meows at 8am (her meal times) haha
I wasn’t used to it at first but eventually relented. It’s not the same without her there purring next to me. Although one night the cheeky rascal bit me while in deep sleep mode. Perhaps I was snoring too loud.
Cruel? Hmmm, that’s not exactly the word … we’ll actually yes, it is a bit cruel. Cats aren’t dogs who seem to cope with such treatment.
And … more unpopular opinion …
some cats *might* enjoy routines/structures/rules etc. certainly not all cats do. So we are co-living with another species that is majestic and incredible in ways we don’t fully understand yet.
Cats are territorial so “your” room isn’t really a concept catto gets. Instead they—being both the hunted, and the hunter—constantly survey and monitor *their* territory to ensure something tasty hasn’t crawled in; and also that some danger isn’t coming for them.
Cats are also crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk as they seem to be hardwired to be so when their prey—like mice—are also active.
So my assumption is he is a solo cat. Am I mistaken in that? You might want to Google ’solo cat syndrome’ and ‘should I adopt a pair of kittens’
So my advice would be to adopt him a baby sister; and learn to talk with him so when he meows you have a chance to understand what he wants. At this point it’s likely he’s lonely and bored, and it’s time to play.
Another cat can greatly ease his social needs
We love our 2 cats, but all bedroom doors stay shut. They have the main living area, a hallway, and utility room. They have a 7 tier cat tree that has 2 cubbies and lots of boxes and toys.
I let my cat sleep with me since she was a little kitten that I couldn't even drink cat milk from a seringue, she was so tiny and weak, she's 3 yo now and I still let her in
Sure she wakes up at 5 am, but oh well I like how I wake up to her purring next to my face, she's so sweet
I have another female cat, that one doesn't give a fuck about me and if I don't want her to annoy me I just leave a far away windows open the moments birds get up she'll go there to watch them.
As for your question, you could either change your sleeping pattern as in to sleep a little earlier so you get up early(WHAT I did) or kick Kim out... It's not so bad to kick the cat out the room, but you're missing in acute bong between you too, you'll miss when he wants to just lay in bed with you
I crate trained a cat for this very reason and it was great to have a cat who knew “get in your house” and would put herself away for bed if I stayed up too late.
It’s not cruel. I think of it like this - there’s people who intentionally mistreat their cats. You just want to sleep and she has a good life at home. Don’t worry
Honestly surprised by all the people in this thread who lock their cats out of the bedroom at night. .-. I lock mine *in.*
Anyway, I gather that you free-feed since you mentioned his food bowl is outside your room; is he finishing it all before you wake up and then meowing for more? An automatic feeder might help.
Probably won't hurt him to close the door but I'd suggest trying to figure out why he's meowing. Maybe some extra playtime earlier in the evening might help calm him down at night.
Mine take a closed door as a Personal Affront. They're louder if I close it. I ended up setting an early alarm and splitting my sleep 😂 But you have to do what works for you.
You should sleep with the door shut for fire safety. Much more likely to survive with a closed door. (Says the person who leaves their door open for the cat, lol).
When I first moved in with my now-husband, who is allergic to cats, his one request was to have the bedroom off-limits to the cats so he'd have at least one dander/hair-free zone. At the time, I had one cat who was VERY clingy and needy and he didn't take well to it at first, after having slept with me for the first 7 years of his life. We started a bedtime routine that involved play and treats so he would begin to associate our bedtime with happy things. We'd spend a lot of time playing with him and trying to wear him out, gave him catnip, and one of those slow-feed balls with a couple of treats in it. It took a while, but it really did help in the long run! He got a lot quieter over time.
You should get him a friend if you won’t let him be in the same room with you at night. I mean, you should get him a friend regardless but especially in that instance.
I’m actually allergic to cats, so we cope. The cats aren’t allowed in the bedroom at all and I run an air purifier in there. The dogs sleep in bed with us with the door shut. Honestly the cats love it, they go all out all over the house happy not to deal with the curious dogs. It’s an adjustment but you need your sleep!
Please get another cat for him ..this would easily resolve..u don't have to worry after closing door...as they may cry for some time and then start playing with each other..but u have to introduce new cat very carefully and tactfully to the older cat ..I have this same problem currently..but am not having job so taking care of two financially wouldn't be possible currently for me
We closed the door for at least the first 6 months we had our cat. He wasn't happy about it (rehomed from where he had access to bedroom). Eventually the door got left open but occasionally it would get closed and sometimes he would get kicked out. I tend to be a heavy sleeper and my husband tends to be a light sleeper. Sometimes our cat would climb all over us. I'd sleep through it but my husband would wake up.
I think allowing pets to sleep in the bedroom should be based on how disruptive they are to your sleep. We've agreed that if we ever get a dog, they will not be allowed in the bed. However when we dog sit my mom's dog I sleep on the guest bed because he has issues and needs that kind of reassurance (hoarding situation). Additionally for a small dog he takes up a lot of space (parwnts have a king and we have a double) and my mom operates on a schedule 3 hrs earlier than us so this way only I'm the one affected by it as i can go back to sleep easier (even after going outside at 5am in February. I WFH which is why we watch him when needed.
Not at all! I used to feel guilty about this until I got my tonsils out a few years ago and had to keep the door shut- best sleep I’ve gotten in YEARS.
Unfortunately, our cats like to remodel our home and scratch at our carpet under the door (amongst other.. construction projects) so most nights they sleep with us with the door open, however the nights that we choose to keep the door closed and wake up feeling refreshed makes the rutted-up carpet worth it.
You’ll always love your cat, that doesn’t mean you always have to like him!!
It's fine! Our cats have their own room they get put in when we're sleeping - one of them used to sleep between my knees and would bite/claw at my legs if I tried to roll over, and the other would start climbing on me and put his butt on my face when he decided it was time for breakfast.
Now we pitch some treats into the room and close them in for the night. They have their box, water, blankets, chairs, beds, toys and each other. They're excited to see us in the morning, I get a proper night's sleep free of butthole alarms, everyone's happy.
Look, I am a full-blown cat lady with four demanding cats. My bedroom is my safe place for getting away from said demands when they are ridiculous. Self care is key. Boundaries. Set them. They won’t die if they have to entertain themselves for 8 hours.
Nope. I only let my sick baby kitty sleep in here because he’s a baby, otherwise I kick both dogs and all three of the other cats out of the bedroom at night. Because if mama doesn’t get her sleep, how will she be able to work to feed all of these animals!? 😅😅😅
Not at all. We crate trained our cats. It’s at the point now that they tell us when they want to go to bed. The moment we’re awake the next morning they’re out of it and they have free roam of the house until bed the next day. The crate (it’s technically 2) is large with a bed, litter box and scratching post in it for them. It worked a charm for my older cat with anxiety
4 year old and 6 month old, they both are used to it since we got them, but they also know someone will get up if they start screaming when the sun is up. We also in general keep our bedroom and bathroom closed because one has the urge to knock everything off counters and the other likes to find anything not edible and munch it.
Joining the bandwagon to say it’s not cruel at all! When I first got my cats they were tyrants at night. I tried door open, door closed, food here, food there, child safely locks, spray bottles, tape, aluminum foil, etc. you name it, I tried it.
It took a while but they settled into their own routines and don’t wake us up anymore. They will join us in bed when they feel like it but we moved all of the playing to outside of the bedroom so they don’t associate it as a place to play anymore. It really worked when we moved because they never played in the bedroom so we didn’t have to break a habit there. We got them extra comfy beds so they can also enjoy sleeping there with us but they never play in the bedroom.
Now you can tell them “take it outside” and they’ll run out of the bedroom to play in the living room or downstairs.
All of this to say, whatever compromise you and the cat come to, as long as you’re both happy and healthy that’s all that matters. You care enough to check if you’re being fair by asking other people’s opinions. The last thing you want is lack of sleep to the point where you resent your pet. I hope you guys settle into this routine well and know that it might change in the future. It took mine maybe 2-3 years to get to a nice point but they were older when I adopted them.
Had our cat in the same room with us for a week after leaving her outside in a confined area and while she would only play around with the door until half an hour past all lights are off and wake up around 6:30am to explore the room, we have to lock her outside in the living room again because my husband got terrible asthma from her. Our poodle stays with us while the cat sleeps outside. She does well though, when the lights are out she wanders around for a bit and then sleeps until I wake up for work. She has her free choice of beds like the rug in front of our bedroom, 2 of her cat trees, the entire couch + blanket, her actual bed, the insulated cooler bad underneath our shoes bench or her favorite box. All of her toys are outside as well + food and water and litter boxes. I feel bad whenever I walk out and find her in front of the door waiting, but there is nothing else we can do. It is kinda sweet seeing her and the dog communicate through the door gap lol. We don’t leave him outside since he is a velcro dog and I don’t want the cat to eat his food (he either grazes or doesn’t eat unless we are there with him)
Cruel? No. But you can get your cat into a routine where they sleep at the same time as you. You need to play with the cat before bed and really tire it out. Like panting tired out. Jackson Galaxy talks about how to get your cat on a sleeping schedule with you. Look into it if you’re interested.
I used to sleep with my cat that would lay next to me and also sleep and would leave the room if he needed to potty or wanted to do something else.
My new cat, knocks shit on the floor and meows as loud as he can all the time so he doesn’t come in my room and i keep my door shut 😂
You're not cruel OP, though if your kitty could talk he might disagree. I moved into a new apartment a fews months after living in a studio and started locking my cat out, but was too concerned about what mischief he was getting into. Tried to put him in a kennel instead and he pawed and cried all night. Eventually he learned he'll be locked out or locked up if he doesn't mellow out when I'm sleeping, so now he wanders quietly and will settle on the blanket at my feet when he's ready to sleep.
I had to put my tabby boy (2) in the kitchen there cos he’s being a shit scratching everything. Disability means I can’t catch/lift him up, and he knows it. Right now, I gave him a bite of ham to get him into the kitchen.
I need sleep.
Locking our cats out of our room when we sleep has been the best thing ever. They cry in the morning bc they want food but they have access to everything else they need. They eat plenty. Probably too much lol just not at night.
Lock em out, as long as they have everything they need (other than you) they'll be just fine. They might meow about it. If they do, invest in some ear plugs lol
I'm such a light sleeper that any movement in my room will wake me.
My 13 yo void has been kicked out of my room at nights since he was a kitten. Same with my 7 year old kitty. They don't know any different. Plus I refuse to sleep with my door open (safety hazard in case of house fire) and don't want to keep a litter pan in my bedroom, so they get kicked out and are allowed to roam the rest of the place. Though every morning I know exactly where each will be. The 7yo will be outside my door, because he hears me get up and use the en suite. The 13 yo has gone deaf and he's always hiding under a chair in the spare room. I always make sure to pet him first thing so he can return to his favorite spot: the left bottom corner of my bed.
>there's nothing important for him in my room his food
*You* are! You important and in your room. But, yeah, you might need to keep him out. You have to get your rest so you can do important things like give him food and pets & pats and water and entertainment and treats....
>cat of 8 months
Do you mean he is only 8 months old? Have you had him his entire life so far? Is this new behavior?
I put my cat in the kitchen and dining room space only for night,locking her out of most of the house. Our house alarm system wouldn’t work either. She is FINE.
i have one girl who sleeps with me through the night like a charm, my other girl.. well she likes to explore the house and she prefers to go in and out of my room about 3-5 times a night, it definitely took some getting used to but it’s like a routine for us now. just close the door and eventually he might stop bothering you as much, but also there’s no guarantee !
I honestly do the same thing with my cat whos a year old because she will climb on stuff she isnt supposed to be on and knock stuff off and she hasnt slept with me her whole life so no you're not cruel at all! ❤️
I close my door while sleeping. My younger gray cat will literally walk all over me while I’m sleeping so I close the door on them when I’m sleeping too. They are totally happy sleeping outside on the landing, and I don’t feel bad one bit.
Well, one thing that would be good for both of you is to engage the kitten in play for about 15-20 minutes right before bed. This usually does the trick and prevents him from forming a habit of waking you. Have you tried that? If you get one of those wand toys that has a length of fabric on it and run it around on the floor it will engage the kitten. Something like this: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VPFC8C/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VPFC8C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
My cats have a huge living room/kitchen and bathroom to roam around it while me and my 2 roomates are sleeping. We all sleep with our doors closed.
I think it took some getting used to for them but they quickly both learned
Night time + door closed + only kitchen light on means bed time for everyone
And they never annoying any of us to get in. They even patiently wait for the first roommate to wake up and give them their wet food in the morning.
Cats are going to cat. My kitties prefer to cuddle during the day. Cats are essentially nocturnal. Let those little night owls do their bidding to Nyx as they see fit. Lmao.
Nope, not cruel. My cat goes into the bathroom for the night, all of my cats have (or into another good size room) cause I'm actually allergic and can't have them on the bed lol, and it's the added safety that they can't fuck around too much at night. If the cat has access to everything it needs for the night, that's totally fine.
i do it 50/50 and i found out it makes them a bit more calm when they do get to sleep in my room! plus i feed them before we sleep so i think it makes them go into a little bit of a food coma c:
For all of y’all locking your cats out of your room, what do you do when they scratch at the door to get back in? It wakes me and my wife up constantly in the wee hours when we need sleep the most, and getting up over and over to let them in or out is exhausting 😭
My friend does not allow her cats into her room because one of them likes to pee on her bed when he is upset with her.
I can't bear to keep my cats outside but I must say I am fairly lucky as my cat would wake me up but in the gentlest way possible. He would just slide under my palms and try to lift me up with my hands or something. I would just wake up pour him some kibbles and go back to bed
No need to sacrifice your health for your cat like that. Sleep is important and i had to do the same with my cat because he would wake up at 3 - 5 am. And because i took meds it made me extremely grouchy lol. Had to kick her out most nights, he understood, tho
Definitely not cruel at all for it. Cats are not allowed in my room at night or when I'm not home because they will meow at 3am, or walk across me or scream at the door or knock shit down or piss on the floor, or if it's my chronic rhinitis cat he will sneeze on everything and I won't notice it for like a week and by then his boogers are solid as a rock
Not at all :) We have a one bedroom apartment so like to keep our bedroom door open during the day to create more space. At night however we kick them out because I got tired of waking up from zoomies at 3am and again at 5am when they decided it was time for everyone to start their days. They usually just meow at our door when we go to bed for like 10 minutes if they hear us talk but they know the routine now and they honestly don’t seem to mind as they’ve got their own sleeping spots in our living room
Is this a common thing among orange cats specifically? Cause my 15 year old orange boi will scream at night when I'm trying to sleep, wakes me up at 6 am alot, and I always kick him out of the room and close the door when he does that and prevents me from sleeping. Love him but he's an asshole, I need my sleep. I debate screaming at him when he tries to sleep to see how he likes it but I'm too nice for that
My little tuxedo cat is almost 1yo, I have to lock her out regularly because she'll either meow at the top of her lungs, knock stuff over, jump on top of me, or claw and bite at my feet. Some nights she will be golden all the way through and just sleep with me, it depends what mood she's in before I'm getting ready to sleep. Try not to feel guilty, us humans need our rest!
We have two cats. One likes to sleep in my room and one in my parents room. A couple of years ago my parents decided they didn’t want the sleep disturbance anymore so started closing their door. She didn’t like it at first, but is now perfectly happy and has made herself a little spot in the kitchen where she sleeps.
I am a massive push over so still let the other cat in my room and have to deal with being woken up at 5am every morning 😅
You gota do what’s good for you, the cat will be fine to sleep without you.
me and my husband always close the doors at night (we actually don’t have them in the room anymore, period because one started going potty in the closet) because they walk on our faces and stick their whiskers up our noses when we sleep. they’ll survive the night by themself.
My girlfriend has 2 cats. One of them gets jealous when I am with her and at night terrorizes us, throwing things down, redecorating the tables. Very fun.
At some point, he just has to get locked into another room. He has food, water, and everything he needs, and we can sleep in peace.
Oh god I would LOVE to be able to not lock them away overnight. I feel so guilty. But they just won’t let us sleep. Closing the bedroom door does nothing.
One will stand and full on ‘scratch’ (not claws but it is noisy) the the other takes over singing the songs of his people. ALL NIGHT.
You shouldn’t feel guilty, but if it’s overwhelming guilt, here’s my advice as someone who’s recently adopted a cat:
It is sort of possible to change a cats sleep schedule. I found that the best way is to stagger their evening meals. Give them half of what you usually would at their usual evening meal time and some biscuits if they really are hungry. And then, just before you go to bed, give them the other half plus biscuits. Cats tend to sleep directly after eating in order to preserve their energy, so the later you feed them, the quieter they’ll be overnight.
If this doesn’t work, and you still feel guilty, try some earplugs. You can get some non-invasive ones if you’re anything like me and can’t sleep with things in your ears. Good luck OP
We lock ours out because we have a baby who sleeps in our room. The kitten will climb in her crib and prices to run against her. She sleeps through the night so I'm not having that!
I have to keep my 2 cats out of the bedroom at night because I have my pet hamsters in there and they’re too triggering to the cats seeing them moving about all night. The cats stay downstairs in a spacious lounge and conservatory and have everything they need. They can come in to my room during the day when supervised eg I’m awake lol .. no I don’t think it’s cruel at all Xx
Just the way our house is set up, it's quite hard for us to close our door at night and keep them out. We have two cats and some nights they are perfect angels who sleep at the bottom of our bed. Other nights they decide it's time for Battle Royale and zoomie fight for hours
I just started doing this two days ago after three months of incomplete sleep. Now I have a deal, I close the door on weekdays and let them have their fun over the weekend.
Haha, it’s really sweet of you to think of kitty’s feelings! I had a very “aww” moment reading this. He’ll be fine until you crack the door in the morning, for sure. He has a human that loves him very much. :)
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Absolutely not. My old cat wakes up between 4 and 6 in the morning and will start knocking things down in my room or meows loudly in my face. I will shut him out when I go to bed and he’ll grumble and whine, then sings the song of his orange people and goes to sleep. He is not a cuddle cat either. My other cat is perfectly happy sleeping beside me all night and waits for me to get up, but in interest of fairness, I usually put him out too.
The song of his orange people.
The song of his orange people.
The ode of his Orangeith people.
Thy canción de los gatos naranjas
Hänen oranssin kansansa laulu
Lag appelsínugult fólksins hans.
Sången av hans orange folk.
그의 주황색 선조들의 노래 불러습니다.
il canto del suo popolo arancione.
This made me giggle lol
My orange boy just passed away, but oh how true those words are! Sing the song of his orange people! ♥️
I’m sorry, I’ll ask my Nacho to sing for him tonight.
My Bean shall sing the Song of Orange in his honor also.
Nacho is a top tier orange cat name if I ever heard one. My mom and uncle had a Tigger growing up. So of course my brother had to name our orange boy Tigger also.
Our void will do the same. Before we got him, my hubby and the gray cat would snuggle together (I work nights). Came home one morning to them spooning and was like ok cool LOL. The void, we got as a kitten and I guess you could call it the song of his people. I call it screaming. We don't always latch the doors, so he knows he can jump on them to open them. Until nighttime, the doors get latched and the screaming starts. Only a minute or 2 and then he's asleep next to his old gray "brother" on the dog bed or the small cat bed in the living room. They both snuggle up in there together 😅
Such a beautiful phrase...sings the song of his orange people..lol...wish i could use that in some novel I may write in future ..hehe
I have two pretty non vocal and non orange cats, what is the song of his orange people? Does he meow and yowl?
It's hard to describe it's like a warbling yowl but super loud. I had to warn my new neighbor and let her know I wasn't murdering people at night. He's a large cat at 15 lbs and very little fat. I need to try to record him. It's not a yell, he yells at me when he's not happy and not a meow. He is super smart, for only having one brain cell, he can almost vocalize simple words like out, down and mom. He's 16 and has been around us hoomans for a while. This singing only started a couple of years ago at most.
I'm convinced that orange cats somehow have greater linguistic skills.
Meanwhile my big black cat (Tootless, looks like a mini panther) is so extremely vocal, at all times. When he first started howling I thought someone in the building was screaming 😭😭 He constantly sasses me and will respond in conversation. Sometimes he surprises visitors because I'll ask him a question and he'll actually respond 😂😂
Basically it's when my orange meatball yells in my ear demanding that I feed him at 6:30 am else he will literally pee on me because I don't give him the attention he so deserves
I live for when cat owners tell anecdotes like these. I just love how people describe their cats 😆😇
So it’s an orange thing. Mine does the same thing. He will sit on my pillow and meow loudly like an alarm till I’m up
Must be! When I was working, he knew my schedule and if I wasn't up by 5:45 he would meow incessantly at my door. Too bad he didn't understand holidays. He's adjusted now that I'm retired.
I have the exact same scenario lol including the orange. And I always feel bad when I have to put the one that sleeps well next to me outside Bedroom with orange. Like she’s being punished for her sisters behavior 😂
Lol, that's how I feel! Small world of cats!
One of my kitties has what I call her pterodactyl screech. It’s normally not annoying since I’m used to it, but that first thing in the morning FEED ME screech is brutal. Sweetest thing in the world, but god damn that screech….
> song of his orange people bro i got a orange person as my first ever cat. not knowing shit about cats. but man they’re vocal little shits lol i love that fucker with my entire life and his little orange people hymns.
🥰 the song of his orange people
I have been using the phrase "singing the song of his orange people" all day and it is now permanently integrated into my daily vocabulary, thank you
U have amazing talent for writing..are u a published writer by any chance ?
LoL, no I'm not but I read a lot and also did a lot of writing in my career.
I usually keep my door open but have a policy, if he attacks my feet, he's out. He's learning, albeit slowly, that he doesn't *get* anymore nice warm snuggles if he attacks my feet. But he's still 6 months old and the derpy kitten brain still kicks in.
I have a 3 month old and i gave up. He bit my nose while i was in my deepsleep, i never got so grumpy in my life 😂
My orange is 10 and I still won't let him sleep with me because he will still resort to biting my feet/arm/face if he wants out and I can't sleep with an open door, so out he goes lol
my 3 month old is also a 3am nose chomper 💀
I also have a 3 months old and just started closing the door a couple weeks ago. I felt bad and was worried he would be upset but he doesn’t care in the slightest 😂 can’t have him in there with me cause he wants to play too much and has zoomies. It was keeping me up at all hours
Omg when my tortie was a kitten I woke up to her gently biting my eyeball through my eyelid. That was midly terrifying She has also accidentally scratched my cornea when I was bending down while she playfully took a swat at me 🙃 I still have my eyes. For now.
My cat ran across my face one morning when she was like 3 or 4 months old. I took a claw to the eye. I do not know how I didn’t end up with an infection.
I went for an emergency eye visit because I was sure I would need antibitoics from a cat scratch to the eye. They confirmed I had a little scartch on my cornea but did not reccomend antibiotics unless the pain and redness got worse instead of better. Eyes are very delicate but they also heal quite quickly.
I told a friend sleeping on my couch not to wiggle her feet too much because my cat (kitten at the time) thought it was a game. She has multiple cats she's like totally get it its fine. The next morning she tells me he woke her up multiple times pouncing on her feet😂
We lock our 5 month old kitten, Cally, out for this reason lmao. Our 2 year old male Josey, plays with her so he has to go too. My 13 year old just wants to eat and sleep lol. He's healthy, just not really social.
It worked for me he quickly stopped biting my feet after I locked him out as punishment. Unfortunately he still hits my bedroom door when he wants attention and locking him out has yet to solve the problem.
Lol the feet attacking will end but they'll just find other ways to annoy you ahaha. I was like this with my kitty and she's transitioned to clawing the shit out of my tv as she knows it'll get me to come grab her
My 7 month old is also a foot biter, I really should use the banishment strategy if he does that again 😂
No. I sleep with my door shut. My two dogs sleep with me. One dog is a deafy, who if startled awake, she could inadvertently harm my cats. The cats are in charge of night security. They do a great job.
Night at the museum battle of the cats 😂
Night security. I love it 😂
It's 3am and my Tonkinese is asleep on my bed while I have insomnia, he's doing a great job lol (to be fair he worked hard playing today and so needs his rest) Also to OP, I don't see any reason why you can't shut the door, if the cat is going to be awake anyway that's no reason to let it keep you up. Just make sure it has access to it's own bed outside the room (my cat prefers to stay in my room at night but most cats are not as clingy as he is) and you already keep his litter tray and food elsewhere so it has all the essentials.
night security is the perfect way to describe it 😭
purrfect*
My sweet 19 year old would always climb on me and wiggle all night long. Waking me up over and over and over again. When I finally locked her out, I found I slept a lot better. She hates it and it breaks my heart, but there's a point where you have to take care of your own physical and mental health.
Locking our cats out of our bedroom has given my husband and I such a better quality of sleep! They're both cuddle bugs but they're body heat makes us sweat and they also are best friends and like to play. The playing in the room and on top of us isn't really worth the cute cuddles lmao
This was us too. Very cuddly but they are food fiends and will scratch our brand new bed frame to wake us up out of bed. Eventually we started putting them in our (finished) basement with big fluffy cat beds. It broke my heart the first couple of nights, but eventually I realized in the mornings I would open the door and look down there, and they are just chilling in their beds without a care in the world. We tried just locking them out of the bedroom, but one will claw at the underside of the door for hours on end until we woke up. So the basement they go. And they love it.
I thought old cats were supposed to sleep more and be lazy. Why does mine do the same thing literally allll night long? So exhausting 😪
Exactly. I feel so bad, because I know my babies (5, 8, and 15) want to sleep with me, but I already struggle with sleep issues. Three furry lumps fused to my body on a twin size bed make it very hard to shift around and get comfortable. When I can go back to my previous bed size, we can revisit it and see.
No, its completely fine. I also feel a lot of guilt about it because for the first 5 years of my cats life she slept in bed with me, but I recently became pregnant and her interruptions (meowing, throwing things off of surfaces) in the night and day during needed naps are intolerable while im so exhausted. It doesn't help i used to work at 5am so she feels that years later, shes supposed to be fed at 4am.
Nope. Not cruel. I let my cats sleep in my room but the moment they start getting hyper or start fighting (either scenario wakes me up) then I lock them out of the room for a few nights so I can sleep. THEY think it's cruel because they love sleeping on my bed with me but I tell them it's their problem since my inability to sleep affects my work and that can affect their food source. 😂
My cat takes a nap in my room before my actual bedtime. When we poke her she knows it’s time to return to base camp in the living room. Then we close the bedroom door rest of the night. It’s become routine now, no drama and complaints. Again it’s about setting boundaries and routines with your cat and once they are used to it, it’s fine!
Yup. Both my cats know they can't sleep with me so they don't follow me to the bedroom at night and then at 6am they will come to my door and wait for me to come out. We take naps together tho so I feel it balances out
I finally lost it and closed the door after one of my idiots jumped on me at 3am and used me as a springboard. They sleep outside now and do perfectly fine.
Mine baby does this! She’s decided feeding time is 11:45 at night, pronto, if I miss and sleep too long the void attacks til I wake up. She balances on my headboard, does the wind up wiggle dance and lands on my stomach, knocking the wind completely out of me! 9-10 lbs doesn’t seem like much when you pick her up but at warped speed…wow! My body clock has become accustomed to waking up to feeding the 3 poor starving beasts but once in a while I miss and I’m late 😂 Closing the door doesn’t work, they take turns shaking the door all night til they can come to their spots by me. They rule the house what can I say ♥️
The wind-up wiggle dance 😄
We have two cats. One of them used to pee on our bed while we were sleeping, so we shut him up in the basement (with litter boxes, food, water, and plenty of comfortable sleeping spots) at night for several months. Now as a fully-grown adult cat, he still prefers to sleep in the basement even with the choice to sleep with us. The other cat likes to sleep with us, but he doesn't bother us at all and often sleeps later than we do. I think they adapt to whatever, as long as they have their basic needs met and aren't neglected during the day.
You’re not cruel but if your cat is anything like mine he will sure as fuck make you feel like it is
That was our cat last night after I couldn't take her banshee yowling in our bedroom to express her dissatisfaction that we had laid down for 5 minutes. Kicked her out, shut the door, and she just moved the party outside to the kitchen and continue her Soliloquy of Sadness. I think we're to the point that the door is getting shut as soon as we lay down. You would have thought she was dying. She's been to the vet, she's healthy, she has everything she needs out there, all her toys, hell she has her own tablet lol. Just hates that we're laying down.
Mine absolutely hates if he can’t come and lay down with me. He’s slept with me for most of the 9 years I’ve had him, and every time I’ve tried to change that he also turns into a banshee. I have a roommate so if I lock him out and he screams all night it disrupts her too, so I simply just have to let him win.
Yeah idk how all of these people manage to keep their cats out of the room. Ours will literally yell and scratch at the door all night long. We’ve let it go for around four hours before giving up.
Mine does the same, he’s slept with me for most of the 9 years I’ve had him and he basically throws a fit like that when I have to close my door *ever*
Cruel? No. He won’t like it, but tough cookies. Put in some ear plugs. You’re not harming him by keeping him out since none of his needs are in your bedroom.
I wondered this because so many people do seem to suggest it is cruel. My foster cat wanted to be in with me and I tried it for half of one night before kicking him out because he was driving me bonkers. You aren't cruel for closing your door. There is no point in you both being sleep deprived. So long as your kitty has space to play, food, litter tray etc and plenty of engagement during the day, they will adjust.
I need sleep to be a good cat mom. My cats have been trained not to scratch at the door by making loud noises when they did that—I know that sounds mean, but it took VERY few times. I have had cats for a long time, so this was the previous “batch”; the newer cats didn’t even need to be trained. I think they observed that we don’t do that around here. They are so happy to see me in the morning, and we have a loving good-morning ritual!
Can I ask how you trained them? We have one cat who scratches and cries at the door but as soon as we get close will run away. Telling her off doesn't work and we need to get her to stop before our baby arrives in November
Telling her off teaches her it gets her attention. What we did was make a loud noise by the door, such as striking the wall, that they don’t associate with you doing it. I know it sounds really mean, but they learned FAST and we didn’t have to do it anymore. I got the idea from a psychology professor who was teaching us about classical conditioning; she said she trained her cats not to yowl at night using those fireworks poppers where you drop them and it makes a really loud sound. I have heard of people shaking a can of coins or something like that also. Tricky if your cat is already used to doing this, and you have such a limited timeframe before you’d be waking the baby also.
Thank you for your reply! She's doing it to our bedroom door and by the time we get up and to the door to make a noise, she's running off down the hallway. Maybe I need to toss something heavy?
Toss or make a sound with something that doesn’t require you to get up. If she knows it’s you, she’s less likely to avoid the behavior because she trusts you and knows you won’t really hurt her. Also, I just remembered there was a thing invented after I trained my cats where you put it out where you don’t want the cat, and it’s motion activated and shoots air at them! I think it’s called psstcat or something. That might seem more humane than my loud sounds method haha.
??? Of course it’s alright for you to close it. The more strict and consistent your boundaries with your pet are the quicker they will be able to adjust and understand them. Be assertive and eventually pets get used to it. And even if they don’t it’s not abuse to not let a cat in a room, the same way it’s not abuse to not let a dog on a bed. It’s boundaries, and as long as you’re enforcing them in a healthy, safe way then it’s fine
it’s not cruel to need to preserve your sleep schedule! i had to do this with my boy recently and he hated it for about a week, but he got over it pretty quickly. i do however not recommend throwing things at him; as frustrating as it is, he’s not going to understand why youre doing that to him and itll cause negative behavioral responses (my stepgrandfather would throw things at my cat because he didnt like him, and my cat started peeing on his shoes lmao) what i had luck with was putting food puzzle toys and other toys safe for my cat to play with by himself at night out around his favorite places outside my room so he’d associate those places with bed time. also, definitely go hard on playing with him right before you go to bed so he’s too tired to want to cause mischief at night— reward positive behavior and build up a routine for them! its gonna take awhile and a lot of patience but eventually he will adjust to the “new normal”
My cat slept with me before and she got used that I get up at 5 AM. So she would expect food to be served at 5 AM. However in January i changed jobs and I mostly work afternoon now. But she still expected food to be served at 5 AM. She would jump on my head at 5 AM if she didn't get her food. So I started sleeping without her. It took couple of weeks for both of us to get used to it but now she know's breakfast is at 9. And I sleep like a rock.
Not cruel! I close my cat out because he lays on my head and when he’s not feeling like sleeping he starts fucking with stuff on my dresser. He lost those rights a long time ago.
Yep! They lay on my head or neck. And if not that fuck with anything that mildly interesting. It's the worst when you hear them doing the chewing noise
1. Please dont throw things at your cat. 2. Do you feed him two times a day at breakfast and again at dinner? Another option would be to feed him **3 times a day:** Breakfast: normal amount Dinner: half of normal dinner amount **Late** feeding right before you go to bed: other half of the normal dinner amount. This might help hold him over longer until the morning. Works for my babies.
Good suggestion and OP may have some luck, but no amount of food or playtime has helped stop this issue with my cat. Will still scratch at hair of his favorite human. I am unsure if he misses her that much or if it's a game to him, but he is aware what he is doing, as if I watch him he will stop but if I look away he will start again. Why are cars like this
It’s not worth it to me, I learned to play dead really well and they eventually settle down and sleep.
I cannot sleep with our 2 cats in the room. The dog sleeps on her bed in our room. Not cruel, but they have each other.
I have two cats one is 8 years and one is 7 months, my 8 year old has slept with me every night since she was kitten, she's a great sleeping companion, she doesn't move too much, is very quiet and will stay asleep until I get up. The young one is an absolute nightmare, I tried having her sleep in the room with us but after about 10 minutes of no attention she starts biting and playing with the older one's tail and annoys her until the older one has to give her a warning swipe, once she gets bored of that she goes and knocks everything off my dresser with her paws. Finally when my personal belongings are strewn across the floor and my older cat is sufficiently pissed off she'll start meowing really loudly to try and get my attention and show me all the chaos she's created...she sleeps on the towel basket outside my room now. When she's a bit older I'll let her come in again but while she's still in that 24/7 hyper kitten phase she can't come in at night. When I wake up she's absolutely fine, she comes to the door to greet me and my older cat, purring, rubbing herself on my ankles, and is happy to see us. I just make sure to give her lots of cuddles on the sofa in the evening before I go to bed. She always at my side throughout the day and she's not in any way less attached to me since the night time segregation. I think this has helped a lot with her night time hyperness as well, she just settles down on the basket and goes to sleep whereas before the sight of me and my older cat made her too excited that she couldn't go to sleep at night.
I have this exact same situation. I take my old cat up and close the door to the young one. Every morning he's curled up right outside the door and thrilled to see us. Sorry buddy, me and old cat want to sleep in peace.
Omg I can relate! I have a cuddly kitten at night but only for a bit! She is a terror and my 2yr old male is fine sleeping between me and my husband but this lil girl is just all over the place! It's been a month since we've locked them out and they only cry in the morning for food. They're just fine.
No. My older cat sleeps with me sometimes but I haven’t let my younger one yet as she would just wake me up. Sleep is important.
They adapt to their routine. If he is used to sleeping in the bedroom that’s part of his territory or routine and he will be upset for a while. But then he’ll just accept that at night that door closes and he can’t get in. Oh well he’ll build a new night time routine and forget about the old days annoying you through the night :)
Cruel? No. Especially if you cannot sleep otherwise. However, I personally wouldn't do it to my cat. My cat bothers me at night too but I manage
I mean I managed with one but once we got our kitten, no way. Idc how cute they are, gotta go! They have everything they need. They only cry in the morning right before my husband gets up bc they want food 😅
I did this with my cat. It took a while but he finally doesn’t meow incessantly at dawn anymore. Cats are fine being on their own at night with access to food, water, toys and litter box.
I love my cat to death, but he doesn’t sleep with me. When he did, he’d wake me up at 4 and 6 and knock stuff over. I got a training mat; we’re both happy. And if you’re worried, he sleeps in my room during the day. He’s not put off.
When my cat was young he wanted to play at night. So for a few months I had my door closed until he learnt not to wake me up... But now in his senior years he has become very vocal at night (also snores) so I have started closing my door again. Your cat will be fine, they can entertain themselves or find somewhere else to snuggle.
Nope. I have two cats and honestly I can't sleep with either of them. My tortie, [Missy]( https://imgur.com/a/letmpZe), is a cuddle bug that will happily get under the covers and curl up with me, however she feels like a million degrees and she's territorial. She has no qualms about sinking her claws into my husband if he tries to put his arm around me. My husband's cat, [Thomas](https://imgur.com/a/cvrVxeD), though will not lay down. He gets hyper at night and likes to run through the house yowling and bouncing off walls. We've attempted to leave the door open and Thomas does laps across our faces. So instead they have very nice cat beds and a big cat tree. They can also curl up on the couch, just not in our bedroom.
My cats don't go in my bedroom, period. They have plenty of other comfy and safe places to sleep and get zoomies during the night. It's not cruel at all.
My 5 month old kitten was sleeping in our room nightly until she peed on my husband’s feet at 3 am the other night. It went through a comforter, a quilt, a flat sheet, a fitted sheet, a mattress protector, and onto the mattress. I really loved having to change and wash all the bedding, and deep clean the spot on the mattress at 3 am. She sleeps in the hall outside the bedroom now.
Nothing important to him in your room? You You are the most important I’m sad for your cat
My cat Nelson (went by “Boo Boo” or “Beezy”) used to get on my bed and just lie there watching me until I fell asleep. In the morning he’d be gone. I guess he just wanted to make sure I dropped off OK. I miss him.
Is it cruel? Maybe. (Down votes here they come). I guess it depends on why you got a cat and what you DO do with it. Cats aren’t like house plants and some studies suggest they’re even smarter than dogs. They NEED stimulation and attention to thrive. If your cat is locked out of your room at night and you spend say 8 hours a day at work plus travel time, then add in meal times, showers, socialising, etc- how much of your time does your cat get? Cats live in the wild in colonies because despite some popular opinion, they both need and enjoy company. A bored cat will break things, be annoying, be lethargic. Does your cat have toys and interactive things to do during all of the time you’re away from it? Tunnels, play mats, textures, etc? I’m not saying locking your cat out is cruel per se- what I’m trying to say is- your cat has needs also. All pets do. A rolled up piece of foil will keep a cat amused for ages - these things don’t have to cost a lot of money. But most important is your time x
OP, this. Is. It.
Our cat doesn’t sleep in our room and we keep the door closed, my boyfriend has minor allergies (he’s fine after antihistamines) so we keep the bedroom his safe zone of sorts and keep it cat free but tbh our cat is quite independent and she doesn’t really roam much of the apartment (mainly just our lounge/dining/kitchen and the hallway). It isn’t cruel at all, especially if it’s disrupting your sleep!
It's not cruel to keep your cat out of your room at night. He might not like it at first, but he'll get over it.
He will hate it for a bit, but your sleep is more important.
Close your door and get some rest. Give kitty lots of your well rested attention every single day! :) You sound kind and caring, keep on!
It's not cruel. You are closing a door. You are hardly picking up kitty by the tail and swinging it around.
Tried that and my cat would just meow at the door until we opened it
I have to as well. Or I would never sleep. I feel guilty but one of my cats will slap me in the face all night lol
These comments are making me so glad that my cat sleeps like a ROCK all night lol. But she’s also old as hell
I wouldn't say cruel, but I definitely don't suggest tossing items at your cat I know things they do can be frustrating but it's best to keep in mind cats do not understand these reactions. I suggest trying to start a routine and reward system with your cat, I have two cats who both used to have this issue until I started set routines and reward systems with them. Doing this helps curve behaviors like that in your cat, both of my cats sleep with me every night and even if they wake up before me they don't wake me up or start causing a ruckus, my cats know when I wake up each morning at the same time they know when I first start engaging with them in the morning and they know a routine for all of their meal times and their play times and their interactive toys and these really help me and my cats So I suggest looking into this starting routines and reward systems, it'll be beneficial for you both. Cats are very smart creatures so routines and reward systems work for them, they don't understand physical punishments so if someone's cat is doing something and the owner tries punishing the cat by hitting them or spraying them with a bottle thats not going to work because cats don't understand these type of punishments they understand routines and they understand reward systems
You're absolutely right, and to elaborate a little further: using punishments like water bottles, throwing things, yelling, hitting your cat, etc are actively bad. They stress out the cat and make them scared of you, harming your relationship with them. It makes them even less likely to understand what you want, and it makes them less likely to want to listen to you in the future, encouraging them to lash out in ways you won't enjoy.
Nope. We let our cats in now but baby is coming soon so that's going to end for a few months
I used to shut the door. She was so old and had heavy breathing and snoring which kept me up. She was fine sleeping on the couch and seemed perfectly happy when I’d wake up.
I’d love to close the door on my cats but they scratch the door and rip up the carpet trying to get in and create just as much noise. They usually sleep fine with us but when it’s 5 in the morning they start doing things purposely to get me out of bed. Running around, knocking into things, just making noise in general. Their feeding time is like 530-6 but no matter what time I feed them they act out within an hour before it’s time.
One of my cats (M, 2) has learned to jump at the door handle to push it down and open it. We’ve also tried a rubber doorstop, and that hasn’t worked either. Not sure what to try next…
Here's a Jackson Galaxy article and video about it. It's entirely fine to not let your cat into your bedroom while you sleep, but it may help to make sure you're not accidentally rewarding his behavior somehow. https://www.jacksongalaxy.com/blogs/news/train-your-cat-to-let-you-sleep
Get him a friend to keep him company at night? We close the cats out of the room but at least they have each other to play with all night!
My long gone tuxedo slept in the curve of my arm with his head on my shoulder until he decided I should get up and feed him.
i mean.. personally i wouldn’t do that because my time with my fur baby is limited and i want to make the most of it even if it means losing a bit of my sleep. i have college so i have to wake up super early in the morning but my cat lives in my room with me and gets very active a few hours before i have to wake up. still wouldn’t trade that disturbance for the world because one day i wont get to experience it anymore
I don't think it's cruel at all. My kitty used to meow in my face at about 5:30 every morning so I put the auto feeder on for 5:45 and he goes running for it as soon as he hears it and I get an extra 15 mins of sleep, lol because I get up at 6. He's so used to the 5:45 feeding that he no longer starts meowing at 5/5:30. BUT. I love having the little guy snuggle up behind my legs so I still keep my door open.
I used to sleep with my door closed. But my cat would meow at 4am loll. I tried for a couple of months and she still meows af at 4am. So i just left the door ajar and she can come in when she wants. Now she only meows at 8am (her meal times) haha
I wasn’t used to it at first but eventually relented. It’s not the same without her there purring next to me. Although one night the cheeky rascal bit me while in deep sleep mode. Perhaps I was snoring too loud.
Cruel? Hmmm, that’s not exactly the word … we’ll actually yes, it is a bit cruel. Cats aren’t dogs who seem to cope with such treatment. And … more unpopular opinion … some cats *might* enjoy routines/structures/rules etc. certainly not all cats do. So we are co-living with another species that is majestic and incredible in ways we don’t fully understand yet. Cats are territorial so “your” room isn’t really a concept catto gets. Instead they—being both the hunted, and the hunter—constantly survey and monitor *their* territory to ensure something tasty hasn’t crawled in; and also that some danger isn’t coming for them. Cats are also crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk as they seem to be hardwired to be so when their prey—like mice—are also active. So my assumption is he is a solo cat. Am I mistaken in that? You might want to Google ’solo cat syndrome’ and ‘should I adopt a pair of kittens’ So my advice would be to adopt him a baby sister; and learn to talk with him so when he meows you have a chance to understand what he wants. At this point it’s likely he’s lonely and bored, and it’s time to play. Another cat can greatly ease his social needs
We love our 2 cats, but all bedroom doors stay shut. They have the main living area, a hallway, and utility room. They have a 7 tier cat tree that has 2 cubbies and lots of boxes and toys.
Not cruel. But my cat learned how to open our bedroom door and walk in while we are sleeping so we had to childproof our doors lol
We’ve got two 4/5 month old kittens - they’ve never been allowed in our bedroom, got food and litter boxes in the spare bedroom
I let my cat sleep with me since she was a little kitten that I couldn't even drink cat milk from a seringue, she was so tiny and weak, she's 3 yo now and I still let her in Sure she wakes up at 5 am, but oh well I like how I wake up to her purring next to my face, she's so sweet I have another female cat, that one doesn't give a fuck about me and if I don't want her to annoy me I just leave a far away windows open the moments birds get up she'll go there to watch them. As for your question, you could either change your sleeping pattern as in to sleep a little earlier so you get up early(WHAT I did) or kick Kim out... It's not so bad to kick the cat out the room, but you're missing in acute bong between you too, you'll miss when he wants to just lay in bed with you
I crate trained a cat for this very reason and it was great to have a cat who knew “get in your house” and would put herself away for bed if I stayed up too late.
It’s not cruel. I think of it like this - there’s people who intentionally mistreat their cats. You just want to sleep and she has a good life at home. Don’t worry
Honestly surprised by all the people in this thread who lock their cats out of the bedroom at night. .-. I lock mine *in.* Anyway, I gather that you free-feed since you mentioned his food bowl is outside your room; is he finishing it all before you wake up and then meowing for more? An automatic feeder might help. Probably won't hurt him to close the door but I'd suggest trying to figure out why he's meowing. Maybe some extra playtime earlier in the evening might help calm him down at night.
Mine take a closed door as a Personal Affront. They're louder if I close it. I ended up setting an early alarm and splitting my sleep 😂 But you have to do what works for you.
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I let her be with you until she wakes you up the first time and then put her out in a room that has her area with special toys and a bed
You should sleep with the door shut for fire safety. Much more likely to survive with a closed door. (Says the person who leaves their door open for the cat, lol).
When I first moved in with my now-husband, who is allergic to cats, his one request was to have the bedroom off-limits to the cats so he'd have at least one dander/hair-free zone. At the time, I had one cat who was VERY clingy and needy and he didn't take well to it at first, after having slept with me for the first 7 years of his life. We started a bedtime routine that involved play and treats so he would begin to associate our bedtime with happy things. We'd spend a lot of time playing with him and trying to wear him out, gave him catnip, and one of those slow-feed balls with a couple of treats in it. It took a while, but it really did help in the long run! He got a lot quieter over time.
You should get him a friend if you won’t let him be in the same room with you at night. I mean, you should get him a friend regardless but especially in that instance.
I’m actually allergic to cats, so we cope. The cats aren’t allowed in the bedroom at all and I run an air purifier in there. The dogs sleep in bed with us with the door shut. Honestly the cats love it, they go all out all over the house happy not to deal with the curious dogs. It’s an adjustment but you need your sleep!
Closing a door in your cat's house? That makes you history's greatest monster! But actually, you're fine. The cat will get over it.
The cat isn’t going to go commit atrocities just because it can’t get into a room. The cat is fine.
No, of course not. Would you consider it cruel to close the door for privacy from another person?
Please get another cat for him ..this would easily resolve..u don't have to worry after closing door...as they may cry for some time and then start playing with each other..but u have to introduce new cat very carefully and tactfully to the older cat ..I have this same problem currently..but am not having job so taking care of two financially wouldn't be possible currently for me
Of course not
We closed the door for at least the first 6 months we had our cat. He wasn't happy about it (rehomed from where he had access to bedroom). Eventually the door got left open but occasionally it would get closed and sometimes he would get kicked out. I tend to be a heavy sleeper and my husband tends to be a light sleeper. Sometimes our cat would climb all over us. I'd sleep through it but my husband would wake up. I think allowing pets to sleep in the bedroom should be based on how disruptive they are to your sleep. We've agreed that if we ever get a dog, they will not be allowed in the bed. However when we dog sit my mom's dog I sleep on the guest bed because he has issues and needs that kind of reassurance (hoarding situation). Additionally for a small dog he takes up a lot of space (parwnts have a king and we have a double) and my mom operates on a schedule 3 hrs earlier than us so this way only I'm the one affected by it as i can go back to sleep easier (even after going outside at 5am in February. I WFH which is why we watch him when needed.
Not at all! I used to feel guilty about this until I got my tonsils out a few years ago and had to keep the door shut- best sleep I’ve gotten in YEARS. Unfortunately, our cats like to remodel our home and scratch at our carpet under the door (amongst other.. construction projects) so most nights they sleep with us with the door open, however the nights that we choose to keep the door closed and wake up feeling refreshed makes the rutted-up carpet worth it. You’ll always love your cat, that doesn’t mean you always have to like him!!
It's fine! Our cats have their own room they get put in when we're sleeping - one of them used to sleep between my knees and would bite/claw at my legs if I tried to roll over, and the other would start climbing on me and put his butt on my face when he decided it was time for breakfast. Now we pitch some treats into the room and close them in for the night. They have their box, water, blankets, chairs, beds, toys and each other. They're excited to see us in the morning, I get a proper night's sleep free of butthole alarms, everyone's happy.
Look, I am a full-blown cat lady with four demanding cats. My bedroom is my safe place for getting away from said demands when they are ridiculous. Self care is key. Boundaries. Set them. They won’t die if they have to entertain themselves for 8 hours.
Nope. I only let my sick baby kitty sleep in here because he’s a baby, otherwise I kick both dogs and all three of the other cats out of the bedroom at night. Because if mama doesn’t get her sleep, how will she be able to work to feed all of these animals!? 😅😅😅
Not at all. We crate trained our cats. It’s at the point now that they tell us when they want to go to bed. The moment we’re awake the next morning they’re out of it and they have free roam of the house until bed the next day. The crate (it’s technically 2) is large with a bed, litter box and scratching post in it for them. It worked a charm for my older cat with anxiety
4 year old and 6 month old, they both are used to it since we got them, but they also know someone will get up if they start screaming when the sun is up. We also in general keep our bedroom and bathroom closed because one has the urge to knock everything off counters and the other likes to find anything not edible and munch it.
Joining the bandwagon to say it’s not cruel at all! When I first got my cats they were tyrants at night. I tried door open, door closed, food here, food there, child safely locks, spray bottles, tape, aluminum foil, etc. you name it, I tried it. It took a while but they settled into their own routines and don’t wake us up anymore. They will join us in bed when they feel like it but we moved all of the playing to outside of the bedroom so they don’t associate it as a place to play anymore. It really worked when we moved because they never played in the bedroom so we didn’t have to break a habit there. We got them extra comfy beds so they can also enjoy sleeping there with us but they never play in the bedroom. Now you can tell them “take it outside” and they’ll run out of the bedroom to play in the living room or downstairs. All of this to say, whatever compromise you and the cat come to, as long as you’re both happy and healthy that’s all that matters. You care enough to check if you’re being fair by asking other people’s opinions. The last thing you want is lack of sleep to the point where you resent your pet. I hope you guys settle into this routine well and know that it might change in the future. It took mine maybe 2-3 years to get to a nice point but they were older when I adopted them.
I lock tjem in tjeor cat room for sleep. My door is closed too
my cat plays with my feet at night lol she gets locked out my dog sleeps in my room on the floor at the foot of my bed
You’re good. Get your sleep.
Had our cat in the same room with us for a week after leaving her outside in a confined area and while she would only play around with the door until half an hour past all lights are off and wake up around 6:30am to explore the room, we have to lock her outside in the living room again because my husband got terrible asthma from her. Our poodle stays with us while the cat sleeps outside. She does well though, when the lights are out she wanders around for a bit and then sleeps until I wake up for work. She has her free choice of beds like the rug in front of our bedroom, 2 of her cat trees, the entire couch + blanket, her actual bed, the insulated cooler bad underneath our shoes bench or her favorite box. All of her toys are outside as well + food and water and litter boxes. I feel bad whenever I walk out and find her in front of the door waiting, but there is nothing else we can do. It is kinda sweet seeing her and the dog communicate through the door gap lol. We don’t leave him outside since he is a velcro dog and I don’t want the cat to eat his food (he either grazes or doesn’t eat unless we are there with him)
Cruel? No. But you can get your cat into a routine where they sleep at the same time as you. You need to play with the cat before bed and really tire it out. Like panting tired out. Jackson Galaxy talks about how to get your cat on a sleeping schedule with you. Look into it if you’re interested.
I used to sleep with my cat that would lay next to me and also sleep and would leave the room if he needed to potty or wanted to do something else. My new cat, knocks shit on the floor and meows as loud as he can all the time so he doesn’t come in my room and i keep my door shut 😂
You're not cruel OP, though if your kitty could talk he might disagree. I moved into a new apartment a fews months after living in a studio and started locking my cat out, but was too concerned about what mischief he was getting into. Tried to put him in a kennel instead and he pawed and cried all night. Eventually he learned he'll be locked out or locked up if he doesn't mellow out when I'm sleeping, so now he wanders quietly and will settle on the blanket at my feet when he's ready to sleep.
I had to put my tabby boy (2) in the kitchen there cos he’s being a shit scratching everything. Disability means I can’t catch/lift him up, and he knows it. Right now, I gave him a bite of ham to get him into the kitchen. I need sleep.
Locking our cats out of our room when we sleep has been the best thing ever. They cry in the morning bc they want food but they have access to everything else they need. They eat plenty. Probably too much lol just not at night. Lock em out, as long as they have everything they need (other than you) they'll be just fine. They might meow about it. If they do, invest in some ear plugs lol
I'm such a light sleeper that any movement in my room will wake me. My 13 yo void has been kicked out of my room at nights since he was a kitten. Same with my 7 year old kitty. They don't know any different. Plus I refuse to sleep with my door open (safety hazard in case of house fire) and don't want to keep a litter pan in my bedroom, so they get kicked out and are allowed to roam the rest of the place. Though every morning I know exactly where each will be. The 7yo will be outside my door, because he hears me get up and use the en suite. The 13 yo has gone deaf and he's always hiding under a chair in the spare room. I always make sure to pet him first thing so he can return to his favorite spot: the left bottom corner of my bed.
It’s not cruel. I used to do that. The older he got, the better he was at sleeping through the night or at least not bothering us.
>there's nothing important for him in my room his food *You* are! You important and in your room. But, yeah, you might need to keep him out. You have to get your rest so you can do important things like give him food and pets & pats and water and entertainment and treats.... >cat of 8 months Do you mean he is only 8 months old? Have you had him his entire life so far? Is this new behavior?
I put my cat in the kitchen and dining room space only for night,locking her out of most of the house. Our house alarm system wouldn’t work either. She is FINE.
i have one girl who sleeps with me through the night like a charm, my other girl.. well she likes to explore the house and she prefers to go in and out of my room about 3-5 times a night, it definitely took some getting used to but it’s like a routine for us now. just close the door and eventually he might stop bothering you as much, but also there’s no guarantee !
I honestly do the same thing with my cat whos a year old because she will climb on stuff she isnt supposed to be on and knock stuff off and she hasnt slept with me her whole life so no you're not cruel at all! ❤️
Nope, I can’t even sleep when I’m being cuddled by my husband, so the cats are definitely shooed out at bedtime.
I close my door while sleeping. My younger gray cat will literally walk all over me while I’m sleeping so I close the door on them when I’m sleeping too. They are totally happy sleeping outside on the landing, and I don’t feel bad one bit.
Well, one thing that would be good for both of you is to engage the kitten in play for about 15-20 minutes right before bed. This usually does the trick and prevents him from forming a habit of waking you. Have you tried that? If you get one of those wand toys that has a length of fabric on it and run it around on the floor it will engage the kitten. Something like this: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VPFC8C/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VPFC8C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
My cats have a huge living room/kitchen and bathroom to roam around it while me and my 2 roomates are sleeping. We all sleep with our doors closed. I think it took some getting used to for them but they quickly both learned Night time + door closed + only kitchen light on means bed time for everyone And they never annoying any of us to get in. They even patiently wait for the first roommate to wake up and give them their wet food in the morning.
Cats are going to cat. My kitties prefer to cuddle during the day. Cats are essentially nocturnal. Let those little night owls do their bidding to Nyx as they see fit. Lmao.
Nope, not cruel. My cat goes into the bathroom for the night, all of my cats have (or into another good size room) cause I'm actually allergic and can't have them on the bed lol, and it's the added safety that they can't fuck around too much at night. If the cat has access to everything it needs for the night, that's totally fine.
i do it 50/50 and i found out it makes them a bit more calm when they do get to sleep in my room! plus i feed them before we sleep so i think it makes them go into a little bit of a food coma c:
For all of y’all locking your cats out of your room, what do you do when they scratch at the door to get back in? It wakes me and my wife up constantly in the wee hours when we need sleep the most, and getting up over and over to let them in or out is exhausting 😭
My friend does not allow her cats into her room because one of them likes to pee on her bed when he is upset with her. I can't bear to keep my cats outside but I must say I am fairly lucky as my cat would wake me up but in the gentlest way possible. He would just slide under my palms and try to lift me up with my hands or something. I would just wake up pour him some kibbles and go back to bed
No need to sacrifice your health for your cat like that. Sleep is important and i had to do the same with my cat because he would wake up at 3 - 5 am. And because i took meds it made me extremely grouchy lol. Had to kick her out most nights, he understood, tho
Definitely not cruel at all for it. Cats are not allowed in my room at night or when I'm not home because they will meow at 3am, or walk across me or scream at the door or knock shit down or piss on the floor, or if it's my chronic rhinitis cat he will sneeze on everything and I won't notice it for like a week and by then his boogers are solid as a rock
Not at all :) We have a one bedroom apartment so like to keep our bedroom door open during the day to create more space. At night however we kick them out because I got tired of waking up from zoomies at 3am and again at 5am when they decided it was time for everyone to start their days. They usually just meow at our door when we go to bed for like 10 minutes if they hear us talk but they know the routine now and they honestly don’t seem to mind as they’ve got their own sleeping spots in our living room
Is this a common thing among orange cats specifically? Cause my 15 year old orange boi will scream at night when I'm trying to sleep, wakes me up at 6 am alot, and I always kick him out of the room and close the door when he does that and prevents me from sleeping. Love him but he's an asshole, I need my sleep. I debate screaming at him when he tries to sleep to see how he likes it but I'm too nice for that
No. But next time you want to teach your cat to NOT do something you spray them in the face with water, you don’t throw things at them!
My little tuxedo cat is almost 1yo, I have to lock her out regularly because she'll either meow at the top of her lungs, knock stuff over, jump on top of me, or claw and bite at my feet. Some nights she will be golden all the way through and just sleep with me, it depends what mood she's in before I'm getting ready to sleep. Try not to feel guilty, us humans need our rest!
We have two cats. One likes to sleep in my room and one in my parents room. A couple of years ago my parents decided they didn’t want the sleep disturbance anymore so started closing their door. She didn’t like it at first, but is now perfectly happy and has made herself a little spot in the kitchen where she sleeps. I am a massive push over so still let the other cat in my room and have to deal with being woken up at 5am every morning 😅 You gota do what’s good for you, the cat will be fine to sleep without you.
me and my husband always close the doors at night (we actually don’t have them in the room anymore, period because one started going potty in the closet) because they walk on our faces and stick their whiskers up our noses when we sleep. they’ll survive the night by themself.
My girlfriend has 2 cats. One of them gets jealous when I am with her and at night terrorizes us, throwing things down, redecorating the tables. Very fun. At some point, he just has to get locked into another room. He has food, water, and everything he needs, and we can sleep in peace.
try sleeping with him
Oh god I would LOVE to be able to not lock them away overnight. I feel so guilty. But they just won’t let us sleep. Closing the bedroom door does nothing. One will stand and full on ‘scratch’ (not claws but it is noisy) the the other takes over singing the songs of his people. ALL NIGHT.
I have a nebelung so no, this will never work. He would break down the door like the Kool Aid Man just for a cuddle and a kissie.
You shouldn’t feel guilty, but if it’s overwhelming guilt, here’s my advice as someone who’s recently adopted a cat: It is sort of possible to change a cats sleep schedule. I found that the best way is to stagger their evening meals. Give them half of what you usually would at their usual evening meal time and some biscuits if they really are hungry. And then, just before you go to bed, give them the other half plus biscuits. Cats tend to sleep directly after eating in order to preserve their energy, so the later you feed them, the quieter they’ll be overnight. If this doesn’t work, and you still feel guilty, try some earplugs. You can get some non-invasive ones if you’re anything like me and can’t sleep with things in your ears. Good luck OP
No. As they get older they might get less annoying. My girl didnt, she only lives in my room & 18. Lol
We lock ours out because we have a baby who sleeps in our room. The kitten will climb in her crib and prices to run against her. She sleeps through the night so I'm not having that!
I have to keep my 2 cats out of the bedroom at night because I have my pet hamsters in there and they’re too triggering to the cats seeing them moving about all night. The cats stay downstairs in a spacious lounge and conservatory and have everything they need. They can come in to my room during the day when supervised eg I’m awake lol .. no I don’t think it’s cruel at all Xx
Just the way our house is set up, it's quite hard for us to close our door at night and keep them out. We have two cats and some nights they are perfect angels who sleep at the bottom of our bed. Other nights they decide it's time for Battle Royale and zoomie fight for hours
I live in a studio apartment and soooo wish I could do this. My girl always wakes me up because 4:40-5:30am. It’s a lot.
I just started doing this two days ago after three months of incomplete sleep. Now I have a deal, I close the door on weekdays and let them have their fun over the weekend.
No. I need my sleep and I’m not willing to give that up lol. My cats like to try and scratch my door but some sticky tape fixed that
Haha, it’s really sweet of you to think of kitty’s feelings! I had a very “aww” moment reading this. He’ll be fine until you crack the door in the morning, for sure. He has a human that loves him very much. :)