crating a cat

Whispered

I had a very annoying night last night. One of my cats decided at 2 am he wanted to go out. Not wanting him out at night, I brought him back to his bed, half an hour later he was mewling at the top of his voice again. I ignored him for half an hour then had to give in. Finally getting back to sleep at 3am.

5 am rolls around and I'm woken by the little brat outside the front door looking to get back in, again at the top of his squeaky little voice :mad:. I give in, let him in, have my head just on the pillow, and he's looking to get out again. :eek: I let him back out, back up the stairs, guess what happened... he changed his mind and wanted to be in :mad: 5.30 at this stage, I had to get up at 6.

If someone had the same problem with a dog I would suggest crate training him. I am considering doing the same with the cat. (I actually considered putting him in a carrier and locking him in the car last night, just so I wouldn't have to hear him, but common sense prevailed). He is 7 years old, perfectly healthy, he's not traumatised after Halloween or anything, he slept through the bangers oblivious.

So, can I crate train a cat, would it work to stop him deciding when he wants to go in and out and making a big production in the tiny hours of the morning about it, and how would I go about it?

joyce2009

dont know about cratnig cats but i cant imagine he would like it very much and probably howl even more,,,if this is a new thing could it be a physical thing i.e bladder problem or could there be a new tomcat in the neighbourhood that he is courious about,, If not i'd suggest a cat flap and let him come and go as he pleases,so you can get some sleep:rolleyes:

comongethappy

Hi Op,

I've actually 2 of my 3 crate trained! I've a crate big enough for a large dog, and I have a small litterbox (a large tupperware box actually) at the back of the cage with litter, vet bedding put down so they can be comfy, and a water bowl in the front corner. If he's alone, perhaps add one of his favourite toys.

When bed time comes, I give them some extra dry food or treats so they associate it with a positive experience. I live in a two story house, so since our bedrooms are upstairs, I have the crate downstairs in our kitchen. It's best to put it somewhere as quite or as far away as possible. It takes a while for them to get used to it, but they'll eventually come to see it as the routine. Mine actually harass me to go to bed now!

My male cat used to claw at the door, jump on the handles, or otherwise scream the house down. We'd let him in, and he would just sit at the floor of our bed screaming. We had tried ignoring it, wearing him out with play prior to bed, letting him sleep with us, turning on the vaccum when he'd start... after nearly a month of sleepless nights and my husband wanting to get rid of him, we found a solution that works. It's two years on and still working great for us.

As another poster said, do keep an eye on the litter box and his urine outputs. My male gets a lot more vocal when he has them. You'll notice him straining to go more often, only leaving small amounts of urine or none at all, sometimes blood. If this is the case then off to the vets!

lrushe

helena.ryan wrote: »

I had a very annoying night last night. One of my cats decided at 2 am he wanted to go out. Not wanting him out at night, I brought him back to his bed, half an hour later he was mewling at the top of his voice again. I ignored him for half an hour then had to give in. Finally getting back to sleep at 3am.

5 am rolls around and I'm woken by the little brat outside the front door looking to get back in, again at the top of his squeaky little voice :mad:. I give in, let him in, have my head just on the pillow, and he's looking to get out again. :eek: I let him back out, back up the stairs, guess what happened... he changed his mind and wanted to be in :mad: 5.30 at this stage, I had to get up at 6.

If someone had the same problem with a dog I would suggest crate training him. I am considering doing the same with the cat. (I actually considered putting him in a carrier and locking him in the car last night, just so I wouldn't have to hear him, but common sense prevailed). He is 7 years old, perfectly healthy, he's not traumatised after Halloween or anything, he slept through the bangers oblivious.

So, can I crate train a cat, would it work to stop him deciding when he wants to go in and out and making a big production in the tiny hours of the morning about it, and how would I go about it?

My kitty loves our crate, I can't take any credit for training her to do this though she just did it herself. The crate is actually for the dogs but as soon as she sees an unoccupied one she's straight inside!!! I bought her her own bed but through it out a few months ago as she just prefers to sleep in the crate!

mymo

We adopted an adult cat back in feb, he'd been in a crate for 3 weeks before we got him so was used to it.
For 6 weeks we shut him in the crate at night, and if we had the doors or downstairs windows open and he was perfectly happy. Since we got our pup the crate is out again, when the dogs get up, he gets in the crate(sometimes tries to get in at night with the dogs), and our older cat has started doing the same in the bigger dog crate. I have them stacked like bunk beds, must get pic. Have used crates when painting the bedroom doors too, they just sleep all day. Shouldn't be difficult to do just start putting his bed in during the day.
As someone else said check for urinary problems, wanting out during the night was the first sign for our cat.

fatmammycat

This is exactly the reason why I lock my 3 cats into a shed last thing at night (00 hours)and let them out first thing in the morning (7am). I just could not cope with the wailing and demanding to go in and out, and I don't want them loose at night either, too easy to be killed that way.
The shed is dry and well insulated and they all have sheepskin beds, I feed them wet food last thing at night too so it was easy to get them to associate going in with being fed and these days they are happy to trundle in a head of me. Might be something to consider Helen. I know how frustrating it can be when cats get into the habit of waking you up to go out.

The Sweeper

Yep all of mine have a bedtime routine for similar reasons. Actually it's because one bleary morning I was making scrambled eggs at the cooker and looked up at the glass hood of the extractor fan. There was a perfect set of pawprints, left to right, across it. That was the last straw - the bleariness was from being constantly woken by them at night.

I am very lucky to have a good bit of space in this house, so I have one room dedicated to the cats. Their litter trays, their water fountain and their food bowls are in there, along with an old red felt sofa that they're encouraged to rip (they don't touch my good couch) and a couple of beds on different levels - some up high, some down low. They love it. Bedtime comes around and their food goes in that room so they associate bedtime with feeding time, a positive experience.

They're put to bed at night, and let out first thing in the morning, and occasionally shut into that room in the middle of the day for an hour if I'm washing the floors or on the rare occasion where we have a dinner party or somesuch. They're very happy in there. The last time I had people round for dinner, I opened the door to let the cats out at the end of us eating, and it was a good 10 minutes before they bothered to get out of bed and come see us!

You just need a big enough crate - not a wire cage, cats would far rather have somewhere hidden where they can watch you and feel like you can't see them. They will also yowl, so it needs to be a positive experience - dinner in there last thing at night, for instance.

Sigma Force

Cats are semi nocturnal so not sure what you can do, perhaps providing some new sctaching posts and toys, perhaps providing an outdoor avairy type set up so he can go outside but be kept enclosed within the garden.