How can I make my hyper cat and kitten sleep at night?

Question

I have a new 12 week old kitten and a 2 year old cat. They are both wonderful felines BUT they are playing off each other at night and chase one another around my apartment. This is keeping me awake but worse - they are keeping my downstairs neighbours awake too. The 2 year old, prior to the kitten's arrival was always calm and slept through the night, but now, she is often the instigator to these nighttime crazies. She loves the kitten and loves to mother him so I don't want to give up on them (ie. I really want to keep the kitten). I have tried rescue remedy on both kitties but that hasn't worked. Has anyone else had a similar problem, and found a solution? My neighbours aren't really forgiving and I can't afford to lose my apartment, but I don't want to give up on this responsibility I have taken on. Thanks for ANY (humane) suggestion you may have!

Answer 1

What I did with all three of my monsters is keep them awake til bed time. Cats sleep about 18 hours a day, so make sure their waking times don't correspond with your sleeping times. Keep them awake from when you get home from work til you go to bed.

It worked for me all three times. Now they're "trained" to come to bed and sleep through the night.

Answer 2

Hi there...I'm partially reiterating some of the other suggestions here, but elaborating on them. It sounds like your kitties has found a schedule of their own. There are many possibilities as to why they may be waking you up at this particular time of morning. For example many cats who are fed at a scheduled time will learn when to expect their meals, the family members come home and leave for day, etc. It's more of a conditioned response from a pattern which is being continually reinforced...and is why I'm making this assumption.

If you would like to change/adjust their schedule to yours consider by playing with them using more physical active activities (e.g. laser light) using interactive play for 10-15 minutes prior to bedtime to exhaust them so they'll sleep longer. If your cats are not free fed (food available at all times) some people who feed their cats on schedule (once in the morning and once at night) have found that by feeding right just before bedtime also note that this has a sedating effect because their tummy's are full.

This particular method isn't known to many as most people are not willing to consider it, however one the things we as animal trainers/behaviourists do to break bad behaviours with animals is to ignore the undesired behaviour. What follows is called an extinction burst where the behaviour becomes progressively worst for awhile hoping for the same positive reinforcement as received in past. Eventually the animal learns this behaviour does not gains them any positive reinforcement and eventually fades away.

Here's another example of how an extinction burst works: This happens when a proven method of doing something that brings a desired response (i.e. stealing socks always elicits a chase from a human), all of a sudden stops working. The extinction burst is the part where the dog tries the proven method again and again, and hundred times stronger before they figure out that it just doesn't work anymore. Human equivalent: you're at the elevator. You pressed the button 10 seconds ago. This has always made the elevator come and pick you up. For some reason, there's no sign that the elevator's coming. You press it again. And again, and again and again, harder and harder, with more force (extinction burst!), until finally you just give up and use the stairs. If the original method doesn't work anymore, why use it?!

More on Extinction Burst: http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/archives/bursts.txt

Answer 3

The night crazies go away as the cats age - they're both young, so it sounds like they're having a ball. I think having two cats is much easier than having one - they enjoy each other's company. I had one cat for a while and he drove me nuts in a place that I wasn't allowed to have any animals (but we survived and now live "legally"). When I started grad school I had to get a second cat, my poor boy was so lonely - it helped a ton.
Is there a way you can keep them in a room overnight so your neighbors are not disturbed? If you don't have carpeting/area rugs, that can help muffle the noise..old sleeping bags??
Cats are nocturnal so that would be a hard habit to change..if you start tranquilizing then they may become overweight which isn't good either. Good luck :)

Answer 4

Go here for the best dog training couse http://dog-training-course.checkhere.info

Since it is obvious that you do not have a clue about obedience training, your services should be for free. You cannot train even an adult dog for 8 hours a day. About the most that can be done at any one time is 10 - 20 minutes and that is with an adult dog and not a puppy. The attention span on this baby is extremely short and training session should be no more than 10 minutes and twice a day. Additionally, there isn't going to be much learned if you will only be training for 5 days. Obedience training is cumulative and is done over a much longer period of at least several weeks to several months.
What you can charge is determined by your experience, reputation, and accomplishments and in a case like this, should also include guaranteed expectations. Just working with dogs over several years, is not the experience that is necessary to be a dog trainer. There are too many people who are putting that title to their name and fleecing the public. Don't be one of them.

Answer 5

Are you sure the kitten isn't the one who's starting things?
He's just a baby a full of energy.
What we always did was to make sure that we played with the "hyper" one for at least a half hour before we went to bed.
This seemed to tire her out and she'd sleep the night through.

I don't know if it'll work for you, but it's worth a shot.

Answer 6

Every night we have to put our cat in the office with her food, water and litter box, or she will come to wake us up at 3 or 4 in the morning to play. So we say to her every night. It's time for night night and she knows and runs in the office.
Now we get a good night sleep. Some cat will sleep all day and play all night.

Answer 7

Try keeping them awake a few hours before bedtime and play with them for around a 1/2 hour before bed if possible to make sure the're extra worn out.

Answer 8

try crating them at night...i do this with one of my hyper cats and she has been trained to sleep in a cat carrier at night and she even goes to the sleeping box at night when i tell her to go in ...its all a matter of training they will do it trust me and she sleeps through the whole night now and it is humane as well

Answer 9

if they are eating wetfood, mix about 2 or 4 tablespoons full of camomile tea (cold) as chamomile calms the nerves.

the above sugestion would be more intended for your kitten, give your older kitty a new toy or some katnip as to keep him awake, and make shure he sleeps later at night! :) hope this helps!

Answer 10

I give my cat CATNIP it relaxes him and sleeps after he eats it, you buy it at garden centres and you can plant it in the garden , and dry it out or you can buy it dry from pet stores