Any cat owners around?

[BettyTurnip]

We are on a list to get a Ragdoll kitten in late Jan/ early February, which seems ages away but I know will come round quickly, so I'm trying to think a few things through now. My main question at the moment is where did your cat sleep when it was a kitten/young cat?

I'd planned to have the cat's bed in the kitchen (with a litter tray when it's tiny then with a cat flap in the door to the utility room where a second litter tray will have been kept). However, I don't really like the thought of it climbing all over the surfaces when we're asleep. I was considering a crate type of affair but then is that cruel to coop it up? So should I let it have the run of the house?

Obviously, cats are nocturnal so may be out all night but Ragdolls are house cats...I'm just wondering whether the cat will be rampaging playing around in the house for hours when we're all in bed or do they tend to sleep a lot at night as well?

Help!!

[BettyTurnip]

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[EccentricaGallumbats]

get a book.
cats aren't nocturnal.
cats don't like being shut in boxes.
whatever expesive bed you buy it , it won't sleep in it. they do like cardboard boxes so one of those will do.
however much you try, it will walk over the kitchen surfaces and will climb on your bed. no point trying to stop it. you will get used to picking the hairs out of your dinner.
enjoy.

[BettyTurnip]

Sounds very enjoyable. Don't mind the kipping on our bed bit, but do mind hairs in my dinner

Any particular book you'd recommend?

[newspaperdelivery]

Any kitten we ever had slept with us or close to us. They especially like sleeping on your head or hair!

They are babies and need much company, especially when settling in.

They are nocturnal but will sleep plenty, up to 20 hours a day. So expect periods of rampage and lunacy followed by 2 hour naps. It's a great life!

Any cat I have had would go ballistic kept locked in a crate, and be utterly miserable. Remember cats essentially live with you, and may decide you are rubbish and move out at any stage. I don't know that this breed will feel any different.

Your cat will go everwhere and climb everthing, as it feels it has a given right to do so. If you are lucky it will decide on a certain area or chair for their own and spare your curtains. The last kittenns in our house tool to the pan cupboards and slept in the wok.

Am very

[newspaperdelivery]

Yes get a book. You are inviting a very important princess/prine to live with you. It will expect you to have made the required arrangements.

Imagine Liz Taylor meets Niomi Campbell, only more so.

[newspaperdelivery]

Mine is kind of nocturnal. In that he likes to go accross the road and sit in the man across the road's garden, just to annoy him. He does this about 11pm for half an hour then comes in and goes to sleep on the wardrobe till 6am.

Have had a look at ragdoll website - that cat will want to be with you all the time. They are a very friendly breed.

[msrisotto]

My family cats and my sisters cat have always given in to the cat bed at some point! You just redirect them.

[BettyTurnip]

newspaperdelivery.

I do like hearing about the eccentricities of cats and their odd sleeping places...very endearing (although don't think DH will see it like that when the cat chooses his head as its favoured place ).

I've been reading up on Ragdolls a lot, I decided on this breed as they're apparently almost dog like in terms of loyalty, affection and need for company, and are very good with children.

So if the kitten wants to sleep in your bedroom, do you have to have a litter tray in there?

What book shall I get?

[ParisFrog]

lol at inviting a princess/prince - so true!

Never bothered buying a cat bed for my cat, just as well as she has favourite "spots" to sleep (under a bed, on a chair, on a magazine, on a different chair, in the middle of the floor, on a stair so you don't see her in the night and tread on her) which she rotates regularly.

If the cat never goes out you may escape the "it's 4am and getting light so I MUST go outside NOW" miaow which is VERY insistent. We used to let the cat have the run of the house and were rarely woken up (luckily she doesn't like sleeping on our beds if we are in them), but now she is old and gets shut up in two rooms with a joining door.

Your cat may not climb all over the surfaces - mine never did. We could safely leave food out and she would never touch it (my DB's cats were the total opposite - a nightmare!). To be on the safe side, maybe don't shut it in the kitchen.

Agree with PP who said that the first nights you can't leave the poor kitten on its own, or it will cry for its mother (no joke)

[wheresmypaddle]

My two would turn their noses up at any sleeping area that I deliberatley created for them no matter how wonderful.

They would be petrified if I shut them in any type of cage and I think would up-sticks and leave home. Their natural instincts would make them freak out if they felt trapped- they are free spirits.

They sleep a lot- usually anywhere warm and cosy. They like small (but NOT totally enclosed) spaces that they can curl up in- boxes, corners, washing basket (!). They are drawn towards anything freshly washed (grrrr).

As kittens they loved a shoe box to curl up in ('naturally' placed and left to discover it themselves).

I use small lightweight easily washed throws in a soft fabric that they love and put them in key places (back of sofa, foot of bed) and wash them frequently.

Brushing cuts down on stray hairs.

They tend to leave the kitchen surfaces alone (when I am looking that is) but I spray them each morning with anti-bac just in case as DS is still little. I have heard that cats hate to tread on tin foil so some pieces strategically placed on worktops may discourage your cat from going up there.

[ParisFrog]

Definately have a litter tray! (else the consequences will be on your head! lol)

Also get a covered litter tray - so much nicer!

And be prepared to be woken up to scrapping noises in the night.....

[BettyTurnip]

Loads of helpful stuff thanks, please keep it coming.

I've been wandering round Pets At Home looking at all the snuggly cat beds, realise now it's probably a complete waste of time and it'll just sleep on the ironing pile! It's just that same feeling when you're pregnant with your first baby and you can't stop looking at stuff.

I will have tin foil on the kitchen benches every night until it's trained (as much as you can train a cat)

[TeeteringOnTheEdge]

You don't train a cat. Your cat trains you.

[Lovemyshoes]

I've not read the replies, but, I am so that you are getting a ragdoll.

I have to admit that I am a complete and utter wuss and treat all my cats like babies, even more so when we first got them. Mine used to sleep in a cat igloo at the side of my bed for the first few weeks.

Now they are adult, one sleeps either under our bed on a cushion, in the bath or in the sink, one sleeps between my ankles or on my pillow and the other sleeps either on the window sill, sofa or outside our bedroom door.

When my youngest was a baby he would cry until I let him go to sleep nestled under my chin

[Lovemyshoes]

P.s.. We trained ours to stop going on worktops etc by squirting them with water. They soon stopped.

[TeeteringOnTheEdge]

(Just watched 8 year old cat climb in kitchen window and wander across kitchen counter - it's a never ending battle). I have shouted at the cat for 8 years, tried tin foil, vaseline, orange peel.. As I said, you don't tell cats anything..

Off to get the bleach. Sigh..

[DailyMailNameChanger]

Not much to add to the brilliant advice here but I just wanted to say that not all ragdolls turn out quite as cute and floopy as you would expect. I know of plenty who hunt and one who would regularly bring in adult rabbits from a nights killing spree.

I would save making too many assumptions about the cat until it has fully formed its character if possible, they do come in feisty variety too!

[BettyTurnip]

Lovemyshoes - they are gorgeous aren't they (gorgeous price as well !).

DH not a cat person it has to said, so don't know how he'll react to sharing a bed with a kitten all night, not to mention a poop tray in the same room as well.

[TeeteringOnTheEdge]

Also, if you have pot plants - put tin foil over the soil or you will wonder where the smell is coming from, and why the plants are looking so sad.

[OrmIrian]

Mine slept in the bottom bit of a doll's bunk when she was kitten. Then when she big enough to climb up she slept on various peoples' beds - usually wrapped round their heads if at all possible.

They like to be up in things if then can so they get a good view and feel safe but work tops aren't really that special for them - prefer window sills. IME cats only tend to go on worktops if there is food there so keep the cat out of the kitchen if you are cooking.

[DailyMailNameChanger]

Not much to add to the brilliant advice here but I just wanted to say that not all ragdolls turn out quite as cute and floopy as you would expect. I know of plenty who hunt and one who would regularly bring in adult rabbits from a nights killing spree.

I would save making too many assumptions about the cat until it has fully formed its character if possible, they do come in feisty variety too!

[DailyMailNameChanger]

It would appear that I just wanted to say it twice

Sorry!

[newspaperdelivery]

They love sleeping on heads and pillows don't they? Lovely things.

this is the book I got as a child when I got my first cat. It really helps you 'get' cats.

It is a bummer when they bring lovely garden birds [still twitching in our experience]. We try to remember it is an act of love and offering. Whilst retching.

Def get a covered litter tray, Argos did one with a charcoal filter which is a blessing.

[babyicebean]

Does anyone have any idea how I can teach my stupid cat about glass.Yet again I have just heard the thud as he hurls himself after things in the back garden.It would be understandable if it was the patio door but he prefers to attempt to get out through the window.Usually when it is shut.

I have tried the pushing the head/feet/bottom against the glass but after 2 years he is still attempting to get through.

Will he ever work it out?

[ParisFrog]

Also, you don't train cats but they do know when they're doing something they're not supposed to - and have a special guilty look about them (when doing it anyway).

We managed to stop ours going on the table, simply by removing her every single time she got up there. Now she just sits neatly on a chair.

We also shout at our cat if she scratches the furniture (which is very rare). So now she has "learnt" that if she wants us to open a door she scratches the furniture because it gets her an instant reaction! lol