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Parenting

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Original poster

Our cat won't sleep through the night....

45 replies

Reallytired · 15/02/2008 14:06

L the cat will not sleep through the night. I could understand it when she was a kitten, but she is nearly 3 YEARS OLD ffg. The cheeky moggy demands milk at four in the morning. We have tried offering cooled boiled water but she won't take it. My husband thinks we should put her out the house at night.

I have thought about using controlled yowling, but I am scared it will damage her pschyologically. William Sears, Gina Ford Christopher Green or our health visitor does not have any practical solutions.

L won't tolerate being in a sling. We tried the co sleeping but got bitten by fleas. L is refusing to sleep in a cot. She prefers sleeping on top of the washing machine.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

cestlavie · 15/02/2008 14:14

It's very difficult isn't it? We often pushed ours to sleep in the buggy but we had to stop because of the strange looks we got from the neighbours. People can be so bloody cruel. For a while we ended up driving her to sleep but after an incident involving a badly strapped down cat, a wasp, a lorry and multiple lacerations (ours not hers) we had to stop - besides the car basket was frankly getting too small for her. Have you tried using catnip? That helped us a lot.

needahand · 15/02/2008 14:16

...and you have posted this in "Parenting"?

magHOOVERlia74 · 15/02/2008 14:17

For the 1st time on mumsnet I have nearly pissed myself laughing!

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Cats General parenting

NAB3wishesfor2008 · 15/02/2008 14:18

What about getting her a moses basket or a box? Cats like boxes ime.

MotherFunk · 15/02/2008 14:18

Message withdrawn

NaughtyNigel · 15/02/2008 14:19

Our DC(at) appears to be psychic. Wakes every morning exactly 20 minutes before the alarm clock goes off (no matter what time it is set for) and yowls pitifully. Tried rocking, singing, ignoring to no avail. If you want to be a better (cat) mother you just have to listen to her. All your actions will come back to haunt you and when she's a teenager she will blame you for everything anyway.

dandycandyjellybean · 15/02/2008 14:25

I have 2 cats (14 yrs) and (finally) one ds (2.3). Have always said the amount of 4am feeds i had to do I might as well have had a gaggle of kids! Can sympathise. No amount of ignoring, shouting or kicking off the bed ever worked. Have you tried throwing shoes?

preggersagain · 15/02/2008 14:25

have you tried medised? works a treat on our moggies, also maybe a specially commisioned grobag?

pmsl

chocfest · 15/02/2008 14:27

PMSL -hiliarious thread, but sorry to say my cat is 14 and still wont sleep thru!! I often find myself opening a gourmet dinner for senior cats at 3am!!

dandycandyjellybean · 15/02/2008 14:29

Had to starve both of mine once pre-op boy was that a night to remember! The yowling woke the neighbours...and that was just me...

AdamRomANTic · 15/02/2008 14:31

You need to go Clare Verity on her hairy arse. Stick her in the garden for four hours.

Maybe stick a bit of rice pudding in with her evening milk?

lottymadbird · 15/02/2008 14:31

try catpol, sorry calpol !

chocfest · 15/02/2008 14:33

catapault up the rusty bullet hole may help!

Original poster

Reallytired · 15/02/2008 14:35

I have thought about the catnip, but the man in the pet shop looked at me strangely when I asked if it was organically farmed.

My husband asked whether its for us or the cat. My dh wants to know if we are meant to smoke the catnip.

I thought that L might benefit from skin to skin contract, but I got scratched. She is quite happy to sit on my lap though.

We have been trying to eliminate certain foods from L's diet. But its so difficult, she turned up her nose at the beautifully prepred homemade vegeterian tofu based cat food and brought in a dead sparrow.

At the moment I am feeling really guilty. I am sure that if I had breastfed her she would not be quite as aggressive towards the local wildlife. I am wondering if this is developmentally normal, has L got special needs? Is L gifted and talented?

OP posts:

AdamRomANTic · 15/02/2008 14:42

Oh dear. I suspect L is a PFC, isn't she?

Bringing in sparrow's is really nothing special. My DC(at)s killed a pheasant when they were only 2 years old. And their gun-handling was entirely self-taught .

cestlavie · 15/02/2008 14:47

Organic catnip is difficult to track down but worth it - the pesticides they use on mass produced catnip is shocking. A friend recommended a wonderful website called catnipfreaks.com which is worth looking at.

We tried smoking the catnip but nothing happened. One night, out of our heads with tiredness we tried smoking the cat, but she ran away before we could strap the rizlas around her.

Don't beat yourself up about breastfeeding. It's terribly hard to do and the little buggers often end up at their bowls drinking (I'm ashamed to say) tap water just half an hour later so it's not really worth the effort. Maybe if we'd persisted longer then she would have been gifted and talented, but as it is she seems content to spend ours licking her own arse so I'm not sure we'd onto a winner whatever we'd done.

NaughtyNigel · 15/02/2008 14:49

well - I found an almost whole yet still alive partridge under the kichen table last week.
Dos that make my DC (at) gifted or talented or both?
(and yes it was organic) (or from waitrose)

NaughtyNigel · 15/02/2008 14:50

and i'm still breastfeeding her (she's 7) and i'm doing it for her - not me!

PuppyMonkey · 15/02/2008 14:51

Cold turkey. It's the only method that works imo.

Or a nice bit of cold chicken. Or tuna.

magHOOVERlia74 · 15/02/2008 15:19

"One night, out of our heads with tiredness we tried smoking the cat, but she ran away before we could strap the rizlas around her."

Ok now thats twice Ive nearly pissed myself

chocfest · 15/02/2008 15:55

Yeah but does that mean you shove the filter up its arse? OMG can you imagine inhaling that!!!!!!!!!!!

Habbibu · 15/02/2008 16:00

For true skin to skin contact I think you'd have to shave the cat. i suspect the trauma might outweigh the benefits.

Habbibu · 15/02/2008 16:01

My cat was far too posh for raw sparrow and pheasant. She once brought in half a joint of roast beef, followed by cooked sausages and some cheese. At that point we took her identity tag off...

Snippety · 15/02/2008 16:12

Ach !! I thought this was a serious thread and couldn't believe my luck !!

I HATE my husband's 14 year old cat. She hates me back. She's really jealous of him and won't let anyone else touch her. She regularly vomits on the carpet (and once in our bed) and scatters litter all over the floor even though she has a litter box with a little house on it.

She hisses at me and DS and has begun stalking him since he's been able to sit up unassisted. He, naturally, reaches out for her and I can tell there'll be a disaster one day. In laws who are "cat people" say "well he'll get scratched badly once and learn not to touch her" but I don't want that to happen. I try to watch them both like a hawk but she hides out and then rushes him. Moreover every surface is covered in her disgusting hair - yeuch!!

And, as in the OP, she waits till we're in bed and then stands in the living room howling at the top of her voice until DH goes and gets her and puts her to sleep on his feet. I've told him this is against co-sleeping advice but to no avail. On the weekend mornings she also wakes us at 5.30 which is when DH normally gets up despite being left food in an automatic feeder.

She's fat, greedy, smelly, cantankerous and messy. I HATE her !!! DH worships the ground she walks on and always takes her side because she's been there longer than me ! "She's only a little cat" he says - yes, until you leave the house when she turns into a hateful she-devil !!!

Phew - rant over - I needed that.

cestlavie · 15/02/2008 16:16

Mmmm, I guess I'm lucky that mine's not into her teens yet... that's a whole new Pandora's box of feline dilemmas.

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