Kitten waking up the whole house!

[MarmMummy]

Our ragdoll is 4.5 months old and is still far too crazy in the evenings (pouncing on toes, biting etc) to let her roam free around the house as she stops the children going to sleep. So from about 8pm she is kept downstairs. The trouble is that she then starts miaowing really loudly from 5am onwards, waking up the two DC (and probably the neighbours too as we can hear her three floors up)
Any suggestions? We have a tired house this morning!

What do you do when she miaows?

Best thing is to completely ignore it otherwise you are reinforcing the behaviour.

How long have you had her? 18 weeks is still a baby and I'm guessing she's not been with you long (most beeeders keep kittens until 16 weeks as they are still weaning and learning from mum) so is probably lonely.

She needs tiring out before bed - get a fishing rod toy and have her running and pouncing until she's tired and panting. She will calm down in time, she's still young.

I forget who it was but there was someone on here who bought a cat feeder on a timer and set it every night for the early morning, which I thought was a bit of a genius idea. It does mean she'll get used to being fed at 5am, but maybe that's preferable to the yelling?

Alternatively yes, ignore- but she's still young so it might be more about attention than breakfast.

Is it an option to bring her in with you when she starts shouting? Does that calm her down? Though does reinforce the 'shouting gets me what I want' idea....

Do you play with her to wear her out?

We've had her since 10 weeks actually, but this is a fairly recent thing. She's always been wilder in the evenings and we play lots with her during this time, she loves all the dangly toys on sticks and chasing ping pong balls around so I think she's theoretically tired enough
She's always been vocal, and I think it's because she wants to be with us, rather than hunger, as there is always dry food out for her...
Sometimes we ignore her, if we get her she leaps around like a lunatic. Hilarious during the day, but less amusing at 5.30am....

Has she been spayed yet?.

I'd ignore her, she has to learn that it doesn't work. Plus in the summer it's light from 4:30 & you don't want her still doing it then.

If she's been separated at 10 weeks then it may be loneliness or anxiety as kittens can still be quite dependant on their mum at that age (the breeders I know, most kittens are still suckling up to 14 weeks for comfort and bonding). hopefully she will grow out of it fine - most do.

Definitely tire her out, feed her a meal just before bed and ignore the behaviour if it does happen. The more you acknowledge it now the harder it will be to break.