Kittens and night-time

[LaLoose]

Hello. We have two kittens, three months old. I think you have to 'train' kittens to sleep at night, just like you do babies. Please tell me if that's wrong! At the moment they are only allowed to roam the house freely at night on a non-school (ie Friday and Saturday) night. I am doing the usual disciplining when they jump on my feet: a firm 'no'; water spray etc etc and am happy to bide my time while they learn. However, not-so-DH is going barking mad about it and being very unreasonable. Any tips for getting the kittens to 'understand' not to have happy hour in the early hours? Thanks.

Tire them out lots with games and toys before bed-time. Mine go mental for the Flying Frenzy.

I personally don't agree with water spraying.

Thanks so much for that.

Our kitten, who is now 6 months old, has always slept in the kitchen with the door shut at night. He has food, water, a litter box and a comfy bed by the radiator. He has always slept their happily and never wakes us up. On weekends we get up to feed him then he comes upstairs for a snuggle in our bed. He seems happy with this and is always pleased to see us when we go down to him in the mornings - Tail up, lots of leg rubbing and fuss. Think he sleeps soundly for the duration because he has the place to himself and enjoys the piece and quite after a busy day of comings and goings. You have 2 so they'd probably be even happier snuggled up together.

Pouncing on feet etc is just play, a big part of cats brain is used for detecting movement so they can hunt, so I'd subsitute a toy to pounce on rather than disciplining.

I'd lock them in a room with their tray, water, beds, food & toys and let them get on with it.

I think life's just too exciting for kittens to sleep all night. Games involving chasing toys/string up and down stairs is very tiring for them.

I have an eight month old Ragdoll. We never have problems at night, he sleeps on the end of our bed. I think the trick is to really tire a kitten out. Our kitten has a big play early evening with the flying frenzy and another big play 11pm. He then sleeps through each night.

This sounds par for the course with kittens! Mine used to go absolutely berserk for a couple of hours around 11pm at that age. Try playing with them with a flying frenzy-type toy or a laser pointer, to distract them from jumping on your feet. And try not to do anything to encourage them to play-fight with your feet or hands as they will end up pouncing on you forevermore. Personally I wouldn't use a water spray at any age but particularly not for very young kittens. They will become calmer soon - I remember 12 weeks as being particularly trying (launching himself off the sofa at my legs/lower body with all claws extended - ouch!)

We leave the light on for ours at night. They sleep in the utility room. They sleep all night. On the odd occasion when we have forgotten and left them in the dark they have rampaged around, rummaged in the recycling, knocked things off the shelves and on one memorable occasion turned on the hot tap and drained all the hot water just before we had showers in the morning

Um they are cats, they do as they please.

That's interesting WitchWay, that leaving the light on soothes them, unlike humans. I suppose because they're crepuscular, so that causes their brains to become more active with less light?

That's what I think and it seems to work!

Ah the joy of Siamese. Just show them the bed and stand out of the way to avoid the stampede.