Preparing cats for a baby

[MargaretCavendish]

I'm 29 weeks pregnant and just looking for some advice about preparing our two very pampered adult male cats for a new arrival (our first)? It still seems a bit early to be thinking about it, but then it did take our older cat about three months to forgive us for buying a new sofa... He did, however, come to accept the younger cat quite quickly, which we're hoping is a good sign about his adaptability. The younger one is a less fussy character in general.

Anyway, I've read things about playing them crying noises, etc. - does anyone actually do this?! It feels a bit bonkers, but will obviously do it if it helps. The big question is when we start not allowing them upstairs at night - they're going to be very upset about this (they both sleep on our bed at the moment) and I'm reluctant to do it sooner than we have to, but also understand the logic of doing it early so they don't associate it with the new baby. Any thoughts on this? And any other tips? V gratefully received!

I have no advice but am following! 15 weeks pg with 2 pampered girl cats.

I read online that unlike dogs who need to be shown they're at the bottom of the "pack", cats will see the baby as a "people kitten" and so are extremely unlike to be aggressive, which is reassuring. Our neighbours have a baby and our cats do notice the crying - the other week I found Freya standing on the wall purring at my neighbour who was bouncing the crying baby outside. Neighbour didn't mind!

We are going to allow the cats to stay in the bedroom but get proper nets for the bedside crib (and the cot once baby moves into their own room) so they don't snuggle up in there with the baby. We'd rather try it that way and only banish them if we need to.

Hoping someone else comes along with some advice!

caoraich - When I looked into cat nets I didn't find any with convincing reviews, with people saying they just don't work well enough. Would you mind linking the one you've found?

Yeah I wouldn’t risk a car net.
We were in hospital for some weeks after the birth which meant I could send home clothes the babies had worn, for him to get used to the smell.
But if you go straight home I suppose you can’t do that ..
I never, ever left babies and cat in the same room as each other.

I asked my vet about this and he said that rather than the baby unsettling them it tends to be the amount of stuff and access to rooms changing. He suggested putting things into space the cats go into gradually before the baby arrives so we put a toy box in etc from about 20 something weeks. He also said don’t put anything where they like to sit and think about their routes around the house and try not to put anything in their way. He also said there’s a plug in that helps although we never used it
I planned to play crying etc but I ended up having my baby a few weeks early and they’ve been fine with her
The only problem we had was that when we tried to have her nap in the Moses basket in the lounge they wanted to climb in so we had to be a bit creative for a few weeks about where she slept but most people say their cats don’t go near their babies

I've never let my cats roam the house during the night - they stay in the kitchen with access to the cat flap, and have always seemed happy with that. If I were you, I'd start getting them used to new night-time arrangements asap because when you're up at 4am changing nappies and desperately trying to get a baby back to sleep you're not going to want to be negotiating cats as well, quite aside from the safety aspect of cats getting into the cot etc.

But in terms of acceptance of the baby, it's never been an issue. They've been mildly interested, but nothing more. It's when their waving furry tails are like a bloody magnet for a toddler that it becomes an issue.

We tried a Cat net and it didn't stay on and also if the cats jumped on top of it I could only work out that then the net and Cat would be on the baby. I’d think really carefully about still allowing the cats into the bedroom.
Also I never left the cats and the baby in the same room together until she was a good bit bigger and now she tries to chase them so again I don’t leave them together

I bought a cat net (one for a traditional silver cross pram) the cat has tried to to get in the pram with the baby a couple of times but she is much more interested in sleeping in the empty cot/Moses basket/ pram/bouncy chair.
The cat was a farm kitten and can be a bit scratchy but she has never scratched DS. We didn't bother playing crying noises or anything else to prepare her, she is very well fed and at night sleeps in the garage so only has the run of the house during the day. Everyone seems to panic when you say having a baby and got a cat but the cat hasn't been a problem in anyway.

We have two cats. When we brought our baby home DCat1 was completely fine. DCat2 was not. She would sneak up on the Moses basket and jump a mile when the baby moved/gurgled. She would growl at the baby. Try to sit on the baby while I was feeding. Once the baby became mobile it was fine.

NewShoes I'm planning to make one to fit the crib exactly out of high tensile nylon mesh and then put a zip in it for access. The cats' current travelling crate is a mesh one with zips and they definitely can't figure out how to open them!

When we lived in a malarial zone I did the same with mozzie nets as I hated the drapeyness of them over the beds (and the local critters tended to use them as hammocks) and they weren't too hard to make so I reckon it should be straightforward to make a mini one. Once it's done I can post a photo and the pattern if that helps

That's a good point about putting the furniture out all ready so they get used to it. What will be the nursery is currently a dumping ground that the cats never venture into so fingers crossed they're not too interested.

Has anyone found things like feliway helped when baby came home? We used it when we got the kitten and it did seem to help our older cat but not sure whether to bother with it again.