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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

The cat is affecting my sleep every single night

6 replies

ImFree2doasiwant · 14/12/2020 06:05

Dcat is lovely, I love her very much. I hand reared her from bring tiny (3weeks ish). When exH lived here she had some annoying habits, as she'd basically trained him. In the 3 yrs since he left she's stooped doing all those things.

We have a cat flap, which she prefers as doesn't like a litter tray . Rural location. Ue to her constantly bringung in live creatures and releaseing them into the house, it is lovjed so she can go out but not in. She was in the habit of going out eary morning (5ish) Then coming in when i get up 6/6.30.

She's now worked out ow to grab the flap from the outside, and pull it open. Cleve, but takes a few, sone times 20, attempts. The clap crashes back down each time. Then, she comes into the bedroom and starts scratching at things. These things all wake me up. I struggle to sleep at the best of times but the 2 - 6am was when I slept best. Now, she's in and out and honestly, I'm struggling to cope with it.

If I shut the door to the stairs I can still hear it, and it means she gets shut downstairs and scratches loudly at the carpet. If I lock the flap so she cant go out she'll do the same, or if the door is open come up and wake me.

Any suggestions? Please don't say "Oh she's a cat, it's what they do" this is REALLY starting to affect my mental health.

Getting up to go down and let her in won't solve the problem .

OP posts:
felttree · 14/12/2020 06:10

Invest in a better cat flap.

There are digital ones now you can even set up on your phone.

Close the kitchen door and temporarily sellotape some foil to the exposed bit of carpet to deter her from scratching.

Put down an overnight litter tray each evening.

Buy earplugs too.

ImFree2doasiwant · 14/12/2020 06:17

I did the foil thing when ExH was here, she just batters the crap out of it.

She won't use a tray, will just try to get me to let her out.

I will look at cat flaps. The old one we had was much better tbh , I 'll try and find one.

OP posts:
ChloeCrocodile · 14/12/2020 06:22

Can you put a mat in front of the door so she has something to scratch with it’s okay to destroy? Maybe a doormat?

You have my sympathy - I never let my cats in my bedroom because they’d keep me awake and I couldn’t cope with that.

letsgomaths · 14/12/2020 06:34

I've had this problem too: it seems to be more of a problem when the cats are older.

I've shut my cats in the room where the cat flap is, taping down the carpet to stop the pulling it up, and I'd agree with trying the doormat, and a quieter cat flap if you can find one.

KiKiDeluxe · 14/12/2020 06:46

I had a cat flap installed in the utility room which has a back door to the garden. The cats are shut in there overnight, tempted in with Gocat, and they have their beds in there too. They can come and go as they please and it's only the utility that gets their muddy paws and dead mouse parts, bleurgh! They have free rein of the house during the day.

It sounds like you have a nocturnal cat. You need to find a way of securing the room that the cat flap is in at nights and put her in there to let her come and go as she pleases. You will have to ignore her pleas at night - she should stop doing that after a while

ImFree2doasiwant · 14/12/2020 07:42

Cat flaps in the kitchen, which is tiny.

She scratches the carpet at the bottom of the stairs, to try and get the floor open.

I just wish she'd bloody behave, she loves sleeping on the dc beds, and they love her.

M going to try and get a different cat flap that she can't force open.

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