How to get cat to settle for the night

[bunhead34]

I've had my cat 4 years and she has always been shut in the living room at night - we have tried numerous times to just let her roam free/sleep on the bed etc but she is a nuisance ALL night - walking all over our heads, investigating the bedside tables repeatedly, and pawing me in the face for food! She only goes to sleep when the birds start singing 😭 I tried to train her, spraying her with water when she bothered us etc but it didn't work!
Anyway the living room has worked well
Until now. But we moved at end jan and she is just not settling, she has been in the kitchen at night because we didn't have a door on the living room for a while. She is okay most of the night but starts crying and scratching REALLY LOUD anytime between 4 and 6. I moved her to the living room for a while but it was even worse (I thought she would be more comfortable there plus is used to the sofa etc from
The old house), so now she is back in the kitchen. She has a bed in there but she's not a cat who loves squishy things and I know she goes under the kitchen unit to sleep - it makes me feel so Sad for her!
I'm due a baby anyday and don't know how this is going to work with a sleepless baby and a sleepless cat 🙈 I thought she would be okay by now, we have moved before and it wasn't so bad.
Any suggestions please?

What kind of bed does she have? Our cats prefer to either sleep on me (yes, on me!) or in some kind of box so they feel safe. One of them sleeps in a storage bin with a lid on it and a blanket inside If she's sleeping under a unit she may feel safer in a more enclosed type of bed.

Does she get much interaction and playtime / stimulation during the day?

Does she have access to food, water and a litter tray overnight?

She has like a normal cat bed with 4 edges and an entrance in the front (with the bottom padding removed because she hates comfy things apparently!) this one is under the bed and she sleeps there in the daytime. (She won't use the bed if we move it anywhere else).
She loves a box so I always have box options wherever she is sleeping at night, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't use them. and she always has access to litter food and water wherever she is sleeping.
She normally has some playtime in the evening when she comes Downstairs. And we let her outside a bit but she is very timid and doesn't go far!

I bought her a lovely wicker enclosed basket/bed and she never used it once!

She sounds quite an anxious cat, is that right? In which case have you tried feliway at night?

I wonder whats triggering her to demand attention between 4 and 6 am...Do you feeder breakfast when you get up (of a different type of food than what you're leaving overnight)? In which case, try a timer bowl in the kitchen with an early breakfast.

Perhaps also the temperature changes around this time- is the house colder bc residual heat has dissipated by then? Or does your heating come on then?

She is an anxious little thing, she always
Has been. We have tried feliway But don't notice any difference. I think there is a stronger one now tho, maybe I will try that!

I give her breakfast when I go to let her out.
We have tried a food timer, with one portion at 4ish and one a bit later but it doesn't change anything and she still wants more when I let her out!

The house is generally quite warm, the heating is mostly off at the moment so
I don't think it's that.

You can also get feliway sprays so maybe a diffuser plus sprays may help?

I'm otherwise a bit stumped for suggestions to help her settle but I'll have a think. What does she want at that time in the morning, do you know?

Yes maybe I can up the feliway, I could
Try 2 in one room maybe!
Thanks anyway!
Usually when I open the door she does some meows and gets some
Pets then I feed her and she comes
Back upstairs to the bedroom with me
And either sleeps on the bed or under the bed.

Try pet remedy, I found it more effective than feliway. And it's cheaper.

She sounds like my cat. I just give in. I’ve not had a night’s sleep in 10 years. Love love love him though. But I know what you mean.

@Toddlerteaplease thanks I'll have a look, I've not heard of that one!

@Cissyandflora oh no 🙈 I hoped I'd at least get some sleep when she's an old lady!

Any chance she's needing the loo between 4am and 6am? If she doesn't have a litter tray to use during the night, she might be struggling to hold her bladder? Our cats are exclusive litter-tray users (although allowed to roam outside during the day while being shut in at night) and they seem to produce most of their, erm, waste during the night.

Also for an anxious cat, there's been a recent house move AND she will know that even bigger change is coming in the form of the new baby. They are very perceptive little beasts. Obviously you can't just give in and let her in the bedroom at night once there's a baby in there with you, but what happens if you give her the run of the house but close the bedroom door?

I have two cats, one is an angel and sleeps peacefully in the lounge all night and even if she comes to see me in morning she is super quiet - I just open my eyes and she's there looking lovingly at me.

The other is an absolute bastard who climbs all over the bed and pillows and me at any time of the night he feels like it. Sleeps on my feet so I can't move and wake up stiff and sore. Yells loudly in my face any time from 5.30am onwards. Confident that, if I shut the bedroom door at night, he would just howl and scratch to be let in. (He does that when I'm in the bathroom...) So after years and years of disturbed nights due to being blessed with a child who didn't sleep more than an hour in a row for several years, I am now disturbed nightly by a fecking cat.

Still love him to bits, though.

@BlibBlabBlob she has litter tray access at night!

I'm not sure she has any idea this baby is coming - she's in for a shock 🙈

If we give her run of the house but close
The bedroom door she just scratches and meows at the door! At least if she's downstairs we can't hear her so much!
I just can't understand why she's such a pain in the arse at night but good as good all other times!

Then I'm all out of ideas, sorry... apparently you have the same sort of cat as me (the bastarding boy rather than the angelic girl). Condolences!

One last idea: shut her as far away from the bedroom as possible at night, and wear earplugs to sleep? ;-)

Oh and the reason is that she loves you (well, as much as any cat actually loves their human servant) and wants to be near you all night. While totally failing to understand that disturbing your sleep is problematic for you!

4am is naturally a very active time for a cat.

Things I have done are:

Give up and let them have the run of the house as it is quieter than yelling and them ruining the carpet
Grain-free food as fuller for longer and more chilled out
Wearing out with playtime
Total ignoring at night - after about 2 years the message got through

Cats are crepuscular which means they're active at dawn/dusk - 4am is wake-up time!

Mine are all shut downstairs at night with free-run of the whole of the ground floor. They have litter trays, water and free-access to food as well.

s well as feeding her when you wake up, I would make sure she has access to a bowl of dry food as well - cats are active early doors and will naturally want to eat something.

@sunflowersandbuttercups

Cats are crepuscular which means they're active at dawn/dusk - 4am is wake-up time!

Mine are all shut downstairs at night with free-run of the whole of the ground floor. They have litter trays, water and free-access to food as well.

s well as feeding her when you wake up, I would make sure she has access to a bowl of dry food as well - cats are active early doors and will naturally want to eat something.

I like this post very much. No like button but would if I could. It explains so much about my little baby. He bites my ears at dawn.

Cats can be great company during the night feeds.

I think she wants to be near you, not alone; however, she is more likely to be less anxious if she can't see out at night; one of mine was like that until I made sure he couldn't see out the back door or kitchen window and now he just sleeps instead because he doesn't have to be on guard for foxes, mice or other cats coming into the back garden. She might also appreciate some more enclosed spaces to sleep, including ones higher up, so she doesn't feel as vulnerable.

She'll also need somewhere to hide when the baby comes home - one of mine, who became a self appointed unofficial babysitter in her eyes for the next fourteen years, needed 3 days in the back of the wardrobe after the new Thing was brought home.

Thought I'd do a little update - since the baby arrived dcat has been good as gold!
We don't have to lock her away at night, she just does her thing and sleeps on the bottom of the bed!
She has zero interest in the baby and has only been within 2m sniffing distance!

@bunhead34

I bought her a lovely wicker enclosed basket/bed and she never used it once!

Store it somewhere and tell her it's being thrown away. That's what I did and it suddenly became their favourite bed.