a nawtee lexie...need some suggestions plse...

[carole]

For a couple of weeks now Lexie has been behaving very nawtee, and I am at the end of my tether.

All my cat's are indoors at night time's and it is not an easy task, they are not so keen on the idea, but i will not have it any other way, Lexie has been kept in since i have had her, so she is used to it, but for some reason she is playing up right now,she wakes us at around 5am every morning, with her wailing miaow,we do our best to ignore her, then she decides to go under the bed and proceed to claw herself all the way around it, and every now and then she will jump madly on the edge of the bed, so you know you have to be in a crouched up position so you don't get your feet clawed,then when that does not work she finds anything she can in the bedroom and knocks it down.

Now you are probably thinking why don't i just let her out of the bedroom to downstairs,well we have another problem, Lexie is a smart kitty and has worked out how to open the cat door, i have had to put a piece of cardboard across it and another heavy thing against it, but she still gets in between the cardboard, she has worked out how to open the little latches on each side and pull the cat door towards her, i know this because she got out one morning, much to my suprise.

I am getting exhausted from the lack of sleep,sleep not being something that comes by me easily, I do however rise at 6am every day, but i really need that extra hour to function throughout the day, and hubby has to go to work and is not so happy about her behaviour either.

Sometimes during the day she will go upstairs and just start clawing all around the bed as well, so you can imagine my bed is getting ruined, but that i can handle, she is my most destructive cat having ruined the net curtains and wall paper already,not to mention an expensive pair of velvet curtains.

I have tried playing with her at nights to wear her out before bedtime, but nine times out of ten she just is not into it, and honestly i also am feeling a tad too tired by then.

Anyone got any suggestions? and don't worry i love my little princess to bits, but she is making her mummy a tad bit tired and grumpy.

I should add this is just a want lexie has to get outdoors, she has two litter boxes at her disposal, and use's them,so that is not the problem.

And just to top it off last night out of the blue, ellie who sleeps downstairs, decides to sit at the top of the stairs outside our bedroom miaowing and clawing at the door, she never comes upstairs to sleep,we ignored her and she went back downstairs and to sleep, what is with these cats, i mean it is coming into winter here and the weather is cooler, which means they usually are more happy being inside in the warmth. :(looking on the more positive side of things, while she is running around like a mad cat, at least she must be healthy,alway's a welcoming sign, lol ;)

[AbbyMom]

Carole, this sounds like my nawtee RB boy, Fritz. Only he did this type of thing mainly to get FOOD.

Does Lexie have food in your bedroom? Or does she have to get out to get fed?

[carole]

Now that indeed is a thought, no i have to let her out and fed her, i don't let them eat as they wish, i monitor it and she has to have a special diet, so i cannot let the other kitties eat her's although it does happen and vice versa from time to time, as you can appreciate cannot monitor them 24/7 and they do leave some on their plates sometimes, i graze feed them daily, little bit at a time, yes she may indeed just want feeding, but usually it appears she just want's outside, but i think i might just leave a little in her plate upstairs from now on and see how that works for me, thank you for the idea. :)feel a bit silly not even thinking of that, but i just assumed she wanted outside, as that is how she acts, duh. :)

[catmandu]

I know what thats like as Miquelito can be a Bully Cat sometimes , and will chase Poucierge around grabbing her by the back of the neck. I wish I could tell you what to do about Lexie, but once a Cat gets something in thier mind, sometimes you cant get them to stop.
Especially when they MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOW, I know what that can to your nerves!!!

[Freedom]

For a couple of weeks now Lexie has been

So this is something NEW. Any ideas what caused the change in behaviour? Do you change clocks there twice per year as we do, for Daylight Savings time or some such?

How old is she? As my cats age I find they need to eat more / more often (and sometimes BOTH) so maybe it is food she wants as some already suggested. She can't go the entire night any more as she gets older, perhaps?

Has something else changed? Added or lost a pet or a family member / someone left for college? Just a few thoughts.

If you are going to have food in your bedroom, what about water and litter box??? Having one and not the others . . . . You don't want to create another issue, lol!

Hope you hit on something which works.

[rg_girlca]

Freedom has some good points there.

I just wanted to add that I hope by adding some food for her during the night will help her settle down so you can get your sleep.

I know all to well what it's like not to get enough sleep. I'm lucky if I can get a straight 5 hours in.

[AbbyMom]

Carole, since Fritz would go on a rampage between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m., I learned to feed him at that time and go back to bed. It sounds awful, but I did get more sleep and after a while, I didn't think much of it.

Frankly, a lot of the damage was reduced. What a nawtee boy he was. I miss him.

After eating, he would come back to bed and cuddle.

Since Lexie needs separate food, you might consider it. But warning! Once you start, YOU CANNOT STOP!!!



:-)

[carole]

Now to answer a few questions, yes we have just changed the clocks back around two weeks ago,so there may well be something in that,so i guess when she is waking us up at five am,that was the old 6 am, she does not do it everynight, just most nights, and it was not as soon as daylight saving ended, but you may well have a good point there,nothing else has changed,no new pets, people etc.

She is always a hungry girl,but she is too fat, she is really the heaviest of all my cats apart from Ash, but he is a big cat and he is just fine now, as i have been diligent in getting his weight down, so i don't want to be feeding her any extra, i think i will just make sure there is a little left when we all head off to bed, and if she eats that in the room, fine, if not there will be some left for the morning, that way she may not wake up so early hungry, if that indeed is the issue.

Don't worry she has a litter box and of course water.

Thanks for the ideas, will let you know how it goes, i will try the new regime tonight,wish me luck.

[Emeraldgreen]

If for some reason the extra bit of food doesn't help (though I suspect it will :) ) I was going to suggest that you block the cat door from the outside. Maybe keep a rubbermaid container or cardboard box with something heavy in it and push it up against the door so a certain naughty 'somebody' can't get through it (providing of course that you have another door that you can use to get back into your house!)
And then maybe she and Ellie can be naughty together and hopefully keep you out of it. :D

[carole]

Ok well we went to bed at 10.30pm and Lexie came too of course, this time i gave her some food, really it was a bit extra, not that this little tubby girl needs an extra, she chomped it up eagerly and then went to sleep,i guess about 5.30 am she went and used her litter box, i swear she was digging to china, it went on and on and on, then she did her wailing miaow, only one this time, then she proceeded to claw all around under the bed,then she decided to sit on the bed and settle again, by this time i was almost ready to get up, so i did at 5.45am,she was not quite as bad as usual, but then she does have the odd night where she is good, i honestly think she just want's outside.

Now the issue with the cat door, is this, my husband and I have different views regarding this, he wanted to build something we could put across it at night time so they could not break it or escape as lexie has done, must add none of the other cats have been that smart and worked it out,but i was against it, because if there were a fire they would be completely trapped, at least the way it is they may actually figure it out and get out if they needed to, i guess i am a bit paranoid about there being a fire and my furbabies being trapped, so i am not sure this is the answer for me,even if it is the solution, i am not sure i would be at ease with it,still we may have to look at that option yet i guess,thank you all for your input and time to come by and post. Cheers. :)

[Emeraldgreen]

Hmmm, this is a tough one! That is an excellent thought about the cats being able to escape if there was ever a fire. You've got me thinking now and that is a good idea. We're moving in the near future and I'm going to keep this in mind for our next house.
Sounds like you're almost back to your normal 6:00 a.m. routine with her now getting frisky at 5:30 instead of at 5:00. Maybe you could go to bed half an hour later for a week so she sleeps a bit longer in the a.m.
Of course that doesn't solve your lack of sleep problem, you'd still be losing half an hour but at the beginning instead of the end. I was just thinking that if she fell asleep a bit later, she'd hopefully sleep until 6:00. :)

[carole]

I am still not sure the cats could really escape if there was a fire, probably lexie would, but then she is upstairs with us, all kinda of scarey just thinking about it, the only thing i have against keeping them in ,but then i think the risks of a fire are pretty low in comparison to anything else really, i would dearly love to beable to stay up half an hour later, but honestly i am hard pushed to even stay up to 10.30. my lack of sleep is due to a sleep disorder, i don't get great quality sleep, so what little i get it must be good,we will keep at it,hopefully she will settle down again like she used to,but she sure is trying my patience lol. :)