annoying kitten

Question
What can we do about our 8-month-old kitten, who bothers us every night? If we keep the bedroom door open, he will sit on my husband's face or kick him on the neck, sometimes for a half hour straight! He also jumps on our other cat who is sleeping peacefully on the bed, usually starting a fight. If we close the door, he yells and uses his claws to constantly scratch the door until we open it. Putting him in the cat carrier makes him yowl. We do make sure he has food to graze on at night, but it doesn't seem important to him. He just wants to spend every minute bothering us. We are losing so much sleep. Please give any suggestions. Thanks!

Answer
Amy,

The easiest way to stop that behavior is the hardest. You HAVE to IGNORE him. He will EVENTUALLY stop it when he doesn't get ANY reaction from you OR your husband. It may take awhile and be very annoying, but he WILL give up. BUT...you HAVE to be consistant! You can't react to his behavior and attention-getting even ONCE, because then it won't work anymore. If you give any reaction to him, which is what he is looking for, then he knows that if he is persistant enough then you WILL give in and react which will make him even more persistant until you finally do. So don't! It's hard and a test of your willpower but you need to make him unlearn the bad habit. Ignore it when he bugs the other cat too. Let the cat take care of itself. If he finds that bugging the other cat gets a reaction then he will double up his attention-getting using the other poor cat. No reaction to anything. If he is persistant it may take awhile, but he will stop.

Kittens are like kids. They need to be taught what is acceptable behavior and what is not. They also will try to get away with whatever they can and test you often. Look on the bright side....he will grow out of it too....in a few months or so! (smile).

Another thing to do is to play with him BEFORE you go to bed.Try to tire him out.  Remember, he is energetic and wants attention and some play. Play with him when he is not bugging you, and don't make him ask for it. THEN give him a high protein meal right before you go to bed. The process symbolizes the hunt in the wild......the play (making the kill of what he caught) and then the eating of the high protein catch (a mouse...etc). Then contentness and SLEEP. Some cats are more hunt oriented than others and especially being an indoor cat they don't get to act out those hunting desires, so you have to simulate it.

Also try not to let the kitten sleep when you are up, especially in the evenings until you go to bed. It's hard to monitor but if you want him to sleep through the night you have to train his schedule to be on your schedule.

I hope this helps and sometime soon you will have a good nights sleep.

Tabbi