So I have 2 cats A and B. They're both 10 months old and from the same litter. A jumps on my desk, on my bedside table and chest of drawers which results in him knocking over and breaking things. Every time he jumps up, I remove him and put him down but he automatically leaves the room to do whatever he wants. I play with him arguably more than B (he's a bit of an antisocial cat) and B doesn't do any of this. My desk is in my room so I wake up to him breaking things which makes it hard to sleep because I'm trying to stop a cat from destroying my belongings. How do I get him to stop? I'm becoming sleep deprived. I do sometimes shut him out my room but both cats together make so much noise, I can't get to sleep. Other than that, he's an amazing, sweet boy but this issue has been going on for too long.
2 Answers
Your cat clearly likes to be up high. You can try things to dissuade it, but it's often the case that nothing will really when it has such a strong natural desire to climb. Therefore, the first thing you should be doing is putting away everything you can that you don't want it to knock over. Other objects, see if you can secure them in place. For example, stick them down with double sided tape. With cups, attach an actual cup holder.
Next, provide your cat with plenty of alternatives to your furniture for going up high, in the form of its own cat furniture. I would get ones with platforms secure enough that you can put comfy beds on them as well. Put the cat furniture next to windows when you can. In other words, try to make the cat furniture more appealing than your regular furniture, and hopefully your cat will start to prefer it.
Lastly, you can try making your furniture have things on it the cat dislikes to try to keep it away. Some common ones are:
- aluminum foil
- citrus spray
- double sided tape
- automatic motion detecting air sprayers
Your Cat A sounds so much like my Marley. The feline instinct to be awake at night vs the human instinct to sleep at night causes widespread problems. Jackson Galaxy posts a YouTube Train Your Cat To Let You Sleep that I found helpful. Since you mention multiple problems, I will share more about Marley.
The Climber
Marley was 9 months old when I got him and is now fourteen months, developing from a rambunctious kitten into a more sedate adult. As such, he is simmering down considerably but he will always be a climber. Kai's answer makes excellent suggestions re putting away or fastening down items you don't want the cat to play with or move. Of the four items on the list, I have tried two--aluminum foil and double-sided tape--to no avail.
Marley plays with the foil and leave paw-prints on the tape. Physically removing him from surfaces where I don't want him, such as the kitchen countertop, and spraying him with water for thirty seconds are the only things I have yet found to work consistently. To keep him off, I find it's best not to keep goodies on the counter, e.g. unwashed dishes and kitchen scraps. After months of carefully cleaning up after myself every time I worked with food, he finally stopped checking up on me. Most of the time, he now stays off the kitchen countertop. Operative word: most of the time. Gotta keep it cat-safe.
To satisfy his urge to climb, I put him on a leash and take him outside to climb the trees in the backyard. That keeps his energy at a manageable level, though he will always be a climber with regards to furniture.
Cat-Safe
A friend who tried to help me in my frustration with a rambunctious young cat gave a few bits of practical advice. In addition to putting away the items we don't want the cats to break or play with (medication, thread, and sharp objects like pins and needles come to mind), she shared about new shelves she put into her house.
"We were going to use this one kind of shelf," she told me, "but then we realized it wasn't strong enough for the cats to sleep on so we got stronger shelving."
When the cats kept breaking one kind of decorative glass vases, she set out heavier vases.
Sleeping Arrangements
How to get some sleep? That's your question. I found something that works for me, but I hesitate to post it since it may not be considered humane. At the same time, it works for my cat and me. Unless he's locked in my old dog carrier for the night, he won't settle down to sleep. But once he's in there, he sleeps soundly through the night. I use the dog carrier, left over from when I had a dog, because it's large enough for toys in addition to his bed. I did not want to put him in jail, which a cat carrier would be like since it's so small.
I have had nights when I couldn't sleep, so I put on the light, opened his door, and spent an hour on the computer. He was so soundly asleep he never noticed the door was open. He slept right through it all. That's what convinces me it works for him.
If he needs to get out to use the litter box, he rattles the cage and meows loudly. I then have to get up and let him out, something I've been used to with having a dog for many years. It seldom happens, since he usually eats, drinks, and uses the litter box before bedtime.
Human vs Feline Circadian Rhythms
Many people shut their bedroom doors and let the cats play and roam to their heart's content in the other rooms. That doesn't work for me for the same reasons you posted: I feel like I have to keep an eye on my cat to train him and keep him from destroying plants and other stuff. People with big houses can store stuff in basements and back rooms to keep it safe from the destructive teeth and claws of cats but I live in a one-bedroom apartment. So do many other cat-owners; we don't have that kind of space but we have to sleep, too!
And then there's my friend whose cats have all the space they could want but still they bang and meow loudly at her bedroom door, wobbling the knob, even opening it. No matter that the clock says 3:00 a.m., they want to their breakfast. Now.
She's not the only one. It's because of this widespread problem that Jack Galaxy posted his YouTube. He says a cat's circadian rhythm can be adjusted over a two-week period by adjusting the feeding schedule. Marley now eats on a Jack Galaxy feeding schedule. Like any cat, he still sleeps a lot during the day but he also sleeps at night.
