Cat owners - help wanted!

[Noonoo1]

I am not sure anyone will be able to help but thought I'd ask regardless...

We have a little 18 month old deaf cat. He's the centre of our household (at the moment) and we love him to bits - he makes us laugh every day - but he is SO LOUD!

Obviously, he can't hear himself so when he's playing, or he wants attention, or he sees someone out of the window he likes, he howls and chunters and generally makes a racket.

Trouble is, for the last 3 nights on the trot (and plenty of others before that), he's been doing running about and shouting at 3am and we are shattered! We try and wear him out by playing lots before bed but he just has never-ending energy and wants to play and shout all of the time. if we do the water-pistol thing, he just sees it as a gigantic game and it makes him worse (he actually likes water unfortunately)

Obviously VERY concerned that if when bubbs comes along he carries on like this, he will wake the baby!

Anyone got any ideas? x

 

[eclipse]

Baby is probably already used to the noise, honestly I have a loud one right now too, not much I've found that works, unfortunately. Mine likes water too Wish I had better advice for you except maybe shutting him in a back room for the night? I don't know

 

[emzul]

Aww I have a deaf cat too, and she is the same, she must sleep all day when we are at work and comes alive in the evenings...... all I hear at night is her galloping around the lounge, leaping over things!
Sorry, I dont have any suggestions either!! Maybe ear plugs are the future?!?

 

[rae27]

I was going to suggest shutting him in another room. Might cause a bit more ear ache for a while but putting the old psychology on him, eventually he'll realise that no ones coming out to play! Much like a child in that respect I guess! Consider it practice!

 

[aalstevenson]

I have to agree, the LO is use to the noise in your house. With my first son I was really worried about this as well since we had a Puppy, a kitten and a full grown dog who ran our house and barking all the time playing and just causing all kinds of trouble. But it worked out great. Turned out the baby slept through just about everything. We are hoping for them same with this LO as well.

 

[happybeany]

I'm so sorry but I read your post 4 times and each time it had me in fits! He sounds amazing, what a funny character

We used to shut our cat in the porch at night with bed and food, have you got anything like that? xx

 

[Noonoo1]

Glad to know we are not alone! Unfortunately, he is so damn loud that wherever he is in the house we can still hear him. It's funny and endearing during the day, it's not funny in the middle of the night!

Hope your cat quietens down soon x

 

[Mark&Annie]

Sorry for your plight, he sounds like a right little character!! I doubt he'll wake the baby, think you'll find babies sleep through a heck of a lot that we couldn't. Like the TV, vaccum cleaner and dogs barking from my personal experience.
He's still a young cat so he may grow out of it, but I must say my cats, including my 11 year old Queen, still have 'mad half hours' usually in the early evening, or very early hours of the morning. There isn't much you can do about it really, unless you put him outside to get on with it! Mine aren't allowed out after dark, so they are OK in the summer usually!

 

[Noonoo1]

thanks everyone! He seems to spend his life in a mad-hlf hour which is why we love him, but even if the baby can sleep through it, I certainly can't!

Husband is under strict instuctions tonight to play with him non-stop when he gets home and make sure he doesn't ahve a single nap before we go to bed. Determined we're going to have a peaceful night tonight. If not, I'm getting ear plugs tomorrow!

 

[happybeany]

Just had a thought, have you looked in to DAP sprays/plugins? I have the spray and it calms my dog down no end. My friend has a bit of a paranoid cat and uses the plugin... the cat has actually turned semi-normal now worth a look? The hormones used are safe and have no effect on humans at all, I already looked in to it xx

 

[Noonoo1]

happybeany, thank you, that is definitely worth a try. I am going to look into it now, we will calm him down yet!

 

[happybeany]

Good luck xx

 

[shimmy]

Its horrible isnt it! mine are not too bad at night they just slink around.. sometimes i have to lock them all in different rooms.
My youngest cat though is a moaner , every morning he yowls and moans really loud! i dont know how to stop him, we have tried everything!!! arrrh lol silly cats !! xxx

 

[pinkmonki]

I have an 18 month old Bengal and he's constantly LOUD. He likes to shout about everything he's doing, whether it's 3pm or 3am! In fact the only time he's not 'talking' is when he's sleeping, and even then he chitters and snores! Nothing calms him down (anyone who has owned/met a Bengal will know what I mean) so baby will just have to get used to it in our house.

Having a noisy household with a baby is actually a good thing, they learn to sleep through absolutely anything. Case in point, my 5 year old has to be physically shaken to wake him up, even shouting next to him does nothing! I'm hoping the baby will be much the same, and I would imagine he/she will already well used to the noise by the time he/she arrives, since Moomin (the Bengal) rather enjoys lying over my bump and serenading me with what he's done during the day Haha.

 

[happybeany]

I'm so jealous of your cats I'm not allowed one.. apparently 2 dogs, 3 turtles and a million fish is enough xx

 

[blondey]

He sounds just like our cat Charlie. He is deaf too and obviously because he can't go outside (plus we live in a flat) he seems to have so much excess energy. He is also about 100x worse after he has been for a poo. He just does laps of the flat, running around and 100 mph!

I do feel for you though. Considering Charlie is deaf I have never heard such a vocal cat! He is also amazing at causing a racket, I'm sure he isn't really deaf and just pretending! The other night he managed to wedge something under the grills on the hob and was banging it with his paw causing the most insane banging!

I don't really have any tips though to be honest. We have tried a lot, tried wearing him out etc but it doesn't seem to work! Hopefully they will just grow out of it! At least that's what we are hoping!

I do agree with the other ladies though, I think you'd be suprised as to what a baby will sleep through. And hopefully you will learn to as well!

xx

 

[Noonoo1]

you lot have all just made me laugh and feel far better about our howler!

Ours is a British shorthair, so like bangals, very, very talkative! But glad to know that other deaf cats are just the same. I once read that cats wouldn't really talk in wild and its a beheaviour learned around humans, but if our deaf cats are anything to go by, it must be the most natural thing in the world as they never shut up!

Ladies, if I find anything that works I will of course share pronto, but in the meantime, hopefully we will all have a lovely babies oblivious to loud noises and hopefully we might learn the same skill too! x

 

[shimmy]

Oh i know something that works.. i have made mine afraid of the broom... its not the nicest thing to have done but now whenever i wave it at them or try to "sweep them up" they run like mad and hide away for half an hour.. Lol i do look a little crazy but for one of them its the only thing that works.

but i dont know how fair that would be to a deaf cat...

 

[bellablue]

cute kitty !

a little noise will be good for baby cause noises are gonna happen when baby is sleeping so she will be fine

 

[sezrah]

Good thread this one. I have 2 cats, both just over a year old and both quirky and mental. We live in a 3 storey house so we can shut them out of rooms and that but when you do that they misbehave and cry and scratch at the door.
So far we've let them in with us at night but that will change when babys here, I don't think the boy cat likes the sound of babys crying because when someone walks past with a baba crying he runs and hides.
Not sure what to do really, but we'll take it as it comes. As long as they have routine they are happy, and they'll just have to learn. Ofcourse, we'll still love them like little uns!