Step 1. Don’t reward your cat’s tries
What do you do when your cat is scratching at the door? Do you let him or her in? Do you yell at them or punish in some other way? Do you open a can of their favorite food? Whatever it is: Don’t do it!
Your cat is not trying to enter the room because he has to be everywhere. (Well, actually he or she does, but that’s beside the point.) Your cat wants your attention. Even if you yell at your cat, or even if you punish them, it’s still attention. If your cat wants attention and gets it, they will repeat what they did to get it. Even if you didn’t mean to, you just taught your cat that their behavior will be rewarded.
Which leads us to a conclusion: If you provide any attention, your cat will scratch at the door more.
Therefore, you should ignore your cat completely. Within several days, provided you also follow the advice below, your cat may learn that their tries lead to no results, at which point they will try it less and less.
Step 2. Feed your cat in meals and play before them if you can
There are several benefits to feed your cat in meals. The benefits come when you actually play for at least several minutes before every meal. The longer you play with your cat before meals, the greater the benefit. This is because playing with your cat (find out about others here) is like they are hunting for their meal. They will expend energy during the playtime. Less energy means less scratching, meowing, purring, etc. later.
Wild cats naturally hunt before meals which playing sort-of replicates. After a meal, cats have to regain the energy spent during the hunt, so they usually go for a nap. If you make meal time similar to your cats natural hunting instincts, they’ll enjoy their meal time more, expend more energy, and sleep deeply afterwards. We found the PetSafe SlimCat interactive toy and food dispenser worked great at this. It’s a ball with an adjustable opening to let out your cats dry kibble as slow as you want. This encourages your cat to play with the PetSafe SlimCat toy to get their meal. It holds up to 2/3rds of a cup of kibble. Best of all, it can be put into the dishwasher to keep it clean. It also comes in 4 different colors so you could have a different color for each of your cats. This also helped with territory issues during meal times as we could separate our cats with their food toy. To see the almost 9,000 reviews and the latest price on Amazon, click “PetSafe SlimCat Interactive Toy“.
If you play with your cat before every meal, they will understand how the day works and will be less troublesome at night.
An additional tip: serve the final meal of the day minutes before you go to sleep. It is best if your cat finishes only when you are in bed and pretend to be asleep.
Step 3. Make your bedroom entrance less appealing for your cat
One of the simplest way to stop your cat scratching the door at night is to close the door and place a device called ” sssCat ” on the floor in front of it. What is it? sssCat is a motion-activated pet deterrent that releases a burst of air every time anyone comes closer.
When your cat comes to your bedroom door to scratch at it, sssCat lets out a small burst of air. Your cat will not try scratching again very soon. If they try again, sssCat will do its job again. What this device provides is consistency of negative reinforcement for unwanted behavior. It doesn’t hurt your house cats but they definitely don’t like the puff of air. As a cat owner, you can test this by blowing into your cats face. They just love it don’t they? Just watch for their paw swinging at your face when you do this test. Or you can just take our word for it.
Best of all, your cat does not associate this negative reaction in any way to you the cat owner. This preserves your relationship. Pretty soon your cat will understand that the door is not a very friendly location. They will not even try to approach it. You can buy sssCat here on Amazon.
Another thing that many cats don’t like is a mat placed with double-sided tape stuck to the door. Cats don’t like putting their paws on sticky tape. As they won’t get near your door, they won’t be able to scratch, meow, or purr to get your attention.
What we’ve found works well is a the PetSafe ScatMat. It releases a small static shock when your cat (or dog) steps on it. It is battery operated, comes in several different sizes, and has 3 levels of correction. With a new cat, older cat, or new kitten, start with the lowest setting. Increase it if your cat doesn’t learn that stepping on the mat isn’t the desired behavior.
There are also other sizes of the PetSafe ScatMat such as this 30″ x 16″ wide one. The 48″ x 20″ PetSafe ScatMat is their large size. Our outdoor cat needed the highest setting because his paw pads were tougher than our house cats. An adult cat or older cat may also need the higher settings. Best of all, the mat can also be used to keep your dog off your couch.
You can find more ways to keep your cat out of the bedroom here.
Step 4. Enrich their environment
Even as you try to teach your indoor cat to stay away from the bedroom, make sure you do not make they miserable and stressed . Like you, most owners keep their cat indoors. A new kitty or existing cat can become stressed by new things in their environment.
Make sure they have cat toys or other things to entertain them in their part of the house. Especially at night. What about a cat tree? Get more than one, and install some shelves on the walls so that your feline can climb , jump , and perch. Add some opportunities for solo play by tossing fake mice and other cat toys around. This Cat Ball Puzzle with 3 levels keeps our cats entertained. Click here to find other ways to “catify” your home .
How soon should you expect results and stop your feline from scratching your bedroom door at night? In most cases, you will see some improvement within a few days. Yes, your mileage may vary. Every pet is different and learns at a different pace. If you are consistent (and that’s the hardest part), your cat’s behavior should change after two weeks.
Please remember that even after your efforts, you will still need to play with your cat. Keeping them entertained and giving them attention on your terms is key. This will help prevent him or her from waking you up at night again . Follow these 4 steps to get a better nights sleep and be happier. Your cat (and dog) will be happier too.
