Every night my cat Apollo scratches at the door upstairs. How can I make him stop?
Friday, August 6th, 2010 at
1:28 am
My cat Apollo wakes me up every night without fail because he is scratching the door to the upstairs apartment and the carpet in front of it. I wake up and usually tell him "No" and spray him with a water bottle but this has been going on now for over 2 months. Are their any safe and easy ways to stop him from doing this? He has a scratching post and I refuse to get him declawed but I just want a few nights of undisturbed sleep. Please help!
I understand he wants to go out the door but unfortunately, it is to the upstairs apartment and I can not let him out of my apartment. He has free run of the entire place!
Filed under: Cat Scratching Post
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It might be a little unsightly, but I guarantee that if you loop masking tape end-to-end and put it wherever Apollo is scratching he will quit. Cats can’t/won’t scratch sticky tape.
If he’s meowing and carrying on in addition to scratching, you may just have to block him out of the room.
I bet he smells a mouse or something tasty behind the door. I would put a rug or something so he can’t smell under the door and get some cat-away spray and do the door so he won’t have the urge to "hunt." Good Luck with Apollo, love the name!
ha ha ha… yep, cats do this just to get you up and get attention. My cat does that – scratches the carpet to let me know he wants out of the bedroom. But I don’t mind.
Since you do, I read of a really neat way to discourage a cat from scratching or meowing at your door to wake and get you up. Position your vacuum cleaner just behind the door. You need to plug it in to an outlet with a switch that is just within your reach in bed. As soon as the cat scratches ormeows to wake you up, turn the vacuum cleaner on. The sound will startle him and he’ll scoot away. Do it everytime he tries to wake you up. You’ll probably have to do this for a night or two, depending on how fast your cat catches on that scratching or meowing by that particular door will "wake a big bad monster" that waits behind the door.
Clearly he feels that door should be open.
Can you keep him in one room with the door closed during the night? A room that’s as far from yours as possible so you won’t hear him scratching..keep a fresh bowl of water and his litterbox in there and that might do the trick. My cat scratches on a door in my house when it’s closed and now she sleeps in the office and sleeps very soundly instead of roaming and not sleeping. If you dont’ have a spare room you can use, what about purchasing a cat crate that is specifically made for short term housing of cats where it has multiple levels and space for a un covered litter box. Just an idea. Good luck.
There is some spray you can get at Petco that they don’t like the smell of1