Cat moms(especially STMs)

SoSayWeAll

We have a cat who usually sleeps with us. I don't know if it is going to be best to kick him out of our room at night or try to find a way for him to stay. I am wondering if anyone has used one of those bassinets with either a net or some type of dome shaped covering? If so, do you have any recommendations? I don't think I can train him to stay out of the bassinet. He's not a very trainable cat.

ladybug2785

Kind of sad to even think about getting rid of your pet...but usually people look for any excuse to do so.


Put foil in the bassinet and any other baby things you want him to stay out of. Once we jumps in there he will be so startled he won't want to go back. At least that's the hope. My cats are pretty laid back and didn't try and go in any baby things when DS was in them. They were weary of him as a baby and didn't invade his space or things. Now they are the best of friends and DS loves them. Before he was born they liked to lay on the changing table, but that was it. Maybe we were just lucky.


Google how to keep cats out of baby's things and you will find a lot of good ideas. One is bound to work.

SoSayWeAll

Kind of sad to even think about getting rid of your pet...but usually people look for any excuse to do so.
Put foil in the bassinet and any other baby things you want him to stay out of. Once we jumps in there he will be so startled he won't want to go back. At least that's the hope. My cats are pretty laid back and didn't try and go in any baby things when DS was in them. They were weary of him as a baby and didn't invade his space or things. Now they are the best of friends and DS loves them. Before he was born they liked to lay on the changing table, but that was it. Maybe we were just lucky.
Google how to keep cats out of baby's things and you will find a lot of good ideas. One is bound to work.

I am not thinking about getting rid of him. I am thinking about not letting him sleep in my room at night.

SoSayWeAll

I guess I have tried a lot of things in the past to keep him off of or out of things but they never work for him(the counter, scratching things, etc). It will either not faze him or he will find a way around it. I don't think I can sleep at night knowing he might get in the bassinet so I was thinking I need to keep him out of the room or make the bassinet inaccessible to him.

Edited because I used the wrong faze

ladybug2785

That's all you got out of that? Really? Anyway...our cats sleep in the basement bathroom because they are wild at night. They do great in there. But maybe that's because they are together and not alone. I'm not sure if you can kick him out when baby gets here because you may have to get bottles (if bottle feeding), new diapers, etc in the middle of the night and he might dart in there and then it'll be a pain to get him out again.

caballablanca

Squirt bottle, tin foil, sticky tape all help. My cat jumped in the crib once, got squirted and never went back in. Once the baby was in there, he would look in but never really wanted anything to do with the baby.

shortnsweet65218

We have two very affectionate cats. And im afraid theyll eventually want to cuddle with baby. And If i lock them out if our room they'll be up howling and scratching at our all night long. I'm hoping that the baby is so new and weird to them that they'll just keep away and by the time they get used to baby they'll realize that the crib and bassinet are baby's domain. Unfortunately for us, or cats like tin foil and being squirted. Go figure. However, they HATE those condensed air canisters (the ones you clean your keyboard with). So you can try that too. I'll defintely try the contact paper trick.

SoSayWeAll

I will definitely see about the tin foil and sticky paper and possibly balloons that I saw when I googled it.  My cat does not care at all about a squirt bottle, lol.  I just don't know that I will trust that he will actually stay out of it even if I try to train him. 

I was also thinking about something like this:

BlckRoses

sswedborg said:

We have two very affectionate cats. And im afraid theyll eventually want to cuddle with baby. And If i lock them out if our room they'll be up howling and scratching at our all night long. I'm hoping that the baby is so new and weird to them that they'll just keep away and by the time they get used to baby they'll realize that the crib and bassinet are baby's domain. Unfortunately for us, or cats like tin foil and being squirted. Go figure. However, they HATE those condensed air canisters (the ones you clean your keyboard with). So you can try that too. I'll defintely try the contact paper trick.

They also make air canisters that are motion sensors and will automatically startle the cat if it jumps on something.  Some friends of mine used those to train their cats to keep off their counters.  I have tried tin foil and those plastic carpet runners with the pokey side up, but my male cat loves to lie on both of those things... They hate the sticky tape, so I'll probably try that in the crib when we bring it home and set it up.  I also plan on keeping the door to the nursery closed while the baby is napping during the day.  

lookame3639

My cat only lays in baby items when they are new and when they are empty. She's layer with DS when he was older and had his crib changed to a toddler bed. When she sleeps with us she's on a specific side of the bed so she has the ability to get up quickly if she feels the need. She's been around 3 babies/toddlers/kids and we haven'thad her look twice Iin their direction. (She maysniff the baby every now and then but II'm not worried about her)

dogperson11

I grew up with cats and our cats always slept in the garage because otherwise they would get up and down all night, make noise, walk through the house, etc. We had a litter box and lots of blankets and stuff for them in the corner of the garage. First thing in the morning we would let them back in. We tried closing them in a bathroom but we could hear them still. I think when it comes down to it you'll want to choose your sanity / sleep over the cats sanity / sleep.

@Noralee86 - she didn't mention at all thinking about rehoming - why would you?

shevaCC

Our 2 cats used to sleep in our room, but ever since DD was born, we kicked them out and keep the door closed. It's actually closed 24/7 now since one decided to poop and pee several times on our old mattress while we were at work to display his displeasure. They used to claw at the door and try to dart in, but over time they eventually gave up. At first, I would open the door quickly to startle them back from standing right in front of it, then walk out and close the door with a bang (as long as no one was sleeping). Again, to convince them that they really didn't want to go in the bedroom anyway. They really haven't wanted anything to do with DD pretty much her whole life, even though by now she's relatively gentle for a toddler. That works for us.

Daisylola11

This is great info because my cat loves sleeping in bed, very affectionate and an AW. I have already trained her to sleep at the end of the bed vs our pillow but I do want her to get use to sleeping out of the room w the door closed with out making noise so it's a work in progress. But now I may try setting up babies crib and bassinet earlier and putting foil in it so she becomes familiar with it and stays out of it even when the door is open... Oh fur babies, I have to remember sometimes she's a cat! She can sleep on the couch or the floor! Lol

missmiss307

We didn't have a problem with our cat jumping in the crib or Pack n Play. He started peeing on things, we think because he felt like he wasn't getting enough attention, and we did end up giving him to my mom. She lives out in the country, so he lives outside now and has really thrived.

Raclla

Set everything up before the baby gets here.

We had a pnp for our room for the first several weeks. We set it up and let all the animals get used to it. Luckily the cat never jumped in. We had more trouble with her pawing at the fabric on the bottom when DD was asleep.

We caught her in the crib once and on the changing pad a few times. Luckily a loud clap and yell and she scares and runs. We only had to correct her a few times. We also left the nursery door closed at night.

chase16

On a (somewhat) related note: help me stop my cats from scratching the carpet!!! We have bought rugs, own three (3!!) scratching posts/pads of different materials, tried positive reinforcement, tried the cat spray stuff.. nothing works. Damn cats like tearing up my carpet. One of them tries to eat the pieces of carpet he tears up.

Nuclearcupcake

My cats are used to baby things. They really liked the gear before we brought baby home and checked it out but when there was actually a tiny human using the stuff they stayed far away. They still sleep in my room and if they got into the crib I just washed everything.

Arwen0503

For our first we bought a dome thing for his crib and used that for a while until I broke it one night trying to open it. Our cat sleeps in our bed with us and didn't bother my son at all. She climbed in his crib when we first set it up but once she was use to it she didn't care anymore. When we had our second child she didn't care at all.