Got any tips or tricks to get a stubborn kitten to sleep in her pet bed?

Cats sleep where and when they want to. There is not any way, barring building a cage to make them sleep anywhere they don’t want to sleep.

Find where she likes to sleep and then put the pet bed there. You can also tire her out and let her fall asleep in your arms and then place her in her bed.

She’s gonna sleep where she wants to. Even I, the cat whisperer, have not figured this one out.

I can’t stop laughing at this question.

You could try sprinkling a little fresh catnip in the bed, but that doesn’t mean she will sleep there.

@WestRiverrat got it. I’ve tried to get my cat to sleep a certain place and it doesn’t work well. With my cat though, you can make her lie down if you place her in a place where she would. Just start stroking and petting her, maybe even pushing her butt down if she’s still standing. She may stay. Other than that, no. If it’s that you don’t want her sleeping on the food bowl, then (a) get another one, or (b) put it in a place she can’t get it for the time being and see where sho goes after that (maybe it’ll be the bed). For this exact reason is why I really don’t buy too many beds or toys for my cat. I don’t think I have ANY pet beds that I’ve bought—they’re all makeshift! Oh, and keep in mind that not all cats are addicted to catnip. Yours may not be if you’re not sure.
sorry for referring to the ca as “she” as mine is female.

Good luck! There is a reason that “herding cats” is a metaphor for the impossible.

This really IS hysterical !!! Maybe she was hungry in a past life? Here’s an idea that would work with kids: get a kitten and put THAT cat in the bed and she if she tries to get it back. LOL

ok; I hadn’t thought of that: hide the food bowl. She sounds just adorable.

Find someething that you treasure, like your best cashmere sweater. Line the cat bed with it and then see what happens. I often find MIlo asleep in the midst of clean laundry in the basket. And then there’s this choice of a resting spot. It took me a while to find him here and here

(Do you mean what can make the bed more enticing or alluring or desirable? i You can ingratiate yourself with your cat or she with you, however.)

@gailcalled Milo is adorable as always. I almost didn’t find him in the bed.

Maybe she was weaned too early? Sounds like she likes to fall asleep next to the comfort she remembers while nursing, near the belly, near the food. I like @wtf’s answer about tiring her out and laying her in her bed, maybe with a little treat on it for her to wake up to.

@chyna: Not today. There has been a enormous shedding of fur due to warmer weather and an equally frantic amount of grooming. That leads inevitably to the hair ball.

He coughed up a huge one this morning in three large pieces, all on the pillow, mat and towel where I do my floor exercise.

Get another food bowl, put the actual food in there. Put the food bowl she’s sleeping in in her pet bed. Then, give up – cats sleep where they want to sleep.

He coughed up a huge one this morning in three large pieces, all on the pillow, mat and towel where I do my floor exercise.

It’s good for cats to have a hobby.

@jaytkay:Easy for you to say.

I saw a panther cough up a hairball at the zoo. Impressive!. It sounded like THUNDER! For real!

^Thanks for sharing.~

None. My cat’s slept in their’s for a couple of weeks and that was it. I thought might at least go into the rotation but anything I bought for them that was specifically designed for a cat, other than the Kitty Tease, which they became obsessed with, well, if it was made for a cat they weren’t interested. They preferred the plastic rings from the milk jugs, q-tips, bows, pencils, balls of aluminum foil. Give it it, @Hypocrisy_Central, you don’t tell a cat where it’s going to sleep. They’re professionals. :-)

Aw, sounds so cute. I’d let her- she’ll grow out of it.

@jaytkay My sweet little Casper cat once vomited up a foot long tape worm. I couldn’t eat pasta or noodles for two years.

Give it up. You will never control your cats sleeping preferences..

Donate the pet bed and let her sleep where she chooses. Trust me, we all know that power struggles NEVER work with humans, well, they work even less with cats. lol

@Coloma Exactly. No one tells a cat, in general, what to do or where to sleep, particularly. Give it up. The war the, battle is lost if @Hypocrisy_Central is even asking this question.

And once @tiny faery admitted that even for her, the Ur-cat-trainer, some things are impossible, you have heard the last (and best) word.

@gailcalled You can train a cat, to a certain extent, but it can be a full time job and even then, as you said, some things are impossible. It is the better part of valor sometimes, just to surrender. They are lovely, amazing, wonderful creatures. Why waste all that time butting heads with them when you very well may lose. Why not spend that time putting your valuables, fragile items and important papers, etc. out of harm’s way and then be free to enjoy the softness of their fur, their purring and the joys of waking up with a cat sleeping on your head? At least that’s the way I see it.

@lillycoyote: Funny you should say that. Here are two examples of me trying to organize my important papers.

One
Two

Try putting the pet bed inside a big card board box with a hole on the side to get in and out of.

@gailcalled Every single time my laptop has fallen, it’s been because of a cat, not because of me.

@gailcalled # two is so cute. I have a drawer in a bureau with some old sweaters in it. The kitten loved it in there so I left it for her. One day I was in the room, my daughter shook the Temptations treat bag in another room and that cat bonked her head on the drawer above in her scramble to get out and get to the treats.

@tinyfaery Find where she likes to sleep and then put the pet bed there. You can also tire her out and let her fall asleep in your arms and then place her in her bed. Been there and done that. Where she chooses to sleep most you’d never get any sort of pet bed to stay there no matter how small. And I tried tuckering her out and placing her in there but she wakes right up, hops out.

@WestRiverrat You could try sprinkling a little fresh catnip in the bed, but that doesn’t mean she will sleep there. Been there and done that, it might as well be parsley or bay leaves, she basically thumbs it.

@Neizvestnaya Maybe she was weaned too early? Sounds like she likes to fall asleep next to the comfort she remembers while nursing, near the belly, near the food. I will have to blame the mama cat for that. Where she was very attentive she became more and more distant leaving the kitties to feed off dry food instead of her.

@#gailcalled Uncanny looks almost like my kitty, except her head mask covers more area but the same white spike between the eyes. She also has black splotches over her back like someone dropped pain on her.

Cats sleep anywhere
Any table, any chair.
Top of piano, window-ledge
In the middle, on the edge.
Open draw, empty shoe
Anybody’s lap will do.
Fitted in a cardboard box
In the cupboard with your frocks.
Anywhere! They don’t care!
Cats sleep anywhere.

Eleanor Farjeon (1881 – 1965)

You’re kidding right?

You mean she’s not cuddled up I’m bed with you?

Obviously this must be your first cat. Cat beds are a total waste of money. They normally sleep in their human’s bed/most comfy chair or pretty much wherever they darn well
please.

And other than the aforementioned kitty teaser, most toys are likewise ignored.

Much better to save your money to spend on regular vet checkups, quality food and maybe a book or two about cat behavior. Another good monetary investment would be a nice tall multi-tiered scratch thing playhouse combo. Cats love love love heights (as you’ll discover when she gets old enough to hop on all your bookshelves).

Whatever you do, please don’t subject her to the horrible amputation trauma euphimistically referred to as declawing.

If she’s a kitten, she’s young enough for you to shape her behavior to some degree. Work on getting her to prefer her scratch thing over your furniture and you will both be happy.

Let her sleep wherever. It’s really not that important. Training her where to scratch is.

Also buy a good pair of nail clip scissors specially designed for kitties. Get her used to regular nail trimming now when she’s young. Just take off the tiniest little bit until you learn how to be certain to avoid the blood vein (painful for her).

@Buttonstc You mean she’s not cuddled up I’m bed with you? She might but she hasn’t made her mind up. She spent most of the 1st 3 days under the desk on the floor so I thought I could at least put something under there for her to sleep in. By day she spends most of the time in my lap, by night when she is not walking on my head to the night stand and back I don’t know where she is bunking down. Like my other 2 cats I am sure she will get to the bed or the magazine rack in the bathroom.

Whatever you do, please don’t subject her to the horrible amputation trauma euphimistically referred to as declawing. NEVER EVER NEVER. A boat load of $100 would not get me to declaw any of my cats…...OK 15 boat loads I might think about it, but it still has a 80% chance of never happening.

If she’s a kitten, she’s young enough for you to shape her behavior to some degree. Work on getting her to prefer her scratch thing over your furniture and you will both be happy. Don’t have many furniture that is “cat scratch happy” but she found something she like….my shins!

Also buy a good pair of nail clip scissors specially designed for kitties. Yes thank you, have those and the Pedipaws thing though I have never used it yet, the clippers seem better to me and I know where to stop trimming.

That’s sweet of you to get the bed so she didn’t have to sleep on the cold floor.

I had no idea you have two other cats. The Q suggested someone new to cats who actually thought they could control where a cat chooses to sleep, ha ha.

But I guess she might feel a little intimidated by the other two cats. I’m down to one currently. But in the past I had three. And when each was added to the mix, it took them time to figure out their “permitted” territory.

So when they finally fought it out and figured it out, Velvet always slept on my right, Kitten Mitten on my left and Funny Face under the covers by my feet. Always.

They have all passed over Rainbow Bridge and my little newcomer steadfastly refuses to cuddle up next to me on my right side no matter how many times I put her there. She’s decided to be a foot cat and thats that.

I’m sure your little newcomer will find her place eventually. Mine slept in the bathroom sink or atop my computer desk for several months before deciding that my bed was a lot warmer and cozyer :)

There’s a pic in here of her in the sink. It was a perfect fit.

www.buttonstc.posterous.com

Oooooo…...a calico, I have a couple of those but it was long ago, hard to find any near here now.

@downtide
eleanor farjeon is one of my favorite poets…lurve to you

Yeah. I have a warm place in my heart for callies. They’re such little clowns.

But just for curiosity, where is the “here” that Calicos are so hard to find, if you don’t mind my asking? I’ve never had much trouble finding one (but most of them are Dilute, which is a dominant gene). The regular Callies are definitely harder to find.

@Buttonstc

My new girl kitty ( I’ve had her almost a year now ) is a torti-point siamese.

Talk about a funny face! She is mottled seal point with creme and pale orange.

She is a real clown in looks and temprament.

My Funny Face was a Callie with one of the oddest mixed up face marks ever. Even her nose leather (which is most often one color, even on callies) looked like a jigsaw puzzle.

When I was trying to decide on a name for her, I realized that Weird Face, even tho accurate, was rather insulting. So I settled on Funny Face. And, as a bonus, there’s even an old-timey song to go with it.

@Buttonstc

I call my Mia ‘funny face’ too!

Do you sing it to her as well?

@Buttonstc

All the time, I sing to all my pets. When I pull down my driveway and I have the radio on I will sit in the garage and listen to the end of a song, turned up loud and sing along while the geese honk in harmony. lol

Marwyn, my gander knows the words…“wanna sing a little!”—Musical goose. :-)

I have a cat that looks calico just like yours @Buttonstc but has a little nub instead of a tail. Her nose is 2 colors, as well. She was supposed to be babycat until I thought of a real name, so, guess what?

@faye

I’m going out on a limb here and guessing either Funny Face or Stubby.

If you ended up calling her Callie I’ll be very disappointed in your creativity :)

@Buttonstc Oh! I meant we’re still calling her Babycat! I say her real name is Gilly Flower.