cat waking at 4am

encore1

Hi,

just looking for some advice on what to do with my cat. EVERY morning, he wakes up between 4 and 5 and cries until I get up and let him out...I generally go to bed around 12ish, so that means that, on average, i'm only getting about 4 hours sleep before i'm woken up. I'm lucky enough (well, unlucky really, but...) that i'm not working at the min, so i can go back to sleep but the whole cycle has me absolutely exhausted!!!

im renting, so i cant put a cat flap in anywhere, ive tried ignoring him but he literally doesnt stop until hes let out...once i let it go 2 and a half hours, thinking he would settle...lol!!! ive tried keeping him out late, so that he only goes to sleep late, no joy. theres no way i'm leaving him outside at night, but what do i do?

does anyone know anything about cat behaviour techniques or anything? i've looked it up online and the main thing is to ignore him - but that doesnt work with him, it just means that instead of me being awake for 10 mins to let him out, i'm awake for the length of time i'm trying to ignore the little fekker!

he's neutured so its not a case of him wanting to get out to a lady friend

thanks!

seamus

Wear earplugs and ignore him

Cats are stubborn feckers. He knows from past experience that if he cries for long enough, he gets to go out.

MsFifers

Get some ear plugs!

My cat used to be the same and I'm afraid the only thing to do is follow the advice you've been given to ignore him. You have to look at it that your cat knows that you give in when he keeps bugging you. You have reinforced this by giving in after a couple of hours. I've been there believe me, and it took a couple of weeks, but in the end it worked. Just lie there and let him make a racket & eventually he'll learn.

I think my cat still wakes up at 4 but he just quietly creeps onto the bottom of my bed and goes to sleep there.

Couple of things - does he had a litter box inside? If not then make sure you have one in case he is waking up to go to the loo. You could also leave some interesting toys for him to play with so he can occupy himself, or even just leave a window open a crack so that he can peak out.

anniehoo

+1 for the ear plugs. Dont give in to him. Cats are so unbelieveably stubborn they will outlast you everytime

I had to post this too. It cracks me up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q

Alun

I have the same problem, but usually give in for the simple fact that I'm quite a light sleeper, so the cats simply coming in and out of the bedroom to check if we're awake yet is enough to wake me up (I can hear their claws tip-tapping on the wood floor!). It's worse on clear nights with a full moon when they seem to want to go out even earlier, usually more like 2am.

planetX

same problem here, and mine has learned to yowl outside the window when he wants to come back in again too. I used to just leave a window open and hope no burglars came, but ended up with mice being brought in at night. Now he just gets put out when I go to bed, but I still get woken up most nights:(

galah

get an inside cat litter tray? Maybe he just needs to pee...:D

We found that feeding them late in the evening makes them wanna sleep longer in the morning, so that works for us ;-) Or just stay tough for a couple of nights (not much fun) and ignore the howling - eventually, he'll get the message (hopefully ;-))

Rockery Woman

Aww you poor thing - feckin cat - I had the same problem.

First we put in a cat-flap in the back door, but the cats kept bringing in rabbits, mice and birds and killing them in my hallway. In the morning all I saw was carnage all over the house. I ended up locking the catflap and no longer use it.

You could just put him out at night. This works well for me, the cats use the greenhouse to sleep if needs be, or if you have a shed, perhaps put a catflap in that.

Cats are nocturnal and like to hunt at night. I dont know if you live in a city or in the country like myself so some of my advice might not suit your situation. You could just put the cat out before you go to bed and let him back inside in the morning for his breakfast....

If he must remain inside, while a litter tray is essential, he will always want to go outside at 4am. You could leave a window open for him to go in and out - that works for a friend of mine - she lives in a small town and has her 4 cats for years.

I hope you can sort this out though - I would hate to be woken so early.

You obviously love your cat - thats great

Alun

Rockery Woman wrote: »

Cats are nocturnal and like to hunt at night.

[pedant mode]

Actually cats are crepuscular, meaning they hunt at dawn and dusk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepuscular

[/pedant mode]

lorebringer

Have you had him checked for a UTI? If it has been going on for not too long, this would be a good idea. He should be able to hold on throughout the night.

If everything is ok health wise - buy some earplugs and leave him bitch to his hearts content!

who the fug

Can you not leave a window open in the bedroom

gossipgal08

It is unlikely the cat wants to pee. 4am is when all the fun starts outside. He wants to hunt. The only thing you can do is get used to it. Have a cat nine years and still getting up to let her in and out during the night. You should find that during the winter he will not do this as much because there is less going on in the garden

Rochester

4 am is the standard in this house. He doesn't just meow, he pulls at the base of our bed and that definitely gets one of us moving fairly fast.

gigawatt

Are you guys crazy??? I've had cats all my life and Ive never had this problem! I wouldnt put up with it ... i like my sleep too much. put them out before you go to bed,they'll be fine.

gossipgal08

Tried that. She pounds on the window untill i let her in

fatmammycat

My cats are shut into a shed last thing every night. Of the three cats I own, the big fellow would drive a person crazy wanting to come in out, which is fine-ish- during the day, but no thank you at night.
Its a big concrete shed with a huge window, their sheepskin beds are in there, their litter trays are there. I feed them last thing at night in there and they are so used to it now they 'swarm' me in the evening to try and get me to hurry up and go feed them. I collect their food and they gallop off down the garden ahead of me to the shed.
I let them out first thing in the morning, where upon they do a quick scout of the area, have some food then pile into my office for yet more sleep.
I am always wary about leaving cats out at night, they get into terrible scrapes and I'd never sleep a wink worrying about them. This way I can relax, and they eat and snooze for a few hours.

royan

encore1 wrote: »

im renting, so i cant put a cat flap in anywhere

You might find that your landlord would accept a temporary change for that.

In our last house I took out the glazing unit from the small window of our downstairs loo and replaced it with a multiwall polycarbonate sheet which I could cut for a cat-flap (it can be pricey new, but I found a local double-glazing factory where they were happy to give me an offcut for free). A little darker than the original window, but not much of a problem. (I initially had a wheelie-bin and garden chair outside so the height wasn't so much of a struggle particularly for our oldest dude, then upgraded it to a sort of platform affair made out of scrap plywood.)

In this house, I've switched the beautiful hand-crafted back door for an old one from a neighbouring house being refurbished, it needed a bit of cutting to size (this is an old farm cottage with odd-shaped all sorts) but does the job just fine.

I may have been lucky, but my experience has been that as long as you approach in the right way, and on the undertaking to put everything back as it was, landlords are often pretty flexible about changes as long as you're not messing with the actual structure of the house.

Thedogspyjamas

the title of this thread is brilliant. it is right out of woody allen movie. i just had to say that. good luck. thank you.

Heroditas

To cheer the OP up, kitteh will now be waking up at 3am

dan_d

Hmm. Had a cat when I was a kid, who went the other way.....she was out all night, reappeared at about 5am and meowled outside the window til she was let in.
Cue exhaustion.
I suppose no food or water late in the evening is a good way to go. Either that or try putting her in a room as far from your bedroom as possible.
I'd imagine that she wants out as that's cat time, when they are seriously awake and on the go. Ours are in all night and downstairs...thankfully if there is meowing we don't hear it.:D
Gotta say - love the youtube link. Brilliant.

encore1

Hi guys,

thanks for all the replies (I actually didnt realise that i had gotten any...long story - must be suffering from sleep deprivation, lol)

well, the little FECKER is still at it, i tried ear plugs and he just started jumping on and off the bed when he wasnt getting any response to the "chat" so ive just gone back to getting up and opening the door for him (but why not, wouldnt it be great if we all had a butler...! little pr*ck, lol). The Youtube video actaully had me in stitches!!!

im hoping it'll calm down in the winter...but not hugely optimistic...!

thanks again!

lrushe

Our cat wakes us up at a similar time to go out, either myself or the OH will let her out, luckily though we don't have any trouble getting back to sleep. Maybe try tiring yourself out during the day, long walks, scrub the house etc. so that you are phyically drained by bedtime, it might help you get back to sleep once you're cat wakes you up

royan

Heroditas wrote: »

To cheer the OP up, kitteh will now be waking up at 3am

Ours always take a while to adjust to the change, but at least they leave it a few hours later than this.

"Look, cat: This is a CLOCK. It does TIME. See me move the hands back? Now the time is different. DIFFERENT, you hear? Check this thing before bouncing on my head tomorrow, eh?"

"Change the TIME? Impossible. Stupid two-leg."

*bounce*

Heroditas

Our two used to wake us up at 4am in the summer once it started to get bright.
We put a blackout blind in the bedroom and tried to tire them out late in the evening, along with feeding them at about 10.30.
It seemed to do the trick!