Early rising Cat!

karlos11

Hi guys,

So our cat sleeps at the bottom of our bed. We've had him 6 months and at the start he would sleep through til 8am...ish. Now he wakes up at 5.30am and when i put him out of the room, he scratches until i open the door again. So then i feed him and it's all fine from there. But i don't want to feed him that early! There's dry food out for him but the fecker won't eat it to tie him over.

I give him a 2nd pouch at about 6pm. I've tried waiting til about 9 to see if that would keep him full so he wouldn't wake up - but, alas, no joy.

Any advice?
Thanks.

mikemac

I'm more used to outdoor cats.
It's mild at the moment, can it not sleep outside, can you arrange some shelter for it?

Cú Giobach

karlos11 wrote: »

Hi guys,

So our cat sleeps at the bottom of our bed. We've had him 6 months and at the start he would sleep through til 8am...ish. Now he wakes up at 5.30am and when i put him out of the room, he scratches until i open the door again. So then i feed him and it's all fine from there. But i don't want to feed him that early! There's dry food out for him but the fecker won't eat it to tie him over.

I give him a 2nd pouch at about 6pm. I've tried waiting til about 9 to see if that would keep him full so he wouldn't wake up - but, alas, no joy.

Any advice?
Thanks.

Cats are crepuscular ie at their most active at dawn and dusk.
It's not hunger waking him up, it's his genes. Thats why feeding him is no good.
The best thing to do and what I do myself (after I woke up one morning with half a dead mouse on the pillow next to me), is keep him out of the bedroom.
He'll get used to it and stop trying to get in after a while, and just get "exuberant" around the rest of the house.
Other than that maybe blackout curtains or earplugs.

Don't forget, dawn is getting earlier and earlier now.

dan_d

Eh....we used to have a cat that come "knocking" at my bedrm window at 5/5.30am every morning.
It's what cats do. All the food in the world is not going to change it I'm afraid.That's why mine stay downstairs at night, I like my sleep!!!!

Princessdizzy

Our cat is old but still plays up like this. My hubby was getting up to feed her whenever she scratched at him. It started at 6am, then 4am, then 2 am. Its his own fault, she knows he'll give in. Even if food is left from her supper - it's not hunger, it seems more of an attention thing. We've had to shut the bedroom door which I hate doing and she scratched the first night but she's got the message now and is waiting downstairs when I get up. I think it was just a game to her to see how early and how often she could get him to get up and feed her!

poconnor16

My cat is the best alarm clock ever! Hence why she is downstairs in the kitchen at night. When I was out of work for a spell, I deperatley tried not to get in the habit of sleeping in. All my other half had to do was 'release the hounds' (aka kittens) and she would charge up the stairs (with the smaller fella in pursuit)...then nudge my face and rub against my head and cry till I would wake up and pet her.

OP try keeping kitty in another room at night, making sure she has food, water and comfy bedding. Its a habit you will just have to break if you want sleep.

amdublin

I agree with the genes thing etc but I still find a late night feed definitely keeps our fella asleep later

karlos11

Cool! All very informative, thanks. Unfortunately, i have no downstairs, as we're in an apartment, but will go with keeping him out of the bedroom & in the hall - i've actually done this, but he started tearing up the carpet outside the bedroom! But that's done now, so he can't do anymore damage...the lunatic! And sure, i'll just nail it back down whenever we move so the landlord won't know!!

Thanks again for the replies. Everyday's a school day, eh!

JKM

Up until about 3 weeks ago I swear I hadn't had a good nights sleep in well over two years. We always had one of our 5 cats looking to get into (or out of) our room at all hours of the night/morning. The problem only worsened when we started keeping them indoors from December. We live in apartment as well and like you OP our carpet outside our bedroom was torn to shreds.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had had enough of my OH sleeping (conveniently) through the scratching at the door I decided to put up a barrier to stop them getting to the door. You could try a room divider or something if you can't put anything more permanent up. I constructed a 'fence' using a fire gaurd. I put hooks up on the wall so it's easily taken up and down. It has worked an absolute treat.. I have rediscovered uninterrupted sleep!
Our only trouble now is ignoring the urge to let them in before we fall asleep. Of course it doesn't hurt every now and then to give in, they are damn cute, and there's nothing as comforting as them curling up under the duvet for a cuddle.

irish1967

uninterrupted sleep rediscovered ... Excellent news .... Ummm you posted at 3.09am !! Lol.

Malari

I was going to post a new thread on this when I found this one!

Our cat does sleep downstairs with access to food, water, comfy bedding, the great outdoors (and neighbours' kittens) and he still scratches the door every morning around 6am to get in to the bedroom.

I've been trying to ignore it but he's so persistent! 20 mins later he's still there with his little scratches and the "I'm...soooo....lonely.....:(" miaows. :rolleyes:

Even when we let him in, he's only content to sleep on the bed for 10 mins or so, then he starts climbing on the shelves and knocking things over in the hope of provoking us to get up and play with him!

MsFifers

I used to have this problem but perfected the art of fake sleeping! One of my kitties sleeps on the end of my bed and used to try to get me up at 5.30 am every morning. In the end I just pretended to be sleeping and ignored him - even through all the face licking, jumping, meowing - just lie there dead to the world. It took weeks but eventually he got the message - he isn't getting a rise from me until the alarm clock goes off!

Now - he does get up himself at 5.30 but doesn't bother trying to wake me up any more because he knows it just won't work. Once the alarm goes though - whoosh! he is on the bed demanding his breakfast!

Dixie Chick

I have the same problem. cats bouncing all over teh bed from about 6am. I think the female actually knows wher the human bladder is cos she seems to stand there to wake me!!

Last weekend after a few glasses of wine i slept through it all, when i woke up the two cats were either side of my head just cat staring at me. I think they were considering eating me

dan_d

They do seem to know exactly where the bladder/stomach region is don't they??:D:D
Why don't you all close the doors of the downstairs rooms you keep your cats in??? Ours are in our (closed) kitchen at night, complete with beds, food, litter tray and multiple toy mice. We do hear the odd bang against the door if they're thumping each other around the place at night, but other than that, we all get a good night's sleep and they're only too thrilled to see us in the morning!

Alun

Reminds me of this classic ...

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

JKM

irish1967 wrote: »

uninterrupted sleep rediscovered ... Excellent news .... Ummm you posted at 3.09am !! Lol.

Well spotted.. I work evenings so have weird schedule. 3am is like 11pm to me most days, so sleep is even more treasured.

Sundew

karlos11 wrote: »

Cool! All very informative, thanks. Unfortunately, i have no downstairs, as we're in an apartment, but will go with keeping him out of the bedroom & in the hall - i've actually done this, but he started tearing up the carpet outside the bedroom! But that's done now, so he can't do anymore damage...the lunatic! And sure, i'll just nail it back down whenever we move so the landlord won't know!!

Thanks again for the replies. Everyday's a school day, eh!

karolos :I have a similiar situation. Our 1 year old kitty also sleeps on the bed....just try and kick him out! :eek:

Last Summer was hell as I had to get up in the early hours of the morning (4 a.m) as he was making an awful racket and I didn't want my hubbie woken as he has an early start in work. Because we live in an apartment we could not let him out and were also concerned his crying could be heard. I was also told by a russian friend to just ignore him and under no circumstances to feed him! It worked!
He has settled down somewhat and has been sleeping through the night ssince last Autumn but I've noticed over the last 2 weeks with mornings getting brighter that he is getting active earlier :pac:

Wish I'd locked him out of the bedroom from the start !

rabbit.84

if i woke up in the middle of the night and my cat noticed he would be straight over for a rub. but i was told to just pretend to be asleep and he will eventually stop. it worked. even tho i had to put up with whiskers in my face for a while!
he has the same routine every night now. sleeps down stairs for a while, then up to my bed around 1am and awake again at 7 and heads down stairs. I leave some dry food out for him at night so I know if he wakes me it is never for food.
Just dont reward their bad habits and it should eventually stop.

Malari

rabbit.84 wrote: »

if i woke up in the middle of the night and my cat noticed he would be straight over for a rub. but i was told to just pretend to be asleep and he will eventually stop. it worked. even tho i had to put up with whiskers in my face for a while!
he has the same routine every night now. sleeps down stairs for a while, then up to my bed around 1am and awake again at 7 and heads down stairs. I leave some dry food out for him at night so I know if he wakes me it is never for food.
Just dont reward their bad habits and it should eventually stop.

It's so hard! Not just cause I feel sorry for him, but we had scratching and miaowing at the door for 40 minutes non-stop this morning!!! I'm hoping when we go on holidays for a few days he gets out of that habit.

karlos11

IT'S A MIRACLE!! He has stopped! I put an amp and a box in front of our bedroom door so he can't get at the carpet and this seems to have given him the message! He's not even meowing to get into the room in the morning! He just lies in his bed and waits til one of us gets up. SWEET!

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions!
Karlos