At my wits end with this cat.

judgefudge

I posted recently about how quickly my cat eats (bowl of food in ~5 mins).

This is in a similar vein. He usually sleeps in my room at night, which is grand, until about 6am (it's actually getting earlier each morning) when he begins sitting on my and pawing at my face and walking back and forth over me until I can take it no more and I get up and feed him. If I leave him outside my room he wakes me up whining outside the door. And even if I close the door going back to bed he starts whining.

I'm actually starting to feel the effects of poor sleep over this because I find it difficult to get back to sleep once I've gotten up. Is there a way to stop this behaviour?

I plan on getting an automatic feeder which may help, but I still think once he's awake he'll be determined to wake me up.

Taxburden carrier

judgefudge wrote: »

I posted recently about how quickly my cat eats (bowl of food in ~5 mins).

This is in a similar vein. He usually sleeps in my room at night, which is grand, until about 6am (it's actually getting earlier each morning) when he begins sitting on my and pawing at my face and walking back and forth over me until I can take it no more and I get up and feed him. If I leave him outside my room he wakes me up whining outside the door. And even if I close the door going back to bed he starts whining.

I'm actually starting to feel the effects of poor sleep over this because I find it difficult to get back to sleep once I've gotten up. Is there a way to stop this behaviour?

I plan on getting an automatic feeder which may help, but I still think once he's awake he'll be determined to wake me up.

Nothing wrong with your cat...by the way I've got his brother!

judgefudge

Taxburden carrier wrote: »

Nothing wrong with your cat...by the way I've got his brother!

I know there's nothing wrong with him! Just how do I change the behaviour or cope with it? How do you do it

Taxburden carrier

You won't change him...he's going to train you:)

threebeards

judgefudge wrote: »

I posted recently about how quickly my cat eats (bowl of food in ~5 mins).

This is in a similar vein. He usually sleeps in my room at night, which is grand, until about 6am (it's actually getting earlier each morning) when he begins sitting on my and pawing at my face and walking back and forth over me until I can take it no more and I get up and feed him. If I leave him outside my room he wakes me up whining outside the door. And even if I close the door going back to bed he starts whining.

I'm actually starting to feel the effects of poor sleep over this because I find it difficult to get back to sleep once I've gotten up. Is there a way to stop this behaviour?

I plan on getting an automatic feeder which may help, but I still think once he's awake he'll be determined to wake me up.

Completely off topic, and not even remotely helpful but your post reminded me of this

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

username123

Can you not leave him more than a door away from your room and wear ear plugs the first few nights til he gets used to it?

Or submit to your training

Taxburden carrier

threebeards wrote: »

Completely off topic, and not even remotely helpful but your post reminded me of this

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

Yep. That's him.

ABajaninCork

Don't you know cats have staff?? I think I owned his great grandfather. Cat would tell ME when to get up - No need for an alarm clock with him around.

judgefudge

username123 wrote: »

Can you not leave him more than a door away from your room and wear ear plugs the first few nights til he gets used to it?

Or submit to your training

Unfortunately no, the only option would be to lock him in the room with his litter tray all night and I just couldn't do that to the fella.

Training? Is this it then... This is my life? We're talking 4.30 or 5am the last few days.

Pumpkinseeds

Yeah it's a familliar story in our house too. What's helped a lot for us is to open the curtains in the house when we feed them. Mostly they are happy to sit and watch out of the windows once they've had breakfast. This time of year the birds are making a racket from about 5am and its getting light by 4.30am. Dawn and dusk tend to be the most active time for cats.

sambuka41

judgefudge wrote: »

I posted recently about how quickly my cat eats (bowl of food in ~5 mins).

This is in a similar vein. He usually sleeps in my room at night, which is grand, until about 6am (it's actually getting earlier each morning) when he begins sitting on my and pawing at my face and walking back and forth over me until I can take it no more and I get up and feed him. If I leave him outside my room he wakes me up whining outside the door. And even if I close the door going back to bed he starts whining.

There is your problem, you are inadvertently rewarding him by getting up, then the next day when you plan to not feed him he knows he just needs up the ante to get you to cave and get up.

My guy is the same, it happens every time the mornings get brighter, I have about 2-3 weeks of him waking me BUT NEVER, EVER feed him (think of the gremlins)!!! He'll get the point eventually. My guy is the most stubborn cat known to man, and he gets it, so I'd have hope for your guy!!

They love routine so keep to feeding him at the same time everyday (even weekends) and he should settle.

I should say that I feed him every morning at 7.30am so it's not like he is waiting for hours after he wakes up.

Twoandahalfmen

You can't change him.
It's his nature my 3 always so do it and always have.

mel.b

As others have said, your cat owns you, not the other way around! Depending on the time of year my cat wakes me anywhere between 4am and 7am to go outside. Normally i'd let him sleep outside at this time of year so i'm not women at 4am, but i have a new puppy in the house so i'm giving the cat some leeway and letting him sleep inside.

SpaceTime

Cats learn very very quickly how to illicit food from someone.

You have to stick to a feeding schedule and completely ignore that kind of pestering. if you give in, the cat knows it works and tries again.

Cats are remarkably good at training people
Unfortunately, you've been trained by the cat to feed on demand.

Lawrence1895

6am? That late? My two Toms do the same, but much earlier. 4:30 it was this morning

And how was it? You don't own a cat, the cat owns you?

artvanderlay

Cats may be good at training people but I once trained my old cat Bucky to rub against the syringe when I used to have to give him insulin shots, so anything is possible! He was also the biggest ass hole of a cat you could imagine but I loved the dearly departed git eventually. Don't give up!

Alicat

My 7kg fella sits on my chest until I can feel my lungs being crushed :P He tried another tactic the other morning though; he started licking my lips with his big wet slobbery tongue! (he's a dribbler)

ABajaninCork

So you had an exfoliation done for free!

Pumpkinseeds

My Husband has to try to get a cushion on his lap before our heavy cat jumps up on his lap. He gets a good tenderising otherwise. Felix is a heavy chap and he loves to reverse up Mr P's chest kneading as he goes. It's a new thing that started months ago when my Husband had a chest infection and was coughing a lot.

Nody

Yea one of our fosters does the same (no amount of bringing her into a seperate room has helped); only advice I can give you is to get a food bowl with a timer. That way he can be fed with out you or leave a ball of kibble or similar to occupy hm.

judgefudge

I'm gettin an automatic feeder when I get paid so that will hopefully help a bit with keeping it regular. It's good to hear they are all the same. I think he's just chancing his arm because he knows if he annoys me enough I'll give in.

Would leaving him outside the room all night help?

Alicat

ABajaninCork wrote: »

So you had an exfoliation done for free!

Oh yeah, just like a proper salon!

judgefudge wrote: »

I'm gettin an automatic feeder when I get paid so that will hopefully help a bit with keeping it regular. It's good to hear they are all the same. I think he's just chancing his arm because he knows if he annoys me enough I'll give in.

Would leaving him outside the room all night help?

If he's anything like my two, no. They are so persistent. We just ignore them, however difficult it is, until it's a respectable hour. I think they've sort of copped on to it? They'll wait til about 8 now, but that's when the pawing starts.

SillyMangoX

My guys are the same when I let them have a sleep over in my bedroom when the parents aren't around, normally they are in the cat room! Which is the utility, but has been kitted out with a big dog bed, a blanket, a vet bed, scratching post, litter tray, missions of toys, food and water bowls, water fountain, and they can see out the window! They love it there, Peach actually spends all evening in there, she doesn't bother coming into the house at all most nights she just stays in the utility room. And Dude is crate trained, so he has his crate upstairs with all the same gear as the others minus the scratching post! Again, he loves it and I often panic that he's gone missing but he's really concked out in his igloo bed in the crate and has closed the door behind him after getting in!

judgefudge

SillyMangoX wrote: »

My guys are the same when I let them have a sleep over in my bedroom when the parents aren't around, normally they are in the cat room! Which is the utility, but has been kitted out with a big dog bed, a blanket, a vet bed, scratching post, litter tray, missions of toys, food and water bowls, water fountain, and they can see out the window! They love it there, Peach actually spends all evening in there, she doesn't bother coming into the house at all most nights she just stays in the utility room. And Dude is crate trained, so he has his crate upstairs with all the same gear as the others minus the scratching post! Again, he loves it and I often panic that he's gone missing but he's really concked out in his igloo bed in the crate and has closed the door behind him after getting in!

Peach and dude! That's great

SillyMangoX

My other cat is Cream :P Peach and Cream are in the cat room and Dude has his crate :P

BeatNikDub

Check out this guy and then watch a few episodes on Youtube of My Cat From Hell.

I PROMISE you it will help!!

http://jacksongalaxy.com/category/cat-behavior-and-care/

wolfpawnat

My cat is up at 5ish these days. Wooden blinds and bright mornings means no sleep ins. At 9 months pregnant, it is annoying, but no matter what 8am and 8pm are feeding times. He doesn't even bother asking, he just decides that he is awake so he demands rubs. :rolleyes:

passive

Used to have this problem with our cat, he'd wake us up every night without fail and scratch the door if we try kept him out. Have switched now to keeping him in a room with food, couch and litter from about 12-7, depending on when we go to bed or he comes inside.

He doesn't mind at all. At first I thought I was tricking him downstairs with the prospect of feeding or something, but he comes down with me very happily every night, eats away then settles happily. We have a Foscam which we plan to use as a baby monitor, so I tested it to check up on him and make sure he wasn't going crazy. He eats, sleeps, and sits on the windowsill and watches the world go by. He walks up to the door to meet me in the morning, then runs back into the room for his breakfast before going about his day (usually started by some strenuous sleeping on my bed to rest after a long night's rest.)

I've been doing this over a year and would never dream of going back. The cat is perfectly content with the arrangement, and no amount of encouragement or "training" would compel him to refrain from attacking our feet at 4am if we tried leaving him with 7 rooms and a stairs to play with.

For yourself, even putting him away from 6 until morning would probably save you a lot of grief, and not really be too long if you feel guilty about it? (Edit: Although I just read you can't go back asleep. So back to plan A) Your bedtime until morning, a room with everything he needs, a window, something to climb and food. He'll be grand!)

The Sweeper

Yup, cats are crepuscular so he just wants you up at dawn, whether or not you feed him. Set him up with a cozy den somewhere that you can have two doors between him and you, feed him before bed and leave him in there. In our house, Sunday morning is 'everyone on the bed' as a treat and it's great (six cats, one 30kg bully mix dog), but then we all get up, the bed is changed and its no more pets in the bedroom until next Sunday. Makes for better sleeps for everyone.

iora_rua

I love my cats, but I love my sleep even more! Can't understand why folk allow their animals to share the bedroom and dictate their lives . Never mind the extra dusting, vacuuming - and possible allergies - the cat's favourite hunting times are dawn and dusk, when the birds etc, are most active, and you're trying to knock out the zzzs.

Put the cats/dogs in a utility/spare room with a selection of comfortable beds, water and a few treats and (hopefully) a window to act as a cat 'television'. It will take about three nights for them to get the idea, just put your ear plugs in and ignore the yowls and scratching!

Would agree with the suggestion to watch the `My Cat From Hell' series. I've just finished recording the current series and will enjoy picking up on any new ideas to keep one step ahead of my furry miscreants.

Just think, if you had children and they were waking you up at around 5.00am every morning - you'd soon do something about it, especially if you had a full working day ahead of you ...

Hope you eventually come to an amicable arrangement with your lodger!

Mountainsandh

If I was you I'd go for the automatic feeder. That or like has been suggested, 2 closed doors between you.

Does he go to sleep before you or with you ? in that case, I would top up a bowl with dry nuts somewhere for him to find it in the morning, you never know it might work ?

My cat does the paw thing on my cheek, gently first, then claws if I don't react. Then he gently nudges my nose with his wet nose, and if that doesn't work ... he "gently" bites the bridge of my nose ... I kid you not.

That usually does it, take it from me, no one on this earth can have the bridge of their nose gently bitten/squeezed in a cat's teeth and continue sleeping.

I'm lucky he's indoor/outdoor as we're in the countryside, so I get up but don't feed him and let him outside. At least it means he doesn't wake me
every day (he's quick to spot the rainy days and is happy enough to stay in then).