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- Jan 29, 2020
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Hi! Some background - me and my husband own two cats: an older boy (Hammy) who aside from being a bit of a wimp, has no real behavioural issues to speak of, and a little girl (Kaiju: about 8 months) that we picked up from the shelter last year. We were expecting the usual behavioural problems growing up - kittens will be kittens, after all - and we were ready to employ the tried and true strategy of "punish bad behaviours by ignoring them". And we tried. By god we tried. But she's just too persistent.
Many of the issues (getting into things we don't want her in, chasing the older cat, being a general nuisance for fun) we can and have happily worked around (hiding things we don't want her in, giving the older cat his own spaces to relax). But the big issue is breakfast time. We have a very strict routine that never wavers: my alarm goes off at 8AM, and I come out and feed both the cats. I have to stay and watch for a bit, because Hammy is a slow eater and often wants to save his food for later, while Kaiju is a quick eater and really wants Hammy's food. It's the same food. It's just a "grass is greener on the other side" situation, really. But every morning somewhere between 5 and 8 AM, Kaiju gets restless. She wants her breakfast. She'll bolt around the room, jump up and down on us, chew on the noisiest thing she can find (that we cannot hide or remove). We've tried having her out of the room. She wails. Constantly. I'm surprised we haven't had a noise complaint. She also tries to dig her way under the door - we have carpet, and the security deposit is almost definitely already gone.
We never give in to her crying, or trying to wake us up - we always feed her at 8AM. But still she persists. We've considered automatic feeders, but because of Hammy's slow and inconsistent eating, we can't figure out a way to do it that wouldn't end up with her getting way more than her fair share of breakfast. My husband has such busy days, and he's having to do it all on barely 4 hours of consistent sleep - we're at the end of our rope.
TL;DR - Baby cat wants breakfast RIGHT NOW, and no amount of ignorance will deter her. What do we do?
(I've attached a picture of the giant monster baby in question. Y'know. For science.)
Many of the issues (getting into things we don't want her in, chasing the older cat, being a general nuisance for fun) we can and have happily worked around (hiding things we don't want her in, giving the older cat his own spaces to relax). But the big issue is breakfast time. We have a very strict routine that never wavers: my alarm goes off at 8AM, and I come out and feed both the cats. I have to stay and watch for a bit, because Hammy is a slow eater and often wants to save his food for later, while Kaiju is a quick eater and really wants Hammy's food. It's the same food. It's just a "grass is greener on the other side" situation, really. But every morning somewhere between 5 and 8 AM, Kaiju gets restless. She wants her breakfast. She'll bolt around the room, jump up and down on us, chew on the noisiest thing she can find (that we cannot hide or remove). We've tried having her out of the room. She wails. Constantly. I'm surprised we haven't had a noise complaint. She also tries to dig her way under the door - we have carpet, and the security deposit is almost definitely already gone.
We never give in to her crying, or trying to wake us up - we always feed her at 8AM. But still she persists. We've considered automatic feeders, but because of Hammy's slow and inconsistent eating, we can't figure out a way to do it that wouldn't end up with her getting way more than her fair share of breakfast. My husband has such busy days, and he's having to do it all on barely 4 hours of consistent sleep - we're at the end of our rope.
TL;DR - Baby cat wants breakfast RIGHT NOW, and no amount of ignorance will deter her. What do we do?
(I've attached a picture of the giant monster baby in question. Y'know. For science.)
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