DONE. Cat will not stop meowing at door.

butane

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I love my Sugar to death, I really do, but heavily pregnant I cannot stand this new behaviour.

I am writing this at 2 AM, in tears because of how utterly exhausted I am.

About 10 months ago after settling in to our new place, my husband and I made the decision to stop letting Sugar sleep in our room due to her severe (at the time I thought THAT was severe psssssh) sleep disruption her night time shenanigans caused.

She's been fine until the last 3 months, nearly every single night, she's started meowing incessantly at my bedroom door, going so far, in fact, as to shove her snout as far into the space beneath the door as she can and meowing. ONLY at night. This always starts at 1:30 and doesn't stop .


This is not a behaviour that can be ignored, and not something a TV can drown out. I cannot have this happening with a newborn.

She isn't neglected at all attention wise, plenty of toys, has full food/water and clean litter every night before bed.

She cannot sleep in my room at night. She's too rowdy, falling off of dressers, knocking things down, destructive in here at night.

We have two other cats and I'm actually afraid that they'll pick up on this behavior.


I am at the point where I do not even care to know why, I'm too fed up and tired to care. I just really need to know how to correct this behaviour.
 

Norachan

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Hi Butane,

That sounds like a nightmare. I'm useless if I don't get a full night's sleep too.

I think you need to change Sugar's routine so that she is ready to sleep through the night. Cat's in the wild follow a hunt~kill~eat~sleep cycle. If you can mimic this she'll sleep longer.

About an hour before bed time get Sugar engaged in a really energetic play time. You'll need something that makes her think she is hunting, those wand toys that swish through the air and make a sound like whirling wings are great. You need to play with her for around 20 minutes, build up the excitement, get her more and more active, let her catch and kill the "bird", give her a bit of a breather and then start again. At the end of the play time she should be panting and worn out. About 10 minutes after this feed her a small, high protein meal.

After this she should groom herself and fall asleep.

Have a look on You Tube for Jackson Galaxy's How To Play With Your Cat, that will give you some good tips.

Good luck, hope this helps.
 
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butane

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We actually started the routine of ATTEMPTED play time before bed a month ago, however, last night we got her to engage a bit more as best we possibly could (she's a prissy princess who prefers to spend her time looking pretty and ignoring others).

All this did was delay her meowing by 2 hours.

I feel defeated.
 
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butane

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I also want to mention that a while ago I also tried a more drastic strategy and of staying next to her all day and prevented her from sleeping at all, at the behest of a vet friend of mine.

I felt terrible for doing it and it did almost nothing but make her meowing start at 4 instead of 1.
 

momto3cats

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Is there another room she can spend the nights in, far enough from your bedroom that you won't be disturbed if she meows? That may be the only solution that will let you get a good night's sleep. You can make it a routine that she might even look forward to - play, then food in "her" room, with a comfy bed nearby. It helps if you give her a favorite food or treat that she will only get at that time.
 

razorooni

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Hello, I also have this problem. My cat Zombie just wont leave us alone at night. She will continusly scratch at the door and pull the carpet tiles off the floor. Another problem is that she will always always ALWAYS follow me into the bathroom and im so sick and tired of it. Any help would be greatly appreciated :) sorry for spelling i am tired
 

sarah ann

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There are people on this forum who do not like squirt bottles, but they work really well for situations like this! 

I would try to ignore the behavior at first. If that fails (which appears to be the case) you can use a squirt bottle.

I would also look for toys you can invest in. Your cat is clearly bored and lonely and is vocalizing excessively as a result. It is nearly impossible to keep indoor cats happy without sometime for them to chase. Perhaps an automatic lazer light will be a good distraction.

Other options: change what time you feed the cat!  Obviously meal time leads to excess energy

Change the lighting in the house. If you have the lights off at night, try turning them on at night, and keeping them off during the daytime.

If your cat is sleeping during the day, wake her up!  Don't let your cat sleep all day and expect her not to stay up at night.

Try putting something in front of the bedroom door.... For instance a box with strings or holes cut in it for her to play in. 
 

Norachan

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There are people on this forum who do not like squirt bottles, but they work really well for situations like this! 

I would try to ignore the behavior at first. If that fails (which appears to be the case) you can use a squirt bottle.

Rather than a squirt bottle, how about one of those canisters of air with a sensor that give a little puff of air when the cat moves in front of them?


You wouldn't have to get up to squirt her every time she started scratching at the door and she'd learn to associate the unpleasant air squirt with the door, rather than the water squirter with you.
 

prometheus

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My cat, Lily, does this too but (thankfully) not every night.  I have one of those cans of compressed air that you can buy for $4 at Walmart.  When she starts at the door, I get up and spray her with it.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  But even when it doesn't, she usually goes somewhere else in the house to meow...away from my door.   It's still a disruption to my sleep and very frustrating, but it's the best solution I've been able to find so far.
 

misterwhiskers

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I wonder if she can tell you're pregnant via your smell. She simply might be worrying about you.
 

rarepuss

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My first answer would be to get a second cat, but you already have three.

I noticed you said cat has food and water. With my two cats, they are brother and sister siblings, I only feed wet food and I never leave dry food out. Routine is major key here. You need to establish when they sleep, when they eat.

I believe you may be able to set the natural sleeping cycle by feeding wet only. I feed my cats three times a day. I feed once in the morning then I leave for work then I come home and feed again at night. I followed the same thing on the weekend even though I don't go to work. Then I feed right before I go to sleep. Right after the last feeding, I get in my bed and literally five minutes later both cats get on my bed with me and go to sleep and sleep soundly through the night with me, without any interruptions. This lasts six or seven hours or up to nine hours a night. The cats are three years old now.

Some experts will say play with them to get them tired. I don't believe in that. They are not dogs that you need to play with. I hardly play with my cats. I spend a ton of quality quiet calm time with them but not high energy playtime. I am a human not a cat. My cats play with each other, they play rough, they play like a cat would play with another cat and that's daily! They play constantly but that's not something I would do with them. Cats naturally sleep 20 hours a day, they're not supposed to be artificially tired out so they would sleep. In fact, when other people play with them, like when Friends come over and try to play with my cats, they get agitated, not relaxed and ready to go to sleep.

Just something for you to think about.

And just some food for thought, cats do much better on the wet food versus dry food. My big cat lost about 7 pounds in roughly a year since I switched him from dry to wet food at about 9 months old. He was pushing 22lbs, and since he lost the weight, he's been stable and a lean 15lbs now, for 2 years. Looks amazing. Make sure to feed food low in carbs, look for anything lower than 5%. No rice content, etc. I feed fancy feast classic, no other types though, no gravy lovers, etc.

Good luck!
 

madeu

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My first answer would be to get a second cat, but you already have three.

I noticed you said cat has food and water. With my two cats, they are brother and sister siblings, I only feed wet food and I never leave dry food out. Routine is major key here. You need to establish when they sleep, when they eat.

I believe you may be able to set the natural sleeping cycle by feeding wet only. I feed my cats three times a day. I feed once in the morning then I leave for work then I come home and feed again at night. I followed the same thing on the weekend even though I don't go to work. Then I feed right before I go to sleep. Right after the last feeding, I get in my bed and literally five minutes later both cats get on my bed with me and go to sleep and sleep soundly through the night with me, without any interruptions. This lasts six or seven hours or up to nine hours a night. The cats are three years old now.

Some experts will say play with them to get them tired. I don't believe in that. They are not dogs that you need to play with. I hardly play with my cats. I spend a ton of quality quiet calm time with them but not high energy playtime. I am a human not a cat. My cats play with each other, they play rough, they play like a cat would play with another cat and that's daily! They play constantly but that's not something I would do with them. Cats naturally sleep 20 hours a day, they're not supposed to be artificially tired out so they would sleep. In fact, when other people play with them, like when Friends come over and try to play with my cats, they get agitated, not relaxed and ready to go to sleep.

Just something for you to think about.

And just some food for thought, cats do much better on the wet food versus dry food. My big cat lost about 7 pounds in roughly a year since I switched him from dry to wet food at about 9 months old. He was pushing 22lbs, and since he lost the weight, he's been stable and a lean 15lbs now, for 2 years. Looks amazing. Make sure to feed food low in carbs, look for anything lower than 5%. No rice content, etc. I feed fancy feast classic, no other types though, no gravy lovers, etc.

Good luck!
 
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