My Kitten Wakes Me Up At 5am Everyday, Why?

So, I got this kitten girl. She's cool I like her. Everyday for the past week she wakes me up in the Am. Not a big deal, lately my work shifts have changed so I work mornings. Thing is I'm tired most times and she has recently had a odd behavior.

Everyday in the early morning about 4am-6am I wake up to whiskers in my nose causing me to wake up. I slowly nudge her telling her No but she headbutts my skull w her face for more. I've closed my door in the bedroom on her a few nights this week before I get up. She's at the door. She's fed, litter cleaned and in a calm enviorment. Yet she's clingy, not a problem as she is a Oriental. I enjoy the affection but my question is how can I possibly get Her to not headbutt my face 12x when I am trying to sleep, without isolating her to the living room?

Hmm Oriental? I don't see it? Anyway if she really is she will likely be more vocal. She looks young though, cats take cat naps and are ready to play again. Keeping the door closed is probably a good idea! When you nudge her away she probably thinks its attention. I would not touch her or address her in anyway but roll over inside. Eventually she will learn. Try to feed her at the same time every morning too, that will help.

Congrats you have what looks to be a teenage cat ?6months? old. So the bad news first: cats wake up & are most active around sunrise & sunset. That is fantastic that it helps them hunt in the wild BUT it drives their humans insane. Good news: Cats are wonderfully intelligent & are trainable.

I suggest setting up a spare bedroom with litter/food/toys. Then when she wakes you up calmly carry her to the room & lock her in. Then ignore her until your alarm goes off. She will throw a fit & try everything to wake up her weird un-furred buddy. Eventually she will learn to not wake you up. It may take 2-12 weeks. Trust me it is worth the effort to not be woken up at 4 am for 15 years! Just like kids she needs to learn the rules. Lastly because I am NOT a morning person I never fed my cats in the morning..... ever! However if you feed her in the morning I suggest you do it after you get dressed or make coffee. That way she learns that she gets food after the coffee maker starts.

Cat Behavior For Beginners
Cats And Night Crazies!

Don't free feed. I swear by Jackson Galaxy's hunt-eat-groom-sleep cycle. I feed my 7 month kittens twice a day; smaller portioned boring dry food in the morning before I leave for work, and larger portion yummy wet food at night before bed. Tired + food coma kitty = good sleep for human

They're pretty accurate with their timings, they always wake me up a few minutes before my alarm clock.

Awww... what a cutie pie.

When first adopted my Ruby she used to wake me early every morning too. I eventually had to start putting her outside the bedroom and closing the door when she woke me. I'd tell her she had to wait for the radio to come on. I'm sure she didn't understand exactly what that meant, but after a while (weeks I think) she stopped waking me before my clock radio did.

That's what worked for me. TCS also has an article on How To Stop My Cat From Waking Me Up At Night? that may be helpful.

Do you feed Miss Samus as soon as you wake up? My bf was doing that with his cat for a while when he was adding in more wet food and she started meowing outside his door to wake him up because she knew him waking up meant food.

Based on what I read here, I started out always drinking my coffee (or at least starting it on weekends when I slept in late) before I fed Lelia, so she associates coffee with her breakfast and lets me sleep in (I normally wake up at 6 and feed her around 7 - I slept until almost 9:30 again without being kitty disturbed). Also, I leave a bit of extra kibble in her bowl on nights when I know I want to sleep in a bit so she stays full longer.

lol, 5 am is when my guys are ready for me to get up too. head buts, licks, jumping my feet, you name it they are ready to go. I think cats are most active at dawn, and dusk, so it naturally the time for them to get busy. I get up about 530 most mornings so no big deal for me, but when i want to sleep in i have found that if i grab the one being a pest, and snuggle up they either sleep, or go away and let me alone for a bit longer. LOL most of mine do not like to be held, so they usually go away.
They have gotten a litter better as they have gotten older, sometimes i can sleep until 630 now

Both my dog and cat understand they have to leave me alone on weekdays until the alarm goes off, and they can't harrass me until I've sit snooze have a million times at which point I really do need the extra incentive to get up. On weekends rolling over when there's a furry face in your face really does work quite well. I can sleep until 7-8:30, which is good for me because I take a good 2 hours to start being productive in the morning. The earlier I'm up, the earlier I can start getting things done!

If they're really pushy I find forced cuddles work well, since both absolutely hate it. They quickly understand to stay away unless they want to be snatched up and held captive in a hug.

How long have you had her? She might be going through a settling in phase and making sure you're still with her, etc., and it will pass with time.
She's beautiful.
Whenever one of my cats decides to start doing funny (not funny) stuff at 4:00AMish, I think of this.

Bruce found out that scratching the mattress gets us up. Or throwing everything on our nightstand to the floor. He's a specialist in iphone throwing. He has us very well trained by this point. One of us gets up, feeds the bugger and gets back to bed. For a long time we had to close the door after that, because he wanted playtime, but he apparently outgrew that phase and now just comes back to bed after eating. Oh and he used to do it around 4am, now we can get to sleep until 6 most nights.

And no, we weren't able to deter him from getting us up to feed him. Besides braking everything we own, he can meow really loudly for at least one hour (the most we dared to try) and we don't want the neighbors complaining.