cat keeps scratching the walls at 5am

saturnluna

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hello everyone!

my 11 month old cat (luna) has been scratching the wall outside my mothers bedroom every morning at 5am (like clockwork) for about 2 months now. she has her last meal every night at 11pm and I leave out kibble for her overnight in case she gets hungry. I also make it a priority to play with her before bed until all her energy is drained. she sleeps with me in my bed until 5am and then its become her routine to go scratch the walls outside my mothers bedroom door to wake her up. whats odd is that its not because she is hungry as she almost always has leftover kibble & whenever I have tried to feed her breakfast that early she only takes 1-2 bites and then goes back to my mothers door. she has a weird relationship with my mom since its her grandma she acts differently than she does with me, she knows my mom gives in to her misbehaviors whereas i am not afraid to discipline her (in healthy ways of course) for example my mom goes away to the cottage some weekends and i notice luna does not even attempt to wake me up in the mornings she just waits until im awake. the only time the scratching at her bedroom door stops is when my mom gets up and comes to sit in the living room with her, even if I sit in there she will still want my mom and continue to scratch.

hoping to finally find some answers on how to fix this. I feel bad for my mom as she works 10-12 hour shifts everyday and I want her to be getting a good nights rest uninterrupted. she has a very very very soft heart when it comes to animals (wont even kill a fly) but i think that she will listen to advice on how to properly discipline luna with this behavior if it comes from other experienced cat moms. thank you all so much in advance. :wavey:
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi there! Any reason not to shut your bedroom door so that she is confined to your room since she sleeps there anyway? Then she won't have access to your mom's door.
 
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saturnluna

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Hi there! Any reason not to shut your bedroom door so that she is confined to your room since she sleeps there anyway? Then she won't have access to your mom's door.
the only thing stopping me is that she sometimes goes out in the living room to play by herself and some nights she prefers to sleep on her cat tree which is out there
 
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saturnluna

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Bring her toys and cat tree to your room. Or. buy another cat tree for your room, so she has two.
ill bring her toys in here tonight and close the door, i wish i could fit her cat tree in here but unfortunately theres no space for it. ill let you know how it goes in the morning tomorrow! thank you so much for your help!
 

FeebysOwner

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I hope it goes well!! :crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers::crossfingers: Maybe look into buying a smaller sized cat tree, one that is narrow but tall, for your room??
 
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ArtNJ

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Does your mom "give in" and let her in when she scratches at 5 am? If so, thats the cat being smart. I mean, what is going to happen if every time a toddler whines for a while, he gets a cookie? A lot of whining. Its the same with cats.

To the extent the cat is getting bored and impatient at 5 am, there may be some acting out in your room as well. But if you can ignore it, the behavior may die out or not really get enough traction to become a habit in the first place. If you give in? Then congratulations, your now your mom :)

Once these things really get dug in as a habit, they can be super hard to deal with, because as you know, its basically impossible to ignore a cat that just keeps scratching at 5 am. Maybe you can do it for a day or two, but if the habit would take weeks to get rid of, ignoring the cat for that long is sanity destroying. And opening up the door and yelling or squirting the cat simply does not work. It seems that cats view that as a form of attention, and any attention is good enough.

Hopefully the fact that the cat views you as tougher to manipulate than your mom means that your starting from scratch and there is no habit as to your room. That should be the case, more or less. Good luck.
 

danteshuman

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I think your mom needs to start sleeping with a box fan or two on at night, every night. That or Luna needs to start sleeping with you (& a fan.) Then don’t let her out until your morning alarm goes off in the morning.

What happens if your mom sleeps with her door opens a crack? Would Luna still wake her up of just come sleep with her? I left my door open and hung a curtain over my door for privacy when I had roommates because my cats hated to be locked in (all cats hate closed doors.) At the end of the day your mom needs to not reward Luna for waking her up.
 
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