Cat wakes us up every morning with loud meowing

[Remi&RiRi]

We have two cats, one of our cats is quiet and meows every once in awhile and our other cat (RiRi) is super vocal. There may not be a lot that can be done about this but I was just wondering if anyone else had experience with a very vocal cat. Since I have allergies we don't let the cats sleep in the bedroom. We have discovered that RiRi is probably just meowing because she wants to be close to us. She will walk back and forth by our door and meow for 15 minutes and sometimes even scratch at the door. She will start meowing at our door in the middle of the night when she hears us get up to the bathroom. I find that if I'm super quiet sometimes she doesn't meow. So I think when she can hear us she looks at it as an opportunity to get our attention haha. We leave toys out in the living room at night and her meowing does not seem to be about food either. When I open our bedroom door she will run and jump up on the bed and basically demand cuddles lol. Unfortunately there are some morning I'm getting ready for work and cannot give her pets and she will then stand by my feet look up at me and meow haha. I think she just likes a lot of attention but it would be nice not to be waken up by her meows every morning. When we adopted her, we found out that her previous owner had ten cats total! I have no idea how she could have gotten the attention she's seeking then but with just our two cats, we always try to give her as much as we possibly can.

 

[Cat McCannon]

You can reduce the allergens your cats give off by brushing them every day.

When you lock your cats out of your room, your locking them out of territory that's socially significant. When your cat hears you wake up, she wants back in and also needs to reconnect with her people.

One possible solution is to reward her for being quiet. Wait until she has a quiet moment and come out to praise her and give bet a treat. Do this within 2 seconds of the good behavior.

Another possible solution is to brush your cats everyday and place beds in your room for them to sleep in. This way, they aren't locked out of socially significant territory or away from their people and have a place to sleep that's out of your bed. This should reduce your allergic reactions.

 

[suzeanna]

To help with allergies, you could also possibly look into getting an air purifier for the bedroom. They're great to have regardless of pets. I live in a very populous city and got one with lots of carbon to remove VOCs from the indoor air. It's really interesting -- the litterbox is in our bedroom and the post-poop smell goes away very quickly now instead of lingering.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I would personally try the air purifier and the brushing to help with your allergies. In so far as allowing the cats into your bedroom, if you don't think just putting them in a bed of their own in your room would work, you can always get enclosed beds for them, set them where they can see you in the bed, and keep them enclosed in the beds to see if that would satisfy RiRi who seems to be very unhappy with being separated from you at night. You could try some calming treats to give to them when you enclose them to see if that would help any. It might take a bit of time to get them used to the enclosed beds, but RiRi, especially, may eventually find that to be a better alternative to being locked out of your room.

Play time right before bed might also help settle RiRi down as well. The more tired she is the less likely she will be as vocal and more likely interested in a nice nap!

I truly think if RiRi has done this all her life, it isn't going to be something you are going to be able to change. And, most cats as they age seem to increase their need to be around their caretakers.

Feeby is 16+ yo and hasn't always been extremely vocal, but over recent years she has 'upped her game' in this respect not only at night but during the day when ever I am in another part of the house and she is looking for me. At this stage of her life, she pretty much prefers to be within at least a couple feet of me nearly all the time.

 

[Remi&RiRi]

You can reduce the allergens your cats give off by brushing them every day.

When you lock your cats out of your room, your locking them out of territory that's socially significant. When your cat hears you wake up, she wants back in and also needs to reconnect with her people.

One possible solution is to reward her for being quiet. Wait until she has a quiet moment and come out to praise her and give bet a treat. Do this within 2 seconds of the good behavior.

Another possible solution is to brush your cats everyday and place beds in your room for them to sleep in. This way, they aren't locked out of socially significant territory or away from their people and have a place to sleep that's out of your bed. This should reduce your allergic reactions.

Thanks for your response. We let the cats sleep in our room last night and there was significantly less meowing. The only problem is the quality of sleep I get. I feel bad but we have a full size bed (going to move and upgrade in the next few months) but long story short with two cats on the bed, I find myself sleeping in a twisted position. Both of my cats sleep on my side instead of my boyfriends and try to get pets from me which is cute but not ideal when I'm trying to sleep. We have two cat beds and they have never slept in them once lol! They don't even go near them or show any interest. I feel bad pushing them off the bed because they may not understand... Its also hard because we let them on the bed during the day sometimes so it may confuse them. I do agree though that they feel our bedroom is significant territory. We do have a hepa filter and unfortunately we have not been brushing them everyday but I'm going to try to make this more of a habit. Both of my cats usually try to walk away when I brush them so I only get so far. Sorry for the long reply but I appreciate the advice. I may have to try your treat idea and see how that works!

 

[Remi&RiRi]

To help with allergies, you could also possibly look into getting an air purifier for the bedroom. They're great to have regardless of pets. I live in a very populous city and got one with lots of carbon to remove VOCs from the indoor air. It's really interesting -- the litterbox is in our bedroom and the post-poop smell goes away very quickly now instead of lingering.

I agree with this! I feel like the one we have helps a lot.

 

[Remi&RiRi]

Hi. I would personally try the air purifier and the brushing to help with your allergies. In so far as allowing the cats into your bedroom, if you don't think just putting them in a bed of their own in your room would work, you can always get enclosed beds for them, set them where they can see you in the bed, and keep them enclosed in the beds to see if that would satisfy RiRi who seems to be very unhappy with being separated from you at night. You could try some calming treats to give to them when you enclose them to see if that would help any. It might take a bit of time to get them used to the enclosed beds, but RiRi, especially, may eventually find that to be a better alternative to being locked out of your room.

Play time right before bed might also help settle RiRi down as well. The more tired she is the less likely she will be as vocal and more likely interested in a nice nap!

I truly think if RiRi has done this all her life, it isn't going to be something you are going to be able to change. And, most cats as they age seem to increase their need to be around their caretakers.

Feeby is 16+ yo and hasn't always been extremely vocal, but over recent years she has 'upped her game' in this respect not only at night but during the day when ever I am in another part of the house and she is looking for me. At this stage of her life, she pretty much prefers to be within at least a couple feet of me nearly all the time.

Thanks so much for responding! I have an air purifier and I'm going to try to make brushing more of a habit (although both of my cats are not very patient with this). I have two cat beds. One open and one that can fold to be enclosed/covered (if that makes any sense). When you are talking about enclosed are you talking about ones that have are covered but have an opening? If so I'm not sure how I could get her to stay in there. Other wise I found some cat beds that are a little similar to a cage in the sense that you can keep them enclosed but then I don't know how she could use the litterbox or if thats something she would be comfortable with (but if so I could always give it a try). I do like the calming treats idea and I will also try to start playing with her more before bed. Thanks for sharing about Feeby. I agree, I think this is just part of RiRi's personality and that it can't really be changed. She just wants to be close to us. I linked our current cat bed along with another possible bed/cage we could try. Let me know what you think, thanks!

This is one of the cat bed we currently have:
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...st-2-in-1-novelty-pyramid-convertible-cat-bed
This is one of the only ones I could find that is called a stress free cat cage:
NECOICHI Portable Stress Free Cat Cage - Chewy.com

 

[FeebysOwner]

I linked our current cat bed along with another possible bed/cage we could try. Let me know what you think,

I was thinking more along the lines of the latter one. But, you mentioned in another post that you are concerned about confining her and whether or not that would be an issue with use of the litter box. There are playpen type crates/kennels that might be big enough to house a litter box for overnight. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IS5TPVI/?tag=thecatsite

 

[suzeanna]

Maybe you can try brushing them when they're taking up space on your side of the bed at night jk. They might get bored of it -- my cat slept at the foot of my bed for a few months after adoption but eventually stopped and only does it maybe once a month now. You could also maybe try to make a more appealing "bed" in the bedroom by piling some fleece blankets on top of a desk or somewhere they can easily get to, e.g. office chair.