Cat won't stop clawing my hair every AM!

shopaholik285

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I have a little problem with my 8 month old cat. Every morning around 3-4 am she will start clawing at my hair so I get out of bed to feed her. Sometimes I'm working at 5 am so I don't really mind getting up to feed her. But other times I want to sleep in! And then she plays with my hair so much that I can hear her claws snagging on my hair and breaking it off. I know that sounds really weird but its true. Is there any way to break her of this habit?

Sometimes I will pull my comforter over my head so she can't get to my hair and she will try a few times then give up. I feel bad doing this but sometimes I just can't get out of bed that early when its so cold outside.

Any ideas/suggestions would be greattttly appreciated! Thanks!!
 

audiocat

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Forrest used to do this to me all the time. Your baby is probably trying to get your attention.

I ended up putting my hair in a loose bun on the top of my head with a satin scrunchie. I sleep with it that way every night now. If I forget to put my hair up, I'll wake up with him pawing at my hair.

Forrest still finds ways to wake me up early in the am....just other annoying ways
 

cloud_shade

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As long as you get up to feed her some of the time, she'll keep doing it. My Odo has found a lot of different ways to wake me. When meowing didn't work, he pulled my hair (by taking my hair in his mouth and pushing my head away with his paw). If that didn't work, he would bite my head. Until recently, when he and Zek were banned from the bedroom, his preferred method was to get right next to my ear, knead my head, and purr very loudly into my ear all at once.

You can also try feeding your cat before bed. That usually helps with mine.
 

catmom2wires

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My deceased cat, Hannah used to choose one hair of my bangs and pull it out!!!! That kind of stuff got her banned from the room at night. However, like the other poster, she just found other ways to annoy.

She's been gone a year now, and all was quiet in the early morning until recently. Now Felix will patrol the house, meowing pitifully around 5 am. It really echoes, too, as we recently replaced all the carpets with bamboo flooring. I really need to have a talk with him about his new habit. LOL

Good luck!

Cally
 

nance

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My cat Scooter loves to eat hair......she wakes me up just about every night doing that....she has givin me a funky hair do in the past....She doesn't only eat mine...she goes after the kids in my daycare....my daughter...anyone is fair game to her if your sitting on the couch....Drives me nuts when I am trying to sleep...she is a stubborn cat.....
 

rummi

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lots of hair-loving cats here


kimi luv to play with my hair too. sometimes i fall asleep reading on the sofa, she will come 'comb' thru my hair, n taste it too. once woke up to some very damp clumps of hairs near my ears.
 

auntie crazy

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If your kitty is showing love and/or trying to get you to play with her, I think maybe hissing and showing extreme displeasure might train her out of that behavior. Maybe.


If she's waking you up so she can get fed, however, then you have to break her association between the two. From now on, find something specific to do that you can do every day before you feed her. Make yourself a cup of coffee, go out for a walk, or take a shower, etc. Get her to associate an activity (other than you crawling out of bed
) with being fed.

No one in my house eats until after I've had a shower, and I typically feed them within minutes after I get out. 'Though I have quite an audience while I'm toweling off, none of my cats do anything other than cuddle with me in bed, so I consider it a more than fair trade-off.
 

kittkatt

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Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

No one in my house eats until after I've had a shower, and I typically feed them within minutes after I get out. 'Though I have quite an audience while I'm toweling off, none of my cats do anything other than cuddle with me in bed, so I consider it a more than fair trade-off.

You have an "audience" too, heh?


Just about every cat I've ever had has tried getting my attention early in the morning by pulling my hair. It was a real hoot, when I had 4 kittens going at it!


If you give in to your kitty, she'll keep on pestering you b/c she knows she's gonna get her way. So you just have to ignore her. She'll get the point eventually.
 

emmylou

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Cloud_shade is correct. By getting up to feed her some of the time, you've rewarded that behavior and taught her that it's effective.

The solution is consistency. You have to ignore the behavior absolutely -- pretend to stay asleep, don't talk or move or respond in any way. Never get up to feed the cat in the middle of the night.

This will probably take a few months, but it works. She'll give up after a few minutes when you ignore her, then come back and try again. Once she learns that these behaviors don't work, she'll stop completely.

I did this with my cat, and after a couple of months he was perfectly trained. Now, whether I wake up at 7 a.m. or 12 p.m., he just sits quietly on the bed and waits.

And, yes, make sure she has dry food available during the night, so she doesn't get hungry.
 

heddafish

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My cat does this too but not my hair he steps on my head, taps me with his paw and meows, jumps on the dresser and knocks things off, makes as much noise as possible. If you get up to feed her it rewards her behavior. But sometimes our schdules are consistent. I try to keep my cats on a consistent feeding schedule too. Tis helps a little but heaven forbid I get up at 3AM to pee as the cats think, she's up it must be morning and time to eat.

Then I go back to sleep.


Sorry this might not help you though.
 
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