Cats waking me up on purpose!

salsanchips

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My three cats, especially the older (2 1/2 year) female are okay sleeping in the same room with me except for one thing. Starting around 4:00 AM, they start trying to wake me up. Pouncing, stomping and even sometimes (gentle) bites or claws. I usually pull the blanket over me and roll over, trying to ignore it. After a few minutes though, I am awake. Annoying, since I usually like to sleep till 5:00 or 5:30 AM.

I know why they are doing it, they are impatient for food. Or, the older female (Moonbat) wants to go outside and take care of business (she doesn't like to use the cat boxes the two little boys use). Also, I am re-enforcing this by actually getting up when they do it.

Not sure what to do except lock them out of my room when I'm sleeping. That would be sad, as I like having them come get in bed with me, it's just the 4:00 AM thing that gets to me.

Anybody else have this problem?
 

samhainborn

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Ooooooh yeah, definately have this same problem, and like you, I let the cats win every time. Prissy doesn't like being in the house with all the kittens, so when she gets fed up, she'll demand that I get up to let her out. Not to mention that my cats split one large can of cat food in the AM and one in the PM, so they've figured out the routine. The sooner I get up, the sooner their nummies are put down. Nevermind that they a free fed kibble 24 hours a day, they gotta get their canned fix. Ridiculous! Lol.
 

kluchetta

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Tigger gets me up between 4 and 5 every morning. Not so good since I go to bed around midnight. I really can't do anything about that. Who's going to deny a 20 year old cat her food? THEN after I go back to bed she often wanders around YELLING - not sure about that - I think she gets a little confused.
 

fifi1puss

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I have been having this issue lately.
I have stopped keeping food down at night. So I am putting it back down.
 

furbum

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Originally Posted by kluchetta

Tigger gets me up between 4 and 5 every morning. Not so good since I go to bed around midnight. I really can't do anything about that. Who's going to deny a 20 year old cat her food?
I kept myself from going crazy by telling myself that they would grow out of this but what you say seems to suggest this is not true!


However, when I go on vacation I do sometimes miss it
 

strange_wings

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When do they get their last meal of the evening? If possible move it closer to bedtime. And if you have them set on a schedule that you always feed them right after you get up in the morning, change that. Make it so that you get up in the morning, go to the bathroom/shower, get ready - etc and then feed them. They'll learn your routine and use that as their signal for meals.
 

kluchetta

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Originally Posted by furbum

I kept myself from going crazy by telling myself that they would grow out of this but what you say seems to suggest this is not true!


However, when I go on vacation I do sometimes miss it
Well, I feel bad because we didn't get her until she was 14 and obviously was used to it. I didn't feel I should train her out of it! Maybe I should move to Alaska, because it gets a little bit later when the sun comes up later.
 

buzbyjlc10

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This is exactly why I don't feed Oliver his wet in the morning! He actually gets it as we go to bed (he gets shut in my room with me at night... so it's a good way of wrangling him for bedtime too) and always has his kibble available... he's not a scarfer though, he nibbles at the wet here and there and it goes back in the fridge in the morning... he does sometimes try to get me up way early to open the door... this morning it was 330am, but I got up, spritzed the bottom of the door with Feliway and got back in bed til he got let out of the room at his normal time.... I try to be the firm but loving mama, he's gotta know who's boss so to speak lol
 

david's steph

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My David wakes me up sharp every morning between exactly 5 to 5.30 am, by getting up all snuggly on my tummy, arms, starts kneading and purring and touching my face, sniffing and headbutting my face, etc..total love-bug, he just wants for me to pet/scratch him, as it can't be food because I always have food available for him and Lilly..I figure that's his time every day when he feels really loving towards me, and just HAS to express it..
 

kkh

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You're definitely not alone, SalsaNChips.
Ku Ku does that to me all the time.
No matter how late I go to bed, she wakes me up EXACTLY at 4am either jumped up on me, or poked my face.

OR, I wake up around the time(usually between 4 to 5 am) by hearing Ku Ku stirring her litter really LOUD.

My old-apartment in FL was 1 bed-room, I used to just close the door & went to sleep(regardless, she burst-opened the door in the middle of night, lol). Now, in Hawaii, I live in this tiny studio where she can run around freely. I have no choice but waking up & clean-up her litter(and/or feed her depending on how early it was) whenever she wakes me up. I can not ignore her & keep sleeping either as she'll definitely waking me up until I "serve her", lol.

I also have ants problem, I can not leave out food (either wet or dry) while I'm sleeping. I've really no choice
 
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