Emerson is Driving Me Up a Wall!

[EmersonandEvie]

My sweet boy has gotten into the habit of waking me up at the ungodly early hour of 3:30am to feed him and my other two cats (the other two never wake me up, there must be some unspoken kitty rule that Emerson is the one to do so). This is relatively new (started after Christmas) behavior. He used to wait until around 5:30 to want to be fed, bit this 3:30 pattern has been going on now for several weeks. I've tried ignoring him, feeding them a hefty snack before my husband comes to bed around 1, swatting at him...NOTHING is working. I even tried just letting him cry for a night, which he did for a solid hour before I broke down and fed him because I obviously wasn't sleeping. I have to be awake at 5:30 for work, so I can't have him keeping me up for hours. He scratches the wall above my head, and if I don't respond to that, he scratches the wall behind our door.

Even on the weekends, when I'm off, he expects to be fed at 3:30. Then, he will crawl up next to me around 6 am and chortle, purr, knead, etc. all over me. I'm glad he loves me, but please, let me sleep!

The only change is that I am transitioning them to pine pellets. Their litterboxes are currently half pine/half clay litter. I have seen him use the box before without issue.

Is this stress behavior? What else can I do? He plays and eats well.

 

[ArtNJ]

Ignoring him for one night isn't going to cut it, but its a two step process:

(1) rule out actual hunger. How many feedings and what do you feed? Three or more feedings and wet food, at least for the last feeding, is best. You can consider a timed feeder if you want to be sure to rule out actual hunger;

(2) if its a habit and not actual hunger, you have to ignore him for as long as it takes. Weeks if need be.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Ignoring him for one night isn't going to cut it, but its a two step process:

(1) rule out actual hunger. How many feedings and what do you feed? Three or more feedings and wet food, at least for the last feeding, is best. You can consider a timed feeder if you want to be sure to rule out actual hunger;

(2) if its a habit and not actual hunger, you have to ignore him for as long as it takes. Weeks if need be.

1. We do two feedings a day, wet food only, because we both work and are far enough away that we can't go home on lunch. Emerson is a lean 14lbs and really can't eat more than 3oz of food at a time. They get hard food at night as a snack before husband comes to bed. I can start letting them split a 3oz can at night, with Em getting half the can and Evie and Dexter each getting 1/4. We can see if that will work.

I have toyed with the idea of a timed feeder, but my worry would be that Dexter or Evie would eat the extra food. They do not need any extra food, especially Dexter.

2. Praying this is not the case because I value my sleep and do not want to be grumpy at work!

 

[ArtNJ]

Respectfully, I think two moist feedings plus a dry snack before bed is the wrong way to do it. Dry is more calories per volume and does less to satisfy hunger than moist (if giving same calories). So at night is the least useful time for a dry snack. If you want to give some dry, during the day would be better with a moist meal before bed. And cats are known to have trouble with two feedings. The # of calories can be fine, but hunger issues can crop up due to the time in between which leads to food anxiety. I would split into 3x moist feedings of morning, home from work, and before bed. That may not solve your problem at this point, but at least it should address any hunger issues.

Lots of people struggle with early wakeup. It doesn't have to be hunger, unfortunately. Some cats will do it just for attention. Any sort of negative reinforcement doesn't seem to work -- any interaction is interaction for a bored cat and may reinforce the behavior. That is why we usually recommend ignoring the cat for as long as it takes (once hunger is ruled out).

I totally hear you on how difficult it is to ignore a persistent cat. I have a furnished basement now which I find an ideal solution, but remember the old days when this felt like an impossible challenge at times.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

We can't do home from work. We both work too far away to go home during our allotted lunch time. We will try the wet instead of dry before bed! Thank you!

 

[ArtNJ]

We can't do home from work. We both work too far away to go home during our allotted lunch time. We will try the wet instead of dry before bed! Thank you!

Sorry for being unclear. I meant one feeding in the morning, one feeding whenever you get home from work, and one before bed. I recognize if you are working 12 hours a day, that may not work, but the 3 feedings do not need to be exactly evenly spaced. 7 am 6 pm and 11 pm, for example. There may still be some hunger during the big interval when you are at work, but at least you wont have hunger at 3 am.

Good luck!

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Sorry for being unclear. I meant one feeding in the morning, one feeding whenever you get home from work, and one before bed. I recognize if you are working 12 hours a day, that may not work, but the 3 feedings do not need to be exactly evenly spaced.

Good luck!

Oh! That would actually work quite well. I get home around 330. We will try that!

 

[She's a witch]

If I were you, I wouldn’t change the current feeding times but simply add the last one. I wouldn’t want to mess with their schedule too much, I wouldn’t change breakfast and dinner times but I’d add the second wet dinner instead of dry snacks just before your husband goes to sleep. It needs to be as filling as possible so I’d make it big. This is what we do, the very last thing before going to bed is to feed the cats. They’ve never woken us up at night nor in the morning. You don’t necessarily have to increase the food intake if you can decrease the previous portions, if you think that would work for them?

My worry is that if you start feeding them at 3:30 and then late in the evening, it could create some other hunger related issues around their previous dinner time. If they’re used to eat later than when you come home, I’d leave it that way, and simply add another meal just before you all go to sleep.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

They were used to getting their supper around 6:30, but because they've been getting fed so early, they start circling around 5 and begging.

 

[She's a witch]

They were used to getting their supper around 6:30, but because they've been getting fed so early, they start circling around 5 and begging.

Yeah ok, then maybe I’d feed them at 5pm? Well in any way, you’d be able to make some changes and you’ll see what works best for all of you.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Update:

We have started a new food routine. The cats get fed full meals at 6 am, 4pm, and then again between 12:30am and 1am (a small meal) before B comes to bed (night owls...I'll never understand). It seems to have helped a lot with Emerson's behaviors, although he still will wake me up around 5 to get fed. He usual settles back down once I tell him to lie down, and I will definitely take one wake up vs. four or five a night!

It seems that he was just hungry after all. We also upped the amount of food given to him at each meal (taken from Dexter's bowl, who needs to lose a little weight), which has helped a lot too. I think he has filled out to where he needs to be and I think Dexter may have lost a little weight, so it's a win-win in our household!

 

[Lisannez]

We got a feeder on amazon that we can control from our phones. So in addition to being able to set it for a time to feed, we can also go on and feed her manually from anywhere, it was around 100, but good investment. We have a cat very similar to what you describe. And we find things that work for awhile, but then eventually she goes back to the constant asking for food. With most behaviors our cats learn after about two weeks, then crying all night won’t let them in the bedroom, but with feeding our food obsessed cat will NEVER give up. We tried ear plugs you name it. We set the auto feeder for 4:30 am and for the most part she will allow us to sleep until around 7:00 am. So we then had to set it for 8:30 am and that worked for a bit. She is health wise fine. Our other cat will not eat her sisters food, thankfully. But what I have read about is feeders that open just for one cat. So the cat has a collar that opens it, they are pricey but you could look into that. We humans need our sleep so we can work to provide for our cats . I wish I could tell you that this will stop, but with us, it only seems to stop For short periods of time. Invest in some good ear plugs and try the auto feeder. We have also tried giving her very small portions of food throughout the day, but that does not work, she knows she is not getting the full amounts and will scream. Some cats just love to eat.