- Joined
- Sep 6, 2011
- Messages
- 75
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Yeah, you read that right...My older cat, who used to simply trample my head and head-butt the crap out of me to wake me up in the middle of the night when he was hungry, has recently taken to scratching me awake. It started innocently enough with pawing a few times at my arms, but he started snagging my clothes and leaving actual bloody scratches along my arms. When I started hiding my arms under the covers, he began scratching my face. Last week, I woke up screaming because he clawed at my face, hooked his claw IN my nose and pulled. My fear has been that he's going to claw my eye and he came close to that last night; I now have a scratch running very close to the outer corner of my eye. When I turn my face away, he digs his claws into the top of my head.
His feeding schedule is one pouch of food at 7:30 pm and another pouch of food in the morning. I was trying to do it around 6:30 am but I usually give in at 5 am because he's relentless. He doesn't let me get any sleep, and there are plenty of nights where he's waking me up at 1:30 am for breakfast. I spend most of the night tossing and turning to avoid his claws.
I've tried giving him a snack before bed, but it seems that the more I give him, the more he begs. I don't want to get in the bad habit of constantly giving him food either, as that's obviously not fixing the behavior issue here. He does have hyperthyroidism, but it's being controlled with medication.
I don't know how to prevent this from happening. How can I discipline him correctly? People are telling me to put him in a cage at night (I have a BIG cage like they have at boarding facilities), but he loves snuggling in bed with us so that's a last resort. I need sleep and the scratching is getting out of hand. Help!
His feeding schedule is one pouch of food at 7:30 pm and another pouch of food in the morning. I was trying to do it around 6:30 am but I usually give in at 5 am because he's relentless. He doesn't let me get any sleep, and there are plenty of nights where he's waking me up at 1:30 am for breakfast. I spend most of the night tossing and turning to avoid his claws.
I've tried giving him a snack before bed, but it seems that the more I give him, the more he begs. I don't want to get in the bad habit of constantly giving him food either, as that's obviously not fixing the behavior issue here. He does have hyperthyroidism, but it's being controlled with medication.
I don't know how to prevent this from happening. How can I discipline him correctly? People are telling me to put him in a cage at night (I have a BIG cage like they have at boarding facilities), but he loves snuggling in bed with us so that's a last resort. I need sleep and the scratching is getting out of hand. Help!
