My cat body slams my roommates door in the AM

[elliec16]

I've had my cat for about a year now, he's 5 and declawed by the previous owner. He's a really sweet cat, super snuggly and chill.
In December 2019 he started strictly drinking from the sink, which was fine until he would harass my roommate at 6 am when she would get up for work. He would hear her alarm and start meowing and body slamming her door. Luckily she wears earplugs, so it would only wake up me and my boyfriend. But it happens every couple of nights from 2am-6am. He's such a drama queen.

To "solve" this, I bought a pet fountain that mimics the water from the sink, and it has helped some. I keep it in the kitchen close to his food. Every time he hops up to the sink, we take him straight to the fountain. However, body slamming and loud meowing still occurs. My roommate has had to stop letting him into her room completely. I have tried to ignore him in the past, but my bf just can't do it.

I've read other forums where people say block him off in a room. The problem is my house lacks doors. The only doors in the house are to the 2 bedrooms. Everything else is just a doorway or a folding door that he can open. His litter box is kept in an open closet in my room, so my bedroom door stays open.
If anyone has any tips or ideas pleeeease let me know.

 

[Kieka]

As long as a behavior gives a result, cats will do the behavior. If you are responding to your cat hitting the door, your cat is getting a response and will continue the behavior. Even your roommate acknowledging the cat from the other side of the door could continue the behavior. Try doing two weeks of not responding, not saying his name, not yelling, not getting out of bed, but completely ignore the behavior entirely. Usually with two weeks of zero reinforcement of the behavior, cats will stop a behavior.

Is the bathroom off your roommates room?

 

[Furballsmom]

. The problem is my house lacks doors

If you scroll down in this article, there are a couple examples of how people created temporary doorway barriers.

How To Successfully Introduce Cats: The Ultimate Guide – TheCatSite Articles

Just in case this isn't the style you obtained, --this was the fourth fountain I tried. The other three weren't the ticket and he still wanted up on the counter (at 15, I was getting a little desperate to avoid him jumping down all the time, even though if we were there we'd lift him down--it's just too hard on his joints), but Poppycat loved this one immediately, with no hesitation at all. Every cat is different, of course, but I thought I'd mention it

Pioneer Pet Swan water fountain

 

[maggie101]

I assume you feed the cat in the morning,not your roommate?

 

[FeebysOwner]

His litter box is kept in an open closet in my room, so my bedroom door stays open.

Hi. I didn't see it mentioned here, so if I missed it - sorry. What if you put his food and a second water fountain (like the one he likes in the kitchen) in your room at night time and close the door so he can't leave your room? If he can't reach your roommate's door, he might be just fine. This should be a temporary thing until you can break the habit, so be prepared to ask your BF to be patient and help out with this situation.

Oh, btw, get your BF a set of the same ear plugs that work so well for your roommate.

 

[LTS3]

There are tips here: How To Stop My Cat From Waking Me Up At Night (step-by-step Plan) – TheCatSite Articles

 

[ArtNJ]

You could always leave the sink dripping at night. Its kind of gross and over time I guess would add up to a few dollars of water, but if it avoids the drama, that would be my choice. Some fights are not worth having. If the sink being on is too noisy and would interfere with sleeping, then I'd follow Kieka 's advice.