My Cat Wakes Me Up At 3am, Why?

[Lil Panda]

Hi, I am a first time cat owner. i have adopted a male neutered cat and he is around 12-13 months old.

He had a rocky start to life and was abandoned and then placed in a cattery before being fostered and now adopted.

That being said, he is very friendly and tolerates my children (both of whom have high functioning autism) very well.

He is allowed to roam the neighbourhood in the day but he never goes far and is more than happy to return every few hours for food or petting and a sleep.

My question is why does he insist on waking me up early morning? He purrs and walks around the bed, if I don't get up, he gently nips me with his teeth. Some mornings he seems content with a head tickle, other days he nips until I actually get out of bed and take him downstairs. Which is puzzling as he has access to downstairs and a supply of dry food and water at all times. He chooses to sleep at the bottom of my or the boys bed. Hoping someone knows why he does this. I need my sleep!

 

[sprinkle]

I read 3 am is a good time to feed you cat. Like in the wild, that's when they would be awake.

You should try keeping food by your bed at night.

 

[susanm9006]

You need to retrain your cat so that he receives no rewards (attention, food, play) for waking you up. It may take a few sleepless nights but if you follow through consistently he will learn. When he wakes you up, in a loud tone say "no" "down" "stop" or some other word you will remember to use consistently. Then you set him on the floor. If he comes back and starts pestering, same thing. If you have to put him down several more times, the next step is to shut him out of your room for ten or fifteen minutes. Then open the door and get back in bed without acknowledging him. If he comes in and starts nipping or prestering, you do the whole thing over again except you shut him out for a few hours or overnight. You can expect, scratching, wailing and throwing himself at the door, because the worst thing is to have a door separate a cat from their humans. He will eventually figure out the only way he gets to be on the bed is if he sneaks in quietly so you don't know he is there. Once he gets trained all you should need to do is use the code word to get him to settle down.

I have trained all of my cats this way. Some learned quickly with a single banishment, and some took months and many nights of losing bedroom privileges for all or part of the night. But when you can expect to live 15 or more years with a cat, getting bedtime rules understood is important.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

LOL...well, the answer to the actual question is, "Because he's a CAT, and they DO that!" Which does, of course, beg the question, "So, how do I stop it?" And there are any number of answers. You've gotten two, both of which have merit. Another is to totally (pretend) to ignore the behavior until it stops. And it will. No cat will persist in behavior which has no payoff. Exactly how long it will take depends on how insistent your particular cat is.

If it suits your lifestyle to feed at 3 am, the first suggestion is best. If not, try mine, or susanm9006 's. ONE of those two will get you a full night's sleep...but not in a few days. This is a "hang in and grit your teeth" situation. One to two weeks will probably do it.

 

[happilyretired]

I have experience with this as one of my cats (gone now) did this, and I consulted vets and vet behaviorists--and the only solution they could offer was to keep the cat out of my bedroom. They all told me that this was the cat's 'pattern' (I adopted him when he was 6), and that it could not be changed. Keeping him out of the bedroom was not an option (I tried it) because he was incredibly human-bonded and simply cried pathetically. I could not do that to him, so I adjusted.

For the 7 years he lived with me (with CRF), I adjusted my sleep to his need to wake me at 3 am. As I type this, I would gladly be still getting up early to have him with me. When he 'crashed' with renal failure, it was so dreadful that I forgave him every early wake up.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

~sigh~ yes, there's that...

 

[susanm9006]

It is true, once cats get into habits they can be hard to break, which is why you need to set the ground rules while your cat is young. A one year old is at a perfect age for learning and adapting and also for figuring out how far they can push. Just like raising children you need to decide which rules you intend to stick with and those you can compromise on. For me, getting a good night of relatively uninterrupted sleep was a must, for others maybe not so much.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

I've always thought that cats learn how to train us, not the other way around. Well, sometimes it's the other way around, but they let us think that we just got lucky in those instances.

Anyway, when I realized that my cat trains me, I decided to do certain behaviors to their prodding that they probably didn't want or expect.

For example, if my cat wakes me at 4am for food, I finally learned... do not go give them food at 4 am. Instead, when the cat wakes me, I go into the bathroom by myself, keeping the cat locked out, give the cat some minutes mewling outside the bathroom door. Then calmly come back out, shuffle back to my bed, and lay back down. And try to sleep. Over and over, the cat realizes finally that it is training me to get up and disappear into the bathroom at 4am, ignoring her, then come out, ignoring her, and get back into bed. This is not what the cat wanted. The cat wanted food and playtime. The cat bemoans the fact that I am not trainable, and disappears for a few hours.

The cat finally gets what it wanted eventually --but like clockwork-- around 6-7am... food and fun and attention, not necessarily in that order. But according to my schedule.

I imagine the cat throwing up its paws in the air, lamenting how untrainable I am at 4am. "Humans!"

 

[danteshuman]

I have found that playing with my cat as I'm getting sleepy helps. (He is hyper.) Also I'm not a morning person. I never gave them wet food in the morning. They get fed at 6pm. (They have dry food.) So if your cat is food motivated a handful of dry food might buy you sleep. Training your cat is key though. When my boys were young I kicked them out for the night if they woke me up. Now my hyper guy tells me when it is time for bed

 

[heathensservant]

My little man would do this. I tried everything for awhile, then decided I could be as pigheaded as he was. He wanted attention in the middle of my sleep? Fine! I'd give him attention. But MY type of attention. He loved to play, lay against me, and be pet or scratched. But he HATED being hugged or held on my lap or rocked like a baby. So, he'd wake me, I'd act all happy, hug him tight, sit up and rock him, cooing at him all the while. I think it took less that a week for him to stop waking me.

HOWEVER, a friend of mine tried this and generally required bandaging afterwards. So.....try at your own risk. lol Good luck with it.

I do like the post about the cat deciding you're untrainable. lol

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

...

I do like the post about the cat deciding you're untrainable. lol

Yeah, I'm just glad she's given up on me from 3-6am so that I don't have to hide in the bathroom anymore, lol.

 

[heathensservant]

That made me laugh!!

 

[Lil Panda]

Thank you all. I have decided to say No and if he persists he is shut out of the bedroom. I am hopeful it will work as he is only young and he loves to be around his humans.
I will update in a week or so. X

 

[Lil Panda]

My little man would do this. I tried everything for awhile, then decided I could be as pigheaded as he was. He wanted attention in the middle of my sleep? Fine! I'd give him attention. But MY type of attention. He loved to play, lay against me, and be pet or scratched. But he HATED being hugged or held on my lap or rocked like a baby. So, he'd wake me, I'd act all happy, hug him tight, sit up and rock him, cooing at him all the while. I think it took less that a week for him to stop waking me.

HOWEVER, a friend of mine tried this and generally required bandaging afterwards. So.....try at your own risk. lol Good luck with it.

I do like the post about the cat deciding you're untrainable. lol

Ha ha.
My boy is such a gentle soul. He lets me know what he doesn't like but it's with a gentle nip or a warning claw, he doesn't actually scratch. If I persisted I think he would scratch but obviously I leave him be if he tells me he isn't happy. He has only been with us since mid May so we are still learning about each other.

 

[susanm9006]

He certainly is a beautiful guy - love the spot on his nose.