My Morning Monster is Driving Me Insane.

[Ebsyn]

I have a household of 6 cats, and one of those is a 3-year old handsome grey dilute named Nimbus. He is an absolute monster for wet food in the morning and it's causing me sleep deprivation.

Nimbus will show up on my bed by 4am wailing for food and checking to see if I'm awake. This has escalated to if he thinks I'm still asleep than PEEING on the bed to wake me up. He knows it produces results. I have been sleeping with a tarp on the bed and most of the time it works, but sometimes it will raise up when I grab my blankets in the middle of the night. Second issue, we were doing really good before the time change at feeding at 5:45 but have regressed by to 5am which is wrecking my sleeping.

So I am appealing to everyone with morning monsters for tips on how to manage this cat. I just want to sleep in til 7am like a normal person. I would even be happy at 6am. He is the only one out of the 6 cats who is like this! And I never wanted to be the cat parent who kicked their cats out of the room because effectively I would have to kick out everyone at night. I feel he would just wail at the door if that was the case.

More context: he has an automatic feeder with dry food in the next room. He doesn't care. He's been medically cleared for urinary issues, he's just a really handsome, soft asshole.

 

[Alldara]

When is his last feed before bed?

When he does manage to get you up, do you feed him right away or wait until the time you want him to eat at?

 

[Ebsyn]

The automatic feeders are set to go every 4 hours. For example: 12am, 4:30am, 8am, 12pm, etc.
He only gets wet food once a day in the morning.

If he's peed on the bed, than I clean that before addressing the wet food.
I try not to reinforce the behavior as best as possible.

 

[Alldara]

The automatic feeders are set to go every 4 hours. For example: 12am, 4:30am, 8am, 12pm, etc.
He only gets wet food once a day in the morning.

If he's peed on the bed, than I clean that before addressing the wet food.
I try not to reinforce the behavior as best as possible.

For me, I would move wet food away from the morning altogether.

I'm unsure how much you feed him, but if it can be like 1.5 oz twice a day it will feel like less of a treat. Add some extra water to it as well, perhaps put it on a lick mat if you're so inclined.

Whether you keep it in the AM or move it, have it tied to something else, like an alarm for cat food. Then he will begin to associate that he ONLY gets wet food on the alarm's schedule, not his. This worked really well for my cats letting me sleep in, right up until Magnus had digestive issues and we had to break up his feedings.

Dry food can spike the blood sugar, so if there's not a medical reason why he needs fed every 4 hours, I would cut some of those feedings down. (Magnus needs small frequent meals so I get it if this doesn't work for you.)

 

[Hellenww]

Changing the wet food time will help a lot. If you don't have anyone with sepration anxiety close your bedroom door until he gets used to the change. It could be as little as a week. Or just put him out when he wakes you and close the door.