New Cat Morning Meowing, No Sleep!

[forthefreefood]

Hi All,

I am new here but not new to cats. I grew up with three family cats and my fiance and I have had our fur-baby Penny for 2 years (she is 3). Penny adjusted so easy, and while we did have some minor morning meowing issues... we are experiencing something totally different with our new cat, Ringo.

We brought Ringo home on Saturday. he is a 9 month old male. We gave him the bedroom as a safe room and he has been in there all Sat. and Sun. and most of Monday. Yesterday we introduced the two cats and it actually went really well... they were playing like BFFs within 15 minutes. They still hiss at each other, but there doesn't seem to be an issue between them. If anything, it seems Penny has kind of brought him out of his shell.

Anyway... on to the problem. The first night he meowed for 9 HOURS STRAIGHT. My fiance and I were Zombies all of Sunday. I was literally crying, wondering if we made a huge mistake. (I should note we have a 1 bedroom apartment and so it is difficult, if not impossible, to get away from the noise). Sunday night/morning went better. He let us sleep until 4AM and then crying/meowing started. My fiance moved to the couch and I left for work and we had just left him in the bedroom to wear himself out.

Now this morning was totally weird. He was fine all night. Played with Penny like crazy.. no issues. Then at 4 he was kind of waking us up but not too bad.. then at 5:30AM it was like he suddenly reverted back to this terrified freaking out cat who was howling nonstop. I left my fiance with earplugs and he is in the living room. I hope that she finds a safe place and goes to sleep.

What is going on?! He seems to be relaxed and warming up and fine, and then he just freaking out and won't stop meowing! We've tried attention, food, everything we can think of.

We want to be his forever family, but we don't have the space to quarantine a noisy cat every morning. and I'm pretty sure that if we don't get some good sleep at some point, we are going to lose it.

It has only been 3 nights, so we aren't giving up on him yet. Can you guys offer some advice? Or tell me what you think is going on with him? Please, please, and thank you!

 

[rubysmama]

Hello and welcome to The Cat Site. Congrats on the adoption your new little adoptee, Ringo.

When he started meowing this morning, was he still in his safe room?

 

[forthefreefood]

Hello and welcome to The Cat Site. Congrats on the adoption your new little adoptee, Ringo.

When he started meowing this morning, was he still in his safe room?

Last night was the first night we left the door open between the safe room and the living room/kitchen. I'm honestly not sure which room he slept in last night, because they were still playing when we fell asleep and it was quiet until 4. He was just meowing here and there, and then I got up and started to get ready for work and about 10 minutes later he started going crazy. I had offered food and given him attention already at that point, so it's not like he was trying to get us to wake up or anything. It reminded me of the very first night when he went 9 hours straight. But he was doing so well, so we are so confused.

 

[rubysmama]

My thought was that he wanted to see you, but if he kept meowing, maybe not. Hopefully other members will reply with their ideas and suggestions. Meanwhile, here's a few TCS articles that maybe helpful:

How To Help A New Cat Adjust To Your Home
How To Stop My Cat From Waking Me Up At Night?
Cats And Night Crazies!

 

[danteshuman]

Ah sleep deprivation ... after 3 days you start to think about giving them a reverse Mohawk or a cold bath I feel your pain. My suggestion? Kick the furbaby out when he wakes you up, close the door & turn on 1-3 fans (those LOUD square ones.) If you can kick him out into a spare bedroom, so he can't rattle your door. Then ignore him until your alarm goes off. Pretend he doesn't exist until your first sip of coffee. Whatever you do, do not feed him, pet him or play with him when he wakes you up!!! Unforgently it just takes time for the cat to learn waking you up has zero payoff. I feel your pain.
I'm not a morning person so I feed my boys at night. If you do feed him in the morning, I suggest doing it after you start your coffee. That way he learns coffeemaker = food.

 

[di and bob]

He is trying to adjust to a new routine, Where did you get him at? You might contact them and see what his old routine was like, when did he get up, etc. My cats get up with me at 4 AM every morning and get fed, so anytime after 4 they try to wake us up. I have been on that schedule for years so it is routine now even if I don't have to be. I would let him have the run of the house and I he will adjust after a while, mama cats stop looking for babies after about two weeks so it may take that long. Get heated pet beds or pads, they love them and they sleep much longer and often with them. Thank you for understanding he is really unsure of himself and may suddenly realize he is alone and gets afraid, I think he keeps meowing because he feels lost and everything is different. It WILL get better in time!

 

[forthefreefood]

He is trying to adjust to a new routine, Where did you get him at? You might contact them and see what his old routine was like, when did he get up, etc. My cats get up with me at 4 AM every morning and get fed, so anytime after 4 they try to wake us up. I have been on that schedule for years so it is routine now even if I don't have to be. I would let him have the run of the house and I he will adjust after a while, mama cats stop looking for babies after about two weeks so it may take that long. Get heated pet beds or pads, they love them and they sleep much longer and often with them. Thank you for understanding he is really unsure of himself and may suddenly realize he is alone and gets afraid, I think he keeps meowing because he feels lost and everything is different. It WILL get better in time!

We got him from a rescue group. They found him when he was 5 weeks old and bottle fed him. So he has been there pretty much his hole life. I'm guessing he was pretty bonded to the humans and other cats there. The foster mom said that he isn't usually so vocal.

 

[di and bob]

He WAS very bonded and he misses them and his old routine, it will get better, he is lonely for his friends.

 

[Timmer]

My Timmer was always an early morning cat from day 1. For 8 years that I had him. If the birds were up, he felt the entire house needed to be up with them. God bless him.
I would suggest you ignore the cat. Getting up, doing stuff, playing with it -- those are all rewarding bad behavior. He will settle down (hopefully). He might be lonely, stressed, worried. It's still very early in the relationship. I agree with di and bob, he was very bonded with his foster group.

 

[forthefreefood]

Thank you for the replies thus far.

To those who have had similar situations: how long would you say it took for your fur-baby to settle in and stop the stress meowing?

 

[Timmer]

HA! Never. My Timmer was always high strung, but he was a bengal.

 

[forthefreefood]

Oh no!

I am hoping that since the foster said he isn't normally like this, that the behavior subsides.

PS - You guys are all awesome. Thank you for discussing this with me. We are kind of freaking out that this isn't going to work out, and that's the last thing we want to happen!

 

[Timmer]

I think that eventually things will even out. Sometimes I think if we stress out over it, the kitties pick up on that and don't react well. I do think the best thing to do is just ignore him when he does that maybe.
Now, I wanna add, the cat has been checked out by the vet and has no medical issues, right? I wouldn't want to be telling you ignore your cat, and come to find out he isn't well!

 

[forthefreefood]

He has been to the vet a few times with his foster mom, but we just brought him home 3 days ago so we haven't taken him in yet for a check up. My line of thinking is that it would stress him out a lot more. I was going to wait a few weeks for him to settle in before taking him to the vet.