One of our cats is relentless at waking my wife and myself up every single night. We've tried everything listed on this website and even consulted a cat behaviorist. In addition to a lot of play during the day and before bed and feeding after evening play, we've tried not responding but the cat is relentless and we need our sleep. We're at the point of waiting for the cat to wake us up and then we put him in the guest bedroom for the night. That definitely works. We were going to put him in the bedroom at the time we go to bed but I feel too bad about that and will wait until he's bad. Our other kitty just sleeps quietly with us in bed, unless he wants to cuddle and purr on me and that's never an issue. Thanks for any suggestions.
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Nothing works for waking us up
- Thread starter Xis
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I know you've said you tried everything, but have you tried a timed feeder? My cat gets ~15 kibble at 3 a.m. via a timed feeder in the living room, so she hangs out in that room the whole night. Getting her used to it at all took awhile, and we used to keep it in the room so she'd hunt a sock from the bedroom after snacking and meow loudly carrying it to the living room. Putting the feeder in the living room was a game changer. Also people will probably want to know -- how old is your cat?
P.S. getting up and putting him in the guest bedroom is still attention and reinforces the behavior. My cat is happy to act up if it means I'll wake up and give her attention for 10 seconds.
P.S. getting up and putting him in the guest bedroom is still attention and reinforces the behavior. My cat is happy to act up if it means I'll wake up and give her attention for 10 seconds.
What you are doing is perfectly reasonable. The only thing I would add is a warning phrase before he is removed from the bedroom. I always used “settle down!” And then if it didn’t happen, out the cat went. It took many many times but eventually they learned that if they didn’t get very quiet at that point, they were banned from the bedroom.
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We've never tried a timed feeder. Interesting suggestion. Thanks. The cat is 2 years-old. He's a very smart boy and if five seconds of attention warrants a night alone, then he'll be alone quite a lot. He gets plenty of attention throughout the day and evening and there's really no excuse. However, I'm a primate and so maybe it's worth it to him.
