Shhhh Kitty!

[M0nica]

So let's get one thing straight here. I love my furbaby. But I don't love that she has decided that 4am is my new wake up time.

I've tried everything I can think of from cuddling her to ignoring her to putting her out of the room. Nothing seems to work.

She jumps on the bed at precisely 4am every morning and meows and cries and stomps on me and licks my face and breathe on me and plays with my feet under the blanket and then falls off the bed and runs around the room and picks at the carpet and knocks things over until I get up. Then she stops.

Has any one else had this problem and how did you solve it?

Thanks!!

[Winston]

Is she waking you up to be fed? If so try giving her a teaspoon of food before bed and maybe that will allow her to wait longer in the morning.

You could also try playing with her before bed to see if you tired her out if that would help.

Good Luck!

[M0nica]

I have tried both of those things and neither of them worked.

[Love4himies]

Give them lots of kisses, then ignore them. I've lived this for over 20 years and have only found aging settles them down, nope, I'm lying, my 16 year old still gets the zoomies at 3am.

Seriously, can you lock your cat out of your bedroom and ignore if she scratches throughout the night? For a cat, not getting a response means what they are doing is not working so they give up. Getting a response means they are doing the right things to get what they want.

Good luck.

[M0nica]

Originally Posted by Love4himies

Give them lots of kisses, then ignore them. I've lived this for over 20 years and have only found aging settles them down, nope, I'm lying, my 16 year old still gets the zoomies at 3am.

Seriously, can you lock your cat out of your bedroom and ignore if she scratches throughout the night? For a cat, not getting a response means what they are doing is not working so they give up. Getting a response means they are doing the right things to get what they want.

Good luck.

I haven't ever locked her out of the room for a whole night. I lock her out at 4am and she cries for a minimum of an hour. Around 7am she starts to cry again. My only concern is that she bangs on the door and I live in an apartment building. I know other people can hear her doing it and I don't want to get in any trouble. I've tried just flat out ignoring her but she will literally poke me in the face with her paws. She also is starting to tear up the carpet and she has put holes in my new leather bed frame. If I ignore her, she just keeps picking at it!!

I feel like I have a baby, haha.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[scottyxx]

I tried locking mine up when he was being sick, and he started crying every hour for about 5 minutes, and scratching then would stop, then once again an hour later he would start.

I found giving him some company, such as another cat, calmed him down. I also threw one of our old bed comforters in a room with him, with a litter tray, food water, and a bed, with the light off. This calmed him down. I gave him a quick cuddle before bed, settled him into his box, said night then left Thank goodness something worked!!

[scottyxx]

Also this may sound cruel, but when they were kittens, they were so tiny I was afraid I would roll over and kill them in my sleep that we made them sleep in a large plastic tote, with a grate over it. Then in their individual cat boxes.

We only had 1 bedroom in a shared house, so this worked ok for a little while, but eventually i just ended up feeling so bad I left them out to roam during the night...they destroyed my blinds....

[binkybuff]

One of my cats howls during the night, and more than once a night.

What I did, was purchase a large dog crate, and put a litter pan in it, and her pillow. At night, she gets her treats when we "go to bed" she walks into the kennel has her treats, and things are quiet until she hears me up in the morning.

It might sound cruel but, that makes her sleep, and lets me have my sleep as well.

She didn't really like it at first, and that is why I started giving treats, and using the command "go to bed".

Hope you find something that works for you

take care
binky

[M0nica]

Originally Posted by binkybuff

One of my cats howls during the night, and more than once a night.

What I did, was purchase a large dog crate, and put a litter pan in it, and her pillow. At night, she gets her treats when we "go to bed" she walks into the kennel has her treats, and things are quiet until she hears me up in the morning.

It might sound cruel but, that makes her sleep, and lets me have my sleep as well.

She didn't really like it at first, and that is why I started giving treats, and using the command "go to bed".

Hope you find something that works for you

take care
binky

I heard about a few people doing this but my cat absolutely loses her mind if she is in her carrier for very long. She actually cries more than usual (if that's possible!) when she's in there and gets very anxious.

I've started trying to get her used to the words 'bedtime' and 'good morning' in attempts to differentiate sleep time from play time. This works about 50% of the time.

Tonight I just fed her and said that it was bedtime. She's quiet now but we'll see how long it lasts!