So, if anyone knows a bit about cat behaviour and/or training, I’d love some advice :)
My little Oggy wakes up every morning around 5.30/6am and meows for food. I end up getting up, but then he won’t go back to sleep and starts licking me or jumping on me ^^ I do enjoy our little morning cuddles, but I’m starting to get a bit worn out lol. I know he doesn't have any concept of time, so I’m not cross with him; I know he sleeps a lot during the day, so it’s only natural. I play with him in the evening with a laser pointer and a toy that I throw for him to fetch, but maybe it’s not enough. I figured it wasn’t good for me to give in, so now I try to ignore him, but he just meows until I eventually get up. During the day, he goes out for an hour at lunchtime and two hours in the evening—only when I’m actually there. He used to wake up just before I did, and I’d really like to get back to that :) So if you have any tips, thanks in advance. I should mention that I have a mezzanine, so I can’t shut my bedroom door, and I do give him some food before bed.
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Thanks for sharing your story. I’ve adopted a cat who’s about a year old, but I don’t know anything about his background. Unfortunately, he wakes us up every morning between 5:00 and 6:30. It’s not easy, even though he’s a lovely little thing. I’m going to try and follow your advice, but my partner is much less tolerant as soon as he hears him meowing in the morning.
Hi everyone, I know this post is a year old, but it’s still relevant to many of us!
Just a quick correction: pets definitely have a sense of time.
If you do the same thing at the same time every day—whether it’s giving them a toy, feeding them, or whatever else—you’ll soon see they know exactly what time it is.
The thing is, 3am is playtime for a cat, not bedtime. Sleeping for eight hours straight isn't something they'd naturally do in the wild.
You need to ignore them. Try to get them used to sleeping in a separate room with the door shut if you can. Take their toys away during the day and give them a treat dispenser or a puzzle feeder for their dry food—but only if your floors are suitable, like carpet or rugs. Avoid it on floorboards or laminate where you'll hear the toy rolling around all night...
Make sure they have plenty of water and food available, and then...
Even if they’re yowling their head off, IGNORE THEM.
As the previous post said: never give in!!!
You can also get ultrasonic whistles to discourage certain behaviours, but these should only be used as a very last resort, really as a last resort, as they can be quite stressful for cats. However, the "ignoring" method always works eventually. Cats aren’t daft—they won't keep wasting their energy if they don't get a reaction, though it might take a few months to see results!
Hi,
From experience with my previous cat, there’s no going back. Whatever you let them get away with once is very, very hard to stop later on.
Basically, NEVER react to a cat’s meowing. They’re persistent, but they do calm down eventually. Once you’ve shown them that they can get your attention by meowing, it’s game over.
It’s sometimes hard for partners to understand, but otherwise you’ll be stuck with it for the next 10 years.
Thanks for sharing your experience :) I got up this morning and put him in the loo with his favourite blanket ^^ he actually slept! But the thing is, I still have to get up, and my partner is well and truly fed up, so I can't really ignore him :/ he meowed from 4am to 5am without us getting a wink of sleep – I had to do it if I wanted to get any shut-eye at all ^^ I’m hoping he might calm down as he gets older, or maybe I should just let him sleep in the loo, but I’d feel so bad. I must admit I do like sleeping with him and I love his morning cuddles, just not that early lol! I wonder if he’ll eventually realise that if he wakes me up, his punishment is the loo and no food? That would be great ^^ but he doesn’t seem to mind lol, and as soon as I get up to get ready, he just hops onto the bed and goes to sleep lol, the little rascal ^^
It’s perfectly normal, he’s not daft! He knows exactly that by coming to find you, meowing and being affectionate, he can get you out of bed to give him some attention. And as you quite rightly said, cats have no concept of time, so he might behave like this at any hour, just because he's bored, for instance.
Now, if you want some peace and quiet at night, there aren't many ways around it: you mustn't respond when he tries to get your attention, even if you are wide awake.
Since I didn't want Itchy sleeping with me, I keep the bedroom door shut. At first, it was quite hard to make this strong-willed little thing understand that she wasn't to disturb me at night; whenever she was bored, she’d come and scratch and meow at the door. To begin with, I used to get up and play with her to tire her out before going back to bed, but I quickly realised that doing that just encouraged her to keep at it, so I ended up ignoring her. After a while, she got the message and stopped bothering me. Now the nights go well, though she’s definitely learnt what my alarm clock sounds like and she’s always right behind the door when I get up, saying hello with plenty of purrs and cuddles.
So it can work for you too.
Obviously, it's easier when you have a bedroom door you can close, but it’s not impossible.
You just have to ignore him – pretend to be asleep and he’ll eventually get the hint.
Yeah, I think he’s just after my attention because we’re both basically joined at the hip ^^ I’ve tried, but once he’s up there, he won’t come down to his bowl unless I go with him, and then once he’s had his fill, he starts running riot and really keeps us from sleeping :/ I’m trying to ignore him and stand my ground, we’ll see how it goes lol
Hi, I think you should try leaving out a bit more dry food for the night and the morning; give that a go and maybe he won't meow anymore! :-) Otherwise, it might be something else—perhaps he just wants you to wake up so he can get some attention and have a play with you :-) (Ours used to wake us up too, but by peeing on the bed... LOL)
