excessive meowing

Hi, I know there are a lot of threads already on this topic but non of them actually help. We have a 1.5 year old Tonkinese and Ragdoll mix, male, neutred, completely healthy <checked by vet few days ago>. He was always vocal, but now it is getting unreal. I play with him to the point of total exhaustion and give him his wet food right before we go to sleep. He is ok for a few hours, but then at 4 maybe 5 in the morning he starts. And is not just a meow here and there, it is constant and very loud until somebody actually wakes up. It is a loud meow followed by another, with no break... And he tries this meow, that meow to find out which one will work. We are getting pretty desperate because we live in a condo with pretty strict rules and I just hope that are neighbors are not going to start complaining. Nothing in his or our routine changed, he is heatlhy. Do you have any ideas what could help? I suffer from severe daily migraines and not sleeping is getting to me. Thank you so much....

Welcome to TheCatSite.

The only thing I can think of is, are there cats outside that he can either see or smell?

He could be reacting to outsiders.

or just basically knowing he can get you up by meowing . or he could smell other cats like kittenkiya said. have you tried ingoring him ?? , my cat bergkhamp will meow so loudly at night it scares me , but it turns out his playing with his toy mice . he holds it in his mouth and goes round the house crying with it and boy is it loud lol . good luck hope somone can be of more help to you

we live in a condo, and there are no cats around. As far as waking us by meowing.. I do not think so. Unless I have to wake up and go somewhere I never open the doors to my room when he is meowing, I know that would just translaete into "A-ha, next time I wanna go in there I will just meow".

separation anxiety?

have you had your kitty for the full 1.5 years?

are you or your husband sick? sometimes when people get sick, and cats can always tell, they take it very, very hard.

He could be lonely. Are there other cats in the house? Sebastian cried all the time until I got Theo and now he rarely meows.

Maybe he needs a friend?

Yes, we got him when he was few weeks <12 or something close to it> and from then on he was with us, except for a few times that he spend at the vet clinic for things like neutering. Fortunatelly nobody is sick at our house <do not have a husband, I still live at home>, my health problems were here even before he came. And when I do have a bad day he is the last "person" I want near him, he does not let me rest, he would jump and bite... lol...
To him being lonely... Might be the problem, but to tell you the truth I am a bit afraid of getting a second kitten. He is an alpha cat 100%, very aggressive and territorial, I do not know whether I can trust him with another cat... and we do not want to end up with two kitties meowing all night We will see....

But here is an update: I have read a lot of articles online and here are some ideas that they presented:
-leave the light on during the night
-leave the TV or radio on if the cat is used to noise all day
-do not let the cat sleep few hours before you go to sleep
We tried all of these things and so far <3 nights> it is working, for 2 of them he did not meow once <when I woke up in the middle of night and did not hear him meowing I thought that something has happened to him, which of course was not true, he was just quiet> and the other night he meowed maybe 3 times and then stopped....
So we will see...fingers crossed.. although not allowing him to sleep for a few hours is a realy hard job...

sorry to resurrect an old thread, but this fit my latest issue

My 2nd cat, almost-1-yr-old Ragdoll mix Marvin, just started to show excessive anxiety yesterday/this morning. Normally laid back, he is now constantly meowing (same as the other posters) and doesn't seem to be sick, hungry, etc. I too live in a condo and just yesterday during the afternoon the windows had their annual exterior washing, complete with a loud cherry picker moving the cleaners up the building. Now Marvin is constantly meowing and pawwing at the main condo door, stopping during the night, however, probably because he was so tired.

Could the window washing and noise have traumatized him? I can't pinpoint anything else that happened in "his" environment. I'm concerned because ever since I got him he has been a very quiet cat, rarely meowing- this has been a drastic change in his behavior.

Does Feliway really work?

Thanks!
-Jeff

Yes Feliway works. He may also need something for anxiety. When my cats behave abnormally I investigate the surroundings. He could be smelling tomcats outside. I have found it is usually something.
He could have seen something during that time too.

vet thinks it might be a bladder infection, taking Marvin in this afternoon

if he was spooked, vet said he should be acting normal today

May I ask why don't don't allow him to sleep with you? Also leaving the light on is a good idea. We do it every night and our girls seem happy with it.

which poster are you responding to? My cat Marvin isn't having an issue with his sleeping location, under normal circumstances he sleeps in my bed every night

I went through this with Fiona. It came down to her being lonely. We got a kitten as the new cat....they seem to repsond better to a new cat if it is a kitten. She loved him from day one....was absolutely fascinated by him. They are best friends. I even went away for a vacation after only having the new guy for a month and they were fine.

She no longer meows and seems more at ease. She just needed another of her kind to relate too. They love to wrestle!

Where he is so alpha maybe he feels the need to be alpha over someone? It's no good being alpha kitty with no one to lord it over

update:

Marvin has a bladder infection, its been there a little while and almost certainly brought on by stress from the window washers yesterday

He gets to have antibiotics for 2 weeks and should be fine

thanks everyone for your input!

Originally Posted by jman_in_MN

update:

Marvin has a bladder infection, its been there a little while and almost certainly brought on by stress from the window washers yesterday

He gets to have antibiotics for 2 weeks and should be fine

thanks everyone for your input!

Click to expand...

Nothing substantive to add....just wanted to say that I love the name Marvin