She just doesn't get the morning routine!

We've only had her for about two months, so I realize it's still early, but as much as we've tried to get her into a good routine, she just doesn't GET it.

My husband gets up at 6:15 but I don't get up until around 7. Kaylee's decided that as soon as he's up, I should be up too, and will not quit bugging me until I do get up (I assume because I'm the one who feeds her). It almost makes me not want to get up because I don't want to reinforce her horrible morning behavior. I try and wait to get out of bed until a point when she's relatively calm so maybe she'll think I'll get up when she leaves me alone, but so far no luck.

Easy solution of course is just to get up at the same time and feed her right away (or have my husband feed her right when he gets up), but then I feel like I'm letting her bad behavior get the best of me. We're the ones who set the routines here, not her. But man, she is a TERROR during that time of the morning.

Anyone have any tricks or tips to this, or is it just completely unavoidable cat behavior?

That's a pretty common cat behavior, especially in young cats. I would suggest waiting to feed her until after you've gone through your own morning routine such as shower, hair, makeup, etc. She'll begin associating breakfast with your hairdryer instead of with you rolling out of bed.

My husband and I have had some success with this method. Our cats know that when he turns on his computer breakfast won't be far behind!

It sounds as if you're doing the right thing by not rewarding her behaviour, but I definitely agree don't feed straight away when you get up, if you normally get up at 7 then don't ever feed until 7.30 etc. That way they don't associate you getting out of bed with the immediate arrival of breakfast, and are much less likely to try to bring breakfast forward by getting you out of bed earlier. If there's a gap, then they learn what time breakfast should be rather than that it happens straight after you get up.

They can be a pain can't they?

Yes, it's hard to train them into that morning routine. The key is to be absolutely firm and consistent... if you're asleep and the cat bothers you, stay still and pretend you're still asleep. Don't feed, pet, or even talk to her. After a few months, they learn that that isn't a successful strategy for getting food and will wait patiently. Even one lapse in which you get up and feed them teaches them that they've got the right strategy.

Two months is a short time. After a year or two you'll be surprised at how much a cat follows the household routines.

My first thought when reading this thread was: How old is the cat? If it is just a kitten still then they need to eat more often than an adult cat and she may well be very hungry first thing in the morning. If she is a young kitten, I would leave some dry food out for her to "nosh" on during the night and she won't be so hungry in the morning. As she matures and doesn't need as much food, then you could start cutting back to adult feeding. By then she probably will be fine - if not, then you could start the training.

Originally Posted by Yosemite

My first thought when reading this thread was: How old is the cat? If it is just a kitten still then they need to eat more often than an adult cat and she may well be very hungry first thing in the morning. If she is a young kitten, I would leave some dry food out for her to "nosh" on during the night and she won't be so hungry in the morning. As she matures and doesn't need as much food, then you could start cutting back to adult feeding. By then she probably will be fine - if not, then you could start the training.

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She's about 9 months. We do leave dry food out overnight for her for just this reason, but we're trying to cut back on the amount because she seems to want more food than she needs and we don't want her becoming overweight. Usually by the time morning rolls around she's eaten almost all the food in her bowl (and won't eat the stuff that gets pushed up against the edges).

I'm one of those folks that believe a cat should eat kitten food and as much as it wants until it's a year old. Some folks here disagree with me, others agree.

Anyway, I believe weight depends on quality of food, type of food (wet vs dry) as well as amount. Older members here already know our Bijou (Blue point Siamese) was getting pretty "portly" at 18.5 lbs. I changed his diet from mediocre dry to a quality wet twice per day with a measured amount of a quality dry that was put out each morning for "grazing". He has lost 1.5 lbs now and is doing well. He also eats less because he gets more of the nutrition he needs from the better quality food, which translates then into fewer litter uses which also cuts back on litter expenses.

The shelter cat where I volunteer (Beau) was grossly overweight (his middle measured 23". They changed his diet to a wet diet and he has lost 8 lbs. (The vet told them to cut back on his wet food and give him 2 cups of dry per day - what terrible advice. Fortunately the folks at the shelter knew better than to take that vet's advice about food.)

After all this ramble, my point really is to perhaps try to change to a good quality food which may satisfy the cat's food requirements better and the cat won't be as hungry.

Originally Posted by Yosemite

After all this ramble, my point really is to perhaps try to change to a good quality food which may satisfy the cat's food requirements better and the cat won't be as hungry.

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Right now we're using Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Indoor for her dry food so I'm pretty sure it's a good enough quality (I may make adjustments as to which exact brand/formula we end up using, but not until we start to run out of this one) - she also gets one 3oz can of Iams Chicken or Beef wet food daily split into a morning and an evening feeding. I may consider a higher grade wet food at some point, but for right now she loves the stuff, the ingredients really aren't too bad and it's very reasonably priced (also noticed it was on the "good" list of non-premium wet foods in a sticky thread here).

So I'm really hoping quality isn't an issue at this point. She's just always had a monster appetite...no matter how much we feed her she always seems to eat as though she has been starved to death. She was a stray before we got her though so I'm thinking that might have something to do with it.

I don't do mornings.