Cat still waking me up

I've posted on this before but now I'm at my wit's end with lack of sleep. Bob is still waking me up around 3AM for wet food, even though there's usually dry food left in the feeder. He will swat me with his paw (nothing vicious, but you can feel it) and I usually throw him out of the bedroom at that point. Now he goes into the living room and makes quite a racket - chasing Bickford, sitting on the HVAC unit and swatting the blinds. I can hear that through my earplugs and I worry that my neighbors can hear it too. I don't want to reward his bad behavior but I can't get sleep any other way. I have Feeliway spray and have used the plugins in the past but since I read on one of the threads that someone had two fires with them I'm afraid to use them. Any other suggestions?

Who is Bickford?

Sorry - my other, more sedate cat.

i sympathise with your lack of sleep. milo and shinobi wake me nightly with their charging around. milo always, always gets on top of the tv in the bedroom in the early hours. he never does this in the daytime and i swear it's because it creaks. he also rattles my blinds, again, never does it in the daytime.

i wouldn't worry about your neighbours hearing him though, surely your walls aren't that thin.

could it be that he's not getting enough at tea time? maybe you could up his feed a little and it may see him through the night?

is he quite young?

He's about 7 and was a stray. He's also on Predisone for asthma (but I'm weaning him off and he's on an inhaler now) which the vet seems to think may make him want more food. I've tried to feed him wet before bed (around 11 or so) and that's made no difference but I'm willing to try it again combined with more play close to bedtime.

Is he still pretty young? Sometimes they just sort of need to age out of their bad habbits. Enzo was like that until we got an automatic feeder. That way the cat won't make the connection between you and the food. They do make feeders that could work with wet food and you could set it to go off at 3am when you are sleeping. I think those twice a day feeders are around $20 here.

I wish I could help you but I can't even help myself.
Dexter and Sadie will be 8 in July....
I haven't had a good nights sleep in 7 years.
3 or 4 AM is their wake up time.
I finally gave up trying to change them and take an afternoon nap now....
that keeps me going.

They are worth the trouble.

What time of day are you giving the prednisone?
Among its many side effects is hyperactivity and sleep disturbance. It usually wears off a bit after 12 hours.

One thing that has worked for me to get us all on the same schedule is to play with them more in the evenings so that they don't sleep so much during the day.
My two boys used to run up and down the stairs all night long until I started feeding them something right before I went to bed. Try giving him a snack right before bed.

Whatever you do do not give in.

I would suggest that you are rewarding him for his behaviour. He knows that if he comes and wakes you up, you will get up, on command and feed him. If he has food just before bed and there are biscuits in his bowl, he shouldn't be hungry. Sleep with your bedroom door closed and Ignore him. It may take a few nights, maybe upto a week! But it will be worth it and he will learn. Giving in to him every night is giving him the wrong message and his midnight snacks will continue until you put a stop to it! Good luck!

Originally Posted by Mom of 4

What time of day are you giving the prednisone?
Among its many side effects is hyperactivity and sleep disturbance. It usually wears off a bit after 12 hours.

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I usually medicate him in the evening, just before bed. Maybe I'll switch that to mornings and see what happens. I didn't even think of it.

Can you leave out a little dish of wet food just before you go to bed so maybe he'll decide to snack on it a little later on without waking you up?

The dry food auto feeder is set up in the bedroom. It dispenses at 10PM for the evening snack. I'm thinking about moving it into the living room and changing the feeding times.