Help!! Dexter wakes me up every morning at 5!!!

Ok I have 2 cats, pixel and Dexter. Pixel is the calico and never gives me any trouble, she is a female. Dexter is a male and for some reason goes crazy at 5-6 am every morning and won't let me sleep.

He will meow constantly and walk all over me on the bed, I pet him for a while but he just won't stop. I go feed him and that keeps him busy for about 5 minutes, then he comes back and starts again.

If I close the bedroom door he meows right outside it and the pulls the bottom of the door with his paws making a loud noise! I don't know what to do, I don't have to get up for work until 8 but how do I make him sleep till then?

It's driving me crazy!

He is the orange one and is 7 months old.

He is just being a kitten. You just have to ignore him. Sleep with earplugs, because putting him out of the room doesn't really work well. Don't pet him when he starts meowing, just do tough kitty love. It is hard because they can be so demanding, but if you give in to their demands, oftentimes you help to create a needy monster.

On some cats if you rescue them as strays, they were never allowed to be a kitten with momcat. If she was outside with her family, she would maintain a tight control on them, only let them play during non predator hours and they would hide mostly. Once you rescue, and the kitten or cat settles in they re-discover their lost childhood in the wee hours of the morning when their prey alert button is activated.

You can do interactive play with him right before going to bed, give him a ball bin to play in at night, and try to ignore the noise of the ping pong balls being batted about in a card board box. You can set up alternate entertainment for him in another room, a tightly lidded fish tank that won't topple over, a perch by the window, a new cat condo...those types of things.

Thanks for the advice,

I will try to play with him before I go to bed and I will try to ignore him at night when he is meowing.

Well, I have the same problem with Charm (somewhat) - she's presently on a diet (vet's orders) and gets fed 2 times a day. Of course, come 5:30 AM, she's ready to eat. So, first she'll just carefully come up to me and sit there staring at me (I can actually feel her doing this). Then, if I ignore her, she'll start sniffing my mouth. Still ignoring her - then, she'll meow (she's got such a little, quiet meow). So, naturally, I give in to her. I know...I know...she's never going to learn if I give in to her all the time. She's just so darn cute the way she goes about it... I just end up going back to bed after feeding everybody anyhow...

I have no additional advice, but just want to tell you how beautiful your babies are!!

Kittens will be kittens.....

Slip both of your babies have the devil in their eyes! What cuties!!

Our one cat Rocket will come in every AM at 5 and start to kneed my hair. He HAS to be on my right side and I HAVE to be lying on my back, head turned towards the left so he can have ample kneeding space. this goes on for a few minutes and then he will fall asleep. I've gotten so used to it that I just do it in my sleep pretty much. at first, it'd wake me up cause I am a really light sleeper but now I'm getting used to him doing it. Twig our other cat will come up after the snooze button has been hit and snuggle down for a 9 minute nap under the covers with us. and he HAS to be between our legs(mine of honeys) and if you move, he will zip out from under then and leap over you using your stomach as a spring board. This started recently and well, there's no sleeping through that since he is 16 pounds.

I usually play with my cat before bedtime to help tire her out. Sometimes she still meows at me after I go to bed, but I've learned to ignore her. Most of the time now she runs under my bed or finds a quiet spot after I turn out the lights and go to bed. However, she ends up laying at the bottom of my bed sometime during the night.

I've only had her 4 months now (she's over 1 yr old), and I think she finally understands that I only get up at 6:30 am when my alarm goes off during the work week. This past week, I accidently turned off my snooze button and my alarm didn't go off in the next 9 minutes. Fortunately, my CAT ALARM starting pawing at my metal bed frame and woke me up on time!!!