Cat attacks at 4AM on the dot!

dmartnyc

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We've been having a challenge with our new cat attacking our feet in bed ALWAYS around 4AM in the morning!

She's pretty aggressive too and we have to (literally pick her up) to get her off the bed.

Once she's done, she doesn't come back until we wake for the day and then she gets in our bed and sleeps.

What could be causing her to have these outbreaks and is it fixable?

Thanks,

Daniel
 

yayi

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She's actually waking you up the only way she knows how. 
 Quite normal. I had two cats at different times sleeping with me and when they woke me up (not attacking my feet but jumping on my arms and chest), I would get out of bed and just let them out of the room. They trained me so well, that it came to a point that I would automatically wake up at dawn and open the door to let them out even though they were still fast asleep. 
 

blackcat416

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I have 6 cats and every night when I go to bed, 4 of them follow me into my bed to sleep at night. Each night when I get into bed they play catch Mommie's feet. Every night it's the same ritual. They are going to play until we all fall asleep. I have enough covers on and their nails are trimmed every 3 weeks so it doesn't hurt. Three of them will sleep around my feet as well at night, once play time is over. I also think it's their way of our fluffing the pillow when playing with my feet. Once everyone falls asleep there is no more feet chasing until the next nights bedtime. Even when I get out of bed to use the bathroom during the middle of the night no one plays with my feet, it only at bedtime. My cats aren't very nocturnal as they like sleeping through the night with me. Sometimes 1 or 2 will actually stay in bed once I get up or I will have to wake them to come down to eat.

So to me your cat is playing with your feet nightly unfortunately it's at 4am. I would try playing with your cat right before bed to the point of exhaustion, if your cat brakes the proverbial 4am blues it's because she slept through or past. 4 am. That's why 4 sleep with me because I exhaust them each night before bedtime with play.
 

flowerdew

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Dawn and dusk have always been the craziest times for my kitties. My last cat, Puck, had me trained so well that I had adjusted my work hours to accommodate the reality that I wasn't going to be in bed past 5 am! I just found an email from a time he stayed with my parents while I was away on an extended trip, in which my mom complained at length about how he would stand at her bedroom door and meow his insistent, yowly meow every morning at 4:30.

My kitten, Claude, is on the same schedule. For the most part, it works out for us, but there are times when I really need the extra sleep. So I second what has been said above - if I exhaust her before bedtime (a fishing pole type toy works best for me for this particular purpose), chances are I'll get to sleep a few hours longer. If not, then I shut her out of my room.
 

catsallaround

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Far as why it is on the dot 4AM-do you live close enough to any neighbors-maybe an alarm clock goes off that triggers her or a train/bus?  Or maybe someone gets up and lets out their dog then.
 

sharebearariel

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My two just like to lay at my feet at night. If I move my foot, they put their paws alertly on top of it.
I think it may be because you may unconsciously move your foot while asleep, and their hunting skills kick in. They may think it's a critter that is under your blanket that they need to get rid of.
I don't know how to help stop it, but it should be easy to do.
 

luvlyk

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From the little experience and research I read in the past.  You may want to tire your cat out first as others have mentioned before bed time. So continous play right before you go to bed and you see your cat tired. On numerous occasions I'll take a long nap and up all night up until 3 sometimes the cats are up too and we're all having fun playing. I can assure they are knocked out in the morning on these nights and only awake because I accidentally wake them when I get out the bed. (Not saying doing anything this drastic)

Also cats usually wake up early and like to wake up their humans. I know mine does mainly because they want me to get up and feed them. However it's about the time I wake up normally so they do me a favor of not over sleeping on my lazy days. They rarely mess with my feet they get all up in my face and will paw at it or whatever non covered body part.

After trying increased play time try some nights where the cat sleeps outside the bedroom.
 
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