Cat Wakes Me Up Every Night!!!

My one year old Cheeto constantly wakes me up at 1:30-2:00 in the morning to get up and feed him. He bangs on the vertical blinds which are located right behind my bed. I've tried feeding him before I go to bed, but he still wakes me up and sometimes he doesn't even eat when I get up then. I can't lock him out because he bangs at the door and I can't leave food out because I have a kitten, adult cat and senior cat and they are all on different food.

Any suggestions? SHould I go buy some curtains instead of blinds. Can anyone help?

Thanks.

I don't know if this will be helpful, but maybe your cat is bored and could use some cat toys that make less noise. Do you snore? Could your cat be responding to that?

Another suggestion is to put some padding, temporarily, on the door, so that he won't make noise if you lock him out. Maybe your cat will then realize he needs to eat when you feed him. If he won't eat before bed and you lock him out, feed him in the morning. Maybe with repetition he'll change his eating habits.

It's also possible that he likes the attention you give him when you feed him. Do all your cats get along? Do they all generally eat at the same time? (maybe he prefers privacy)

I hope that I've at least given you something different to consider.

When Simba first moved in, he would wake me up all the time - headbutting and biting (love bites, mostly, but a few hard ones) me until I woke up. He was a stray, and was pretty scared here at first, and I think maybe the only time he felt really secure was in the middle of the night when everything was really quiet. However, after a couple of weeks of sleep-deprived psychosis, I decided it had to change.

I put him out of the room and just put up with the noise - I wouldn't have been sleeping anyway. He gave up after a couple of days. We did let him back in after he had been quiet for a few days, and he was pretty good after that - I think we only had to banish him once more. Now, I don't know if ousting him helped, or if he was just starting to settle down anyway. Now he sleeps through the night curled up with me, and never tries to wake me up.

I don't know if that is any help, but just wanted to let you know I certainly understand!! Good luck!

I adopted him when he was 3 months old and he always slept with me through the night. Just the past few months, he has been acting like this. All 3 of my cats get along just fine. They are always playing and chasing each other around the house. I enjoy having all of them sleeping with me, but maybe he just wants the attention I give him by getting up and feeding him. Sometimes when I get up, he doesn't even eat. They always have toys laying around and I play with him before I go to bed to try and tire him out.

Maybe, if I ignore him and don't get up, he will get the hint and stop.

I'll try.

Thanks.

He just hit a year old, which means he is coming into adulthood. Since cats are naturally nocturnal, it doesn't surprise me that he started this behavior at this point in his life.

I play hard with my cats in the evening each night (we start about 7 and go to 10) and I also have entertaining toys that they can play with like tall cat condos, boxes, ball rings, catnip toys when I'm sleeping. If they start playing in bed, they are immediately corrected (bed is sleep time not play time) with a time out and they eventually get the hang of it. I have the advantage of being able to sleep hard most nights so I don't really hear them.

Holy man, it's 4:00am on Sunday Morning and my cat has cried and cried until I have gotten up. I realize that it's easy enough to not get up and wait it out, but my husband who is sleeping beside me will put the cats outside for the night if I let that happen. (And they are all indoor cats) I don't think that it's so much that my cats are hungry because there is plenty of food in the bowl, it's more that my youngest cat wants to play. She, too, has just started this behavior in the last couple of weeks, or maybe we never noticed before because we always worked at 4:00am in the morning. I will continue trying to play with her till she passes out before bed and maybe get some padding, I just thought that you might want to know that you are not alone in this troubled situation!!.

P.S My Tabby cat is 3 years old now and has been fixed. She is the youngest of 3 that we have.