Dexter still driving me nuts, can't take it.

For all of you who don't know, Dexter my 7 month old male beige cat wakes me up at 5am every morning and won't stop bugging me.

I tried locking him out of the room, feeding him wet food before bed, playing with him, nothing works. I am getting fed up but I love him so much. He just wakes me up and meows constantly for no reason, I will feed him and he purrs as he eats and then comes back 10 minutes later and starts meowing again, he will stop if I pet him but then starts again. Oh man it's getting very draining waking up at 5 and staying up for an hour or so every night. I wish he was more like Pixel.

Grin. He's very young.. Hang in there. EVENTUALLY he will calm down and let u sleep longer. I know it's hard but try to be patient and ignore him at 5 am in the morning. It will take time...

Yeah, Tiki does the same thing. She's into everything now. If it's somewhere she's not supposed to be - she's there. If it's something she's not supposed to touch - she's touching it. If it's 5am - she's attacking our feet.

I think they're basically teenagers, looking for attention through negative behavior. You have to be careful to not reinforce bad behavior by rewarding her with food or attention every time she does something to provoke you.

Tiki has been fine with sleeping in the bathroom since she was sick as a young kitten, so if she gets totally out of hand, I put her in there and in 5 minutes she's napping.

Kids......

IGNORE...IGNORE...IGNORE... I know it's hard, and it helps to have earplugs in when you sleep. But giving him any attention in the mornings just makes the situation worse. Cat Fancy has a good article about this in their November issue.

My cat tigger is very similar and she is actually about 3 now and this behavior just started over the last few months. The only thing is that with Tigger she will Meow...Meow....Meow and by the time I've actually opened my eyes she has all of her toys in the bedroom either right beside my head or on the floor by the bed. I really believe that the reason that she does this is because my husband and I both used to work shift work and were leaving for work at 4:00am so that's why she's used to being up at that time. Usually before bed I'll play with her (She is great at fetch) and then my husband came up with the idea to "HIDE" all her toys when it really is Bed time and it seems to have worked so far.

My son has the same problem with his cat...every morning. He ignores him, but he recently asked me to get him a heavy quilt for Christmas so he won't feel Demon's claws when he scratches at his feet. I'm not sure I'll be able to find a heavy enough quilt. I don't have that problem with our cats. My husband is an early riser and always feeds them. Sometimes he sleeps a little later, but they know to bother him and not me! Even the cats know I'm not a morning person.

*Grins*

I'm currently petsitting two dogs and a 14 week old kitten. The two dogs are easy to care for and have each other for company as well as me when I play with them.

The kitten on the other hand, craves attention. I'd forgotten how much time is eaten up by babies. The thing I have had to do is when I first arrive at the house, I ignore the dogs and the kitten. I don't want the owner to come back to find that his pets have separation anxiety problems. I do everything that needs doing and then I pay attention to them. I have to say that it's working. I'm not exhausted at the end of my visits, (two times a day).

Try your best to ignore Dexter. By giving him the attention after he meows is rewarding him of the very behaviour you find annoying. Ear plugs are a good investment. Set a routine and stick to it. Don't change it, he'll learn that he isn't in charge.

Hi;

Be patient ! Dexter is still a kitten. My Gizmo did it to me all the time and it was so annoying. Dexter will grow out of it soon enough, and then you are going to miss those annoying kitten habits.

Enjoy him while he is still a kitten. They grow up so fast.