I want sleep!

My cat turned 1 year old in September. Every morning around 4am she wakes me up and usually doesn't stop until I feed her. She digs into my hair, lightly bites me, and jumps on top of me. I tried feeding her later at night, but she bugged me about that too. I am so tired and just want some advice on how to deter this behavior. My older cat never behaved this way and let me sleep, so I do not have experience.

hi, 

One big hit in the face and that'll put her to sleep!!!! only joking..... 

what you can do is change her eating timeable so that when its at night, she is hungry and will eat the food, so that she does not bother you early mornings.

You can feed her say 7am to 9am and let her wait till night, then once you get that new program in motion, start keeping the routine. I hope that helps.....

She's young and full of energy is the first problem. I don't think it's the food I think it's the attention. Unfortunately for you she has probably now learned that all she has to do is harass you and you will get out of bed and pay attention to her. I think the food is the diversion allowing you to go back to sleep but probably not why she wakes you up. She feels full after eating in the morning and probably sleepy and calms down. You will have to start ignoring her in the morning and it's going to be hard un trail the behavior because you have to stay in bed. I'd get her a lot of new toys to entertain herself with and I'd play a lot with her before bedtime. There is no excuse for ever hitting your cat, hissing in my book is acceptable and does work to get a cat to stop and run the other direction. Sounds crazy but it works in those immediate situations like the 4am wake up call. I'd start practicing the hissing. Tiring her out the night before should help too. Good luck!!!

My cat did that when we first switched her to timed feedings. 4am, and bam, wake up call from the cat! I tried feeding her later at night to see if that helped but it didn't. What honestly truly worked was.....ignoring her! It took weeks of me hiding under the covers, ignoring her, in order for to get the idea that it wasn't breakfast time. Once my alarm went off at 6am I would then get up right away,and feed her breakfast. So now she knows to wait until the alarm to wake me up, otherwise, she isn't getting breakfast. I'm also up at 6am every morning of the week so the routine has worked great and I never have those nasty 4am wake up calls!

Best of luck!

You have to ignore her. She now has YOU trained to feed her when She  wants to be fed. 

It can take several weeks to break this behavior but you must NOT give in. Even giving in once when breaking this habit will restart the whole process over.

Don't feed her until she's quiet and/or leaving you alone. Do this consistently and she should stop waking you up. Or start doing some sort of chore and feeding her directly afterwards. Say like brush your teeth and go feed her.  If you always feed her right after a habit/chore she'll start associating that with food instead of waking you up too.

Its a hard habit to break for you and the kitty but life is so much better afterwards.

i think ignoring her might be your best bet. Get a comfortable set of ear plugs, and sleep under the covers if you have to. don't give up, keep pretending you are sleeping even if your not. if she sees you open your eyes or hears you say anything its all over and you may as well get up and feed her. If your stubborn enough this should work in around 2 weeks. i had a similar problem with a cat and ear plugs did the trick.