Indoor Cat

Hello

I have a 15 year old indoor male cat who insists upon waking me up in the wee hours of the morning.  I've tried everything from feeding him before going to bed to playing with him.  Some times it works and sometimes it doesn't.  What can I do to make him sleep until I get up?

Is this a new behavior for him? When did it start? Is he just meowing or is he getting on the bed/touching you to wake you up?

Hello, it sounds to me that there is something disterbing him. I have three cats 8,7 years N baby one 7 months. I put my big ones in my spare room at night and they sleep all night and the baby sleeps with me and hubby and he sleeps all night from around 11 pm to 8 or 9 am. Hope this helps :lol3:

Thank you for replying

This has been going on for years.  I've tried letting him sleep in the same room as me but he still wants to wonder even though he's seen my room a million times!  If I physically get up and go in the other room and feed him, then he goes to sleep and I'm wide awake!  This is getting very old too!!

Cats Meow said:

This has been going on for years.  I've tried letting him sleep in the same room as me but he still wants to wonder even though he's seen my room a million times!  If I physically get up and go in the other room and feed him, then he goes to sleep and I'm wide awake!  This is getting very old too!!

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Just a thought but do you leave hiss food out of a night? As if you do i was thinking try leaving him some fresh food before you go to bed. Just thinking off anyway to help you, as i know how bac it can be to have cats getting you up. Hope this helps.

Hi

Thank you for your suggestion - yes, I've tried leaving food out for him.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  It works up to a certain point though.

What time do you normally put more food in his bowl?  One of mine wakes me up every single morning at the same time, even on weekends, just to put more food in her bowl because it is when I get up on weekdays and feed her before work.  It doesn't matter if it already has food in it or not, she isn't happy until I pour some more in.  I've never been able to break her of this, but I have been able to shift her feeding schedule a few times by putting more food in her bowl at a later time of day and then just ignoring her wake up attempts by sheer determination.  It took a few weeks, but she finally got used to the new schedule.

I'm wondering if he just wants your attention or to have you put food in his bowl and has succeeded often enough to keep trying his luck to see if you'll get up with him.  You'll probably never be able to get him to sleep through the night, but you may be able to convince him to stop waking you up if you ignore him for long enough.  Just lay there and act like you don't even notice his behavior until he gives up and goes away.  You may have to keep at it for a few weeks before he learns to give it up.

Something important for being able to ignore him and go back to sleep is cat-proofing your room.  Make sure that there is nothing that he can get into that will actually wake you up with the noise.  In my house, it's a huge no-no to have plastic bags in a room where someone is trying to sleep.  If she's trying to wake me and I ignore her, she will go after something plastic because she knows that I can't stand it and I will get up and chase her off.