trouble with new cat

Hi all! My boyfriend and I adopted a 1yr. old female tabby about a week ago. I'm quickly falling in love with her, but she has decided that 7:30 am is wake up time. From what I've read this is a rather common problem. The suggestions I've read say to play with her a lot before bedtime. I'd hav enop problem doing this, however, she was a stray for who knows how long and remains rather shy. I have seen progress in the past day or two but she still wants to stay under our bed if she isn't eating, drinking or using the litterbox. Any suggestions on how to get her to play more or feel more comfortable with us? She is currently living in our bedroom with some access to the rest of the house. I didn't want to give her too much "new" all at once. Thanks for any suggestions, she's my first cat!

Shannon, Matt and our new cat Kenley

Just give her time, her meowing is more than likely one of confusion and some fear. If she is eating, drinking and using the litter pans just let her hide. She will come out when she understands she is in a good place and she can trust you.

congrats on the cat. She is probably just hungry at that time, I wish mine would let me sleep in that late - my latest foster started off miaowing at 5.30am (my alarm doesn't go off till 6.30) and after 3 weeks she has finally learnt what time the alarm goes off and waits till 5-10 mins before it goes off, which I can cope with. One of my previous cats woke me up at breakfast time at weekends, so I used to get up, give her half her breakfast and then go back to bed!! Now I have too many cats to do that.

Is she spayed? If not, that could be the reason for the meowing at night, because she would want potential mates to know she was there, during heat. If she has been spayed, she could just want some attention in the morning. I agree that you should play with her in the evening, but maybe also during the day. maybe you could try as she was returning after eating/drinking/"litter-boxing"(new word to get her to play or something. Another possible problem is food. If she is not free fed(always food in bowl) she may tend to get hungry at that time. Maybe if this is the case you could free feed her so she could eat whenever.