Kitty is waking me up at 5am

I recently returned from a week of vacation in which my husband stayed home with the cat and every night since I've been home he wakes me at 5am. The first night it was all night meowing. Now it's just 5am.

What could be causing this? He is getting constant love and attention when he's out and awake and available. When he does this I coax him into the bed where he snuggles and purrs for a bit then leaves to meow more.

I seriously need my sleep and my husband's ready to put him outside, though in my opinion, this is out of the question.

Maybe he thinks he needs to check on you now, to make sure you are where you are supposed to be when he thinks you are supposed to be there. Cats are such diligent supervisors.

If you keep getting up and giving him attention when he does it, he'll continue. Ignore, ignore, ignore. Don't say anything, don't move, don't even open your eyes. He'll get the message that mom is dead to the world at 5AM, eventually.

play with him really hard and give him warm wet food right before bed and see if he sleeps any longer.

i think we need a better description on this, maybe something happened in the middle of the night that gave the cat some minor trauma, maybe your husband rolling over him in the middle of the night? if it could be something like that then theres nothing you can do except wait for a bit and she/he will learn to forget

He doesn't sleep with my husband if I'm not there, so I know that's not it.

I am wondering, though, if there's a male or female cat outside and he's smelling them. Then I wonder why they'd be out there every single day at 5am.

How can I ignore him? I can't sleep and, as I said, my husband's ready to toss him outside.

Was your husband by any chance getting up at 5 for work or something? I know since I've started work and get up at 5 three days a week, Marlee assumes I'll be up at that time everyday. So around 5, even on the days I don't work she meows a time or two, thinking I'll get up, and when I ignore her or tell her to be quiet she moves on back to what she was doing. I agree with the others....try and ignore her (I know its hard), or either get up and set her outside your bedroom and close the door. Maybe this would show her that if she meows during the night. she won't be allowed to be with mommy and daddy.

Yeah, I was thinking that, too, especially if he gets breakfast whenever someone's up.

Can you shut him out (of the bedroom, not the house) at night? Or does that increase the fuss?

Unfortunately for us humans, 5am is a perfectly reasonable time for a cat to wake up and be ready for the day to start (starting with food of course!). Cats are most active at dawn and dusk and by 5am it's light outside.

Was your cat ok before you went away? Maybe he just missed you and is being a bit clingy. Whenever I leave Jaffa in a cattery he always sticks to me like glue for a while afterwards. If that's the case he should settle down eventually and get back into his old routine.

My two cats wakes me up at 4 am these days!! In the winter they sleep until 7am or so, but now in summer time is every day worse. First they waked me at 5am, then 4.30, then 4am and today they waked me at 3am, meowing, jumping around, wanted to go out.....

Originally Posted by WildAngel

My two cats wakes me up at 4 am these days!! In the winter they sleep until 7am or so, but now in summer time is every day worse. First they waked me at 5am, then 4.30, then 4am and today they waked me at 3am, meowing, jumping around, wanted to go out.....

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Same here. It used to be 5.30, then it was 5, then it was 4.30.. I can't wait for the days to start getting shorter! I just put it down to a combination of getting light early and the fact that Mosi is not yet 6 months old so I can't really expect him to sleep right through the night. I'm looking forward to winter!

My are 1 and 2 years old...and it is not any better. They are playing outside in the evening, they are tired and i put them inside around 9 pm, but it does no change