Cat is very noisy at night

[stoogesowner]

Hi all, I'm a newbie here who is hoping for some advice.

I have three cats, all of which are mostly well-behaved. One of my male cats, 9 years old, has long been in the habit of meowing a lot and making other types of noise in the middle of the night in order to get me to feed him. This was not such a problem when he would do it around 5 AM, but he has progressively been doing it earlier and earlier, to the point where he starts in around 2, and sometimes tries it again around 5.

My first urge is to tan his naughty little hide, and I'm not proud to admit that I have whacked him one from time to time - but this obviously the wrong thing to do for a number of reasons, and it hasn't worked anyway. So, I'm hoping maybe some of you have had the same problem and found a solution.

Ignoring him is difficult - I'm a light sleeper and he is very persistent. Leaving food out is not really an option due to weight issues he has had, and I think it would just encourage this behavior anyway.

Anyhow, any advice or insight would be appreciated.

 

[bonnie1965]

Welcome!

You are right. Hitting a cat will only teach him to fear you, nothing else. It is so hard in the middle of the night when you are exhausted to think clearly. Sometimes it is a more base instinct that comes out. So forgive yourself there, promise to not do it again and do a time-out when you need it (feel yourself getting angry). Cats just don't reason like we do.

First thing I would suggest is to get a fan to put in your room to provide white noise. Second, lock him out of your bedroom. Third, do not give in to him. Once you do, he has you trained

They are basically nocturnal animals so it is normal for them to want to eat in the wee hours of our morning. Easier said than done, I know.

There will be others coming along with different experiences and more suggestions. Please post photos of your babies if you would like

Let us know how it all works out!

 

[stoogesowner]

I've read a lot of places that advise squirting a cat with a spray bottle or squirt gun when it misbehaves. That might be worth trying, but I do wonder - if the logic holds true that hitting a cat only teaches it to fear you because it cannot correlate the punishment with the behavior, how does a cat understand that getting squirted with water correlates to bad behavior? Squirting them with water is obviously preferable to doing something where you could injure them unintentionally, but there seems to be a logic gap there to me.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. If I get the chance, I'll post some pictures of the little miscreants.

 

[katz4life]

Noticed this is your first post - so first of all - Welcome to the Cat Site!

We would agree that is a good idea about putting a fan in the room for noise. Maybe you could buy him some toys to keep him busy at night, buy anything with catnip (our cats will be busy for hours with that), buy a kitty DVD with bugs or birds so his attention is focused on that instead of you...

You can try squirting him with water - but make sure if you do disipline him with it, Don't make eye contact with him. You can also try doing a "ch" sound to him to quiet him down when hes being noisy. They are worth a try...Just keep trying different things with him - but don't give in to him like Bonnie said

Eventually you should find something that works

 

[hammyandwaf]

would it help if you fed him a snack right before bedtime so that maybe his tummy wont feel empty by morning? i dont have the problem with squishy making noise at night because she goes to sleep with us and stays asleep most of the night, she is very ready and eager to play soon as i roll over and open my eyes.

 

[kluchetta]

Two things...has your cat has a senior panel (bloodwork specific to senior cats)? Hyperthyroid can contribute to yowling at night.

If that's not the cause, it could be behavioral. There was an instance where a member (Twistychck, I believe) had the same problem. The cat had no medical issues, so she rattled a window envelope (that her cat didn't like and was afraid of), when he woke her up at night, and he stopped.