Cat scratches the door and meows at 6 am

[alysker]

Hello!
So our new cat miso has been with us for 2 weeks now. At the beginning she would meow at night but that stopped. I think she just had to get used to the new environment.
However the past two weeks she's been waking us up around 6 am by meowing and scratching at the door. If we ignore her she goes on for increments of like 10 minutes untill we wake up. We only got up at the moments she was not meowing. We've now been trying picking her up, putting her somewhere else and then leaving again. We usually have to do this two or three times and then she stops. It's a lot of work to get out of bed though and I don't know if she learns from it in the long run, but ignoring doesn't seem to do much either.
A few things
- no she does not need a cat buddy. She doesn't do well with other cats that's why she got rehomed.
- she does not meow for food so an automatic feeder wouldn't do much
-she either wants attention or to go into our bedroom idk

All advice is appreciated!

 

[Olivia12!]

I just got my cat recently two months ago she would do the same thing and non stop meow I noticed it’s mostly for attention/ to play or if their litter box needs to be empty do you notice if your cat likes to drink from the toilet? In that case if your cat does I’d get them fresh running water like a kitty fountain I’ve had many cats and when they meow a lot like this non stop and very loud they usually just want something or simply some affection.

 

[Biomehanika]

She probably just misses her people. Is there a reason she can’t sleep with you/have free access in and out of the bedroom at night?

 

[alysker]

She probably just misses her people. Is there a reason she can’t sleep with you/have free access in and out of the bedroom at night?

Right now she has a small skin issue so we don't want her in our bed. If it's resolved we could try having her in the bedroom too but we also want to be able to put her in the living room without issues. Most of my previous cats would be totally fine with her so I'm thinking there must we a way for her to learn that we'll get up in an hour or so

 

[alysker]

I just got my cat recently two months ago she would do the same thing and non stop meow I noticed it’s mostly for attention/ to play or if their litter box needs to be empty do you notice if your cat likes to drink from the toilet? In that case if your cat does I’d get them fresh running water like a kitty fountain I’ve had many cats and when they meow a lot like this non stop and very loud they usually just want something or simply some affection.

She has a fountain! And usually a clean litterbox as well

 

[Alldara]

Cats are dusk and dawn creatures. It's natural for her to get up and want to play at that time.

Have you found toys that she loves to play with on her own yet?

 

[alysker]

Cats are dusk and dawn creatures. It's natural for her to get up and want to play at that time.

Have you found toys that she loves to play with on her own yet?

Yeah she has quite some toys she likes!

 

[Alldara]

Yeah she has quite some toys she likes!

You can try setting them up different places for her like hanging precariously off of a cat tree. Try new spots every night and don't be shy to use a little catnip.

I find it I go around and pull out some springs and things that the boys sometimes play in the morning rather than bug me. It's not foolproof but it helps.

 

[rubysmama]

I know 6 AM isn't the middle of the night, but TCS does have this article that might be helpful:
How To Stop My Cat From Waking Me Up At Night (Step-By-Step Plan) - TheCatSite

 

[ArtNJ]

It sounds like you haven't been very consistent with ignoring her. Its incredibly tough I know. But if you want to be getting up at 7, and the cat starts at 6, then you should stay in the room (and be tortured by the noise) for a full hour for however long it takes, potentially a couple of weeks.

Just make sure you've ruled out actual hunger before trying to wait it out. What do you feed at what time?

 

[alysker]

It sounds like you haven't been very consistent with ignoring her. Its incredibly tough I know. But if you want to be getting up at 7, and the cat starts at 6, then you should stay in the room (and be tortured by the noise) for a full hour for however long it takes, potentially a couple of weeks.

Just make sure you've ruled out actual hunger before trying to wait it out. What do you feed at what time?

We feed her dry food before we go to bed, she usually still has some left in the morning. She's not the kind of cat to eat everything in once sitting. We do give her food twice a day but she usually eats it throughout the day. It's a bit difficult right now because she seems to be allergic to something in her food (or litterbox we don't know yet) so that will be an entire trial. But yeah the strategy now is just putting in earplugs and hoping she'll learn after a while.

 

[ArtNJ]

Since its not hunger, it should work in time.

A personal theory that I haven't really seen discussed is to use an alarm to make the linkage in the cat's mind. This requires actually getting up when your alarm clock goes off, and not before or after. Repeatedly hitting the snooze button sends the cat a signal that something is going on in the room. Its better if the cat links the alarm with your actually getting up and paying attention to the cat. That way the cat learns that if the alarm hasn't gone off, there is no attention yet. Again, this is really just a personal theory, but I did observe this years ago before we moved to a house with a finished basement.

We don't really have this issue anymore now that we have a finished basement. However, its maybe instructive that my cats get nudgy to go in the finished basement at night. They like the ritual, and the treats they get as a reward. They are VERY inconsistent in what time they get nudgy, with a time range of over an hour. That is on us I feel, we don't always go to bed at the same time. Additionally, if they really and truly want to go down an hour before we go to bed, we usually just accommodate because it costs us nothing except their company for a bit. So they are lacking consistency, lacking a clear signal, and their prodding behaviors are rewarded, a triple whammy leading to their behavior.

 

[Alldara]

I found a bit of improvement as well with the alarm. And now we can actually sleep in on weekends.

My schedule is not the most consistent. I wake up earlier than other days two times a week.

For me, I do have to get up at 6:30 to feed Magnus daily anyway. But if food isn't your issue I do recommend the alarm.

 

[alysker]

I found a bit of improvement as well with the alarm. And now we can actually sleep in on weekends.

My schedule is not the most consistent. I wake up earlier than other days two times a week.

For me, I do have to get up at 6:30 to feed Magnus daily anyway. But if food isn't your issue I do recommend the alarm.

Yeah I was thinking about the alarm. Issue is both my girlfriend and I wake up very stressed and jumpy from loud alarms so I think that would make our mornings worse than with some meowing and scratching xD

 

[Alldara]

Yeah I was thinking about the alarm. Issue is both my girlfriend and I wake up very stressed and jumpy from loud alarms so I think that would make our mornings worse than with some meowing and scratching xD

The alarm doesn't need to be loud. You can find something that's quiet. There's even slow-wake alarms. Look up "Sunrise alarm clock".

 

[rubysmama]

A personal theory that I haven't really seen discussed is to use an alarm to make the linkage in the cat's mind.

Reading about the alarm idea reminded me that when I first adopted Ruby she would wake me every morning between 60 to 90 minutes before it was time for me to get up. She was relentless and would keep coming back every few minutes, so I couldn't get back to sleep. Not surprisingly, it didn't take long for me to get sleep deprived, so I then had no choice but to put her out of the room and close the door when she woke me.

As I was putting her out of the room, I would tell her she "had to wait for the radio to come on". I can't quite remember the timeline now, but I think it was about a couple weeks later when one morning, instead of a cat waking me up, my radio did. And then she jumped up on my bed. She'd actually waited for the radio! Though occasionally she would, and still does, wake me before the radio comes on, it was nothing like when I first adopted her. So definitely the idea of using the alarm to make the linkage in a cat's mind is worth trying.

 

[alysker]

I don't think our cat would be able to hear our alarms since there's 2 doors between us and her. But maybe in the future if ignoring doesn't help we will try!

 

[Biomehanika]

I don't think our cat would be able to hear our alarms since there's 2 doors between us and her. But maybe in the future if ignoring doesn't help we will try!

Trust me, she’ll be able to hear it. My cat hears my breathing pattern change from the other side of the apartment, realizes I’m no longer asleep, and comes to demand food lol