Challenge: Cat waking me up. Can you solve?

[Draco]

Sure, it's common for cats to wake up their owners when they want their breakfast.. whether its by meowing, pawing or otherwise.

But Monet.. Man he drives me BONKERS!

He used to just paw me in the face, which was nice. Cassie nuzzles me which is even nicer!

But, now.. what he does is stand on one end of the bed.. JUMP onto me and runs away! He'd either jump on my stomach, shoulder.. whatever position I am in.. and literally JUMPS on me with his full 12lb weight. He'd do this over and over until I finally get up. I find myself with bruises and the occasional claw marks.

I refuse to open my eyes, since this encourages him to do it more until I get up. Given with my eyes closed, I can't see him about to take the leap to stop him from attempting to use me as a trampoline.

What makes this worse.. is Cassie's starting to do this too!! Two cats using me as a bouncy house? NO THANKS!!

I don't want to startle him by throwing my arms up or scolding him with a NO, since I do not want him to be fearful of my bed.. I want him to continue to sleep with me all night as he does.

Any suggestions on how to stop him from jumping on me like a spring board in the mornings?

(If it helps, I am hearing impaired, so I can't hear them moving around without my hearing aids.)

 

[vball91]

When my cat starts this, I put her outside the bedroom and close the door. She hates that, so she stops doing that for months. And then she'll randomly start up again. So outside she goes again. I know the common recommendation is to ignore it completely, but that did not work for me. She is one persistent cat! The only thing that worked was giving her an undesired outcome (being locked out of the bedroom).

 

[jcat]

Jamie did that; it sometimes helped when I grabbed him and shut him out of the bedroom. Then he switched to forcing his paw into my mouth to wake me up. The only thing that worked was getting a feeder with a timer and setting it to open at 5 a.m.. He got so distracted waiting for it to open that he usually forgot to wake me up.

 

[Draco]

Timer feeding station won't work since I feed raw. Shane though!

I will have to consider locking him out.

 

[peaches08]

What about freeze dried treats in a timed feeder? Would that work?

My cats got banned from my bedroom at all times since I don't find it as funny as they do to things like my makeup brushes in the litter box...cats!

 

[gloriajh]

When I'm laying on my back I have to put a pillow over my body - he then goes around.

Otherwise you'll probably be happy you can't hear him yowling to get into the bedroom after you've closed him out.

Sorry, I experience about the same thing - no respect for my sleeping body - and, he's the one that cuddles with me - putting his head on my arm as he sleeps with me - so, I'm not closing him out!  

Have you tried not letting him sleep during the day (LOL), then making him chase something for about 15 minutes before you go to bed?  Sorry, I'm no help here.  You're not in this alone - maybe that helps somewhat.  :-)

 

[sivyaleah]

Cocoa is rather relentless about 5am or so most days.  She will perch on my legs, then make her way in a circle around me, around the pillow and back again.  

I never react as far as voice is concerned.  What I've found, is she really dislikes if I pull her towards me to cuddle her, so that's what I do.  She'll then run off most times and leave me be until it's time for me to get out of bed for work an hour later.  I usually can manage to fall back to sleep.  On weekends, it's the same routine but I get to sleep in more.

Casper is great.  He never wakes us up.  He'll sit patiently at the foot of the bed for hours if need be.  Wish he'd give her some pointers.

 

[tabbymommy]

I agree on putting him out till he stops but what I did to make my kitty stop is I gave her some lovings and then fell back asleep or if she was laying on me or standing on me meowing I would roll over (not on perpose it was mainly timed cause I like rolling around in my sleep and don't realise she is on me) here I. Can't put her out the bedroom (dogs and kids make her go under the bed if she gets to annoyed) but if you can try that or if he stays on you roll over it won't scare them from laying with you just from jumping on you cause they will get the picture of if I jump on my owner and they roll over then I get scared but if I. Just lay here and wait then I won't get scared

 

[tabbymommy]

But it works with mine idk about yours

 

[Draco]

I've taken up to putting him out of the room when he jumps on me. The last two days, he jumped while I was still sound asleep, earlier than usual. So yea, I grabbed him and tossed him out of the room (not literally, mind you). Then I played on my phone for half an hour, letting him stew and meow outside the door until he quieted and I officially got up. See how long this takes.. day 2.

 

[tabbymommy]

Lol nice good luck

 

[Anne]

Did you do anything at all when he jumped? Respond in any way to indicate he woke you? I'm not sure it's humanly possible not to react when something jumps on you in your sleep 

 I just wonder if he managed to elicit a response that was positive to him at any point in time. 

Sleeping with cats is fun, but if it gets to the point of bruises and claw marks, I would definitely consider getting him used to sleeping in another room with a closed door between you. Maybe if you did that for a few weeks it'll break the habit completely and then you could give it another try.

 

[Draco]

I usually do my best not to react when he jumps on me! Sometimes it's hard and I yell at him. I never get up immediately after he jumps... Though the last two mornings I got up to swiftly grab him and toss him out, nothing more.

 

[tncatlover]

Marty will pick up pens, jewelry, whatever else he can find, and drop it, over and over and over... he'll pause and look to see if I'm awake, and if I pretend to still be asleep, he's at it again. I just put him outside the bedroom door, and close the door. He fought me for a few weeks, by putting his paw under the door and pulling on it (as to make it knock) but now, he just waits patiently until the door opens again.

 

[barbb]

I consulted a behaviorist about this many years ago as the kitty I adopted had a habit of jumping on my dresser at 3AM and knocking things off it with her paws to get our attention. Shame on her previous parent! LOL.

The behaviorist said that even negative attention counts as a form of reinforcement to your kitty. They don't care if positive or negative, they just want to engage you. She also said that whatever extinguishing behavior you do, they should not know it is coming from you because their entire strategy is to activate and engage you.

So whatever you do to stop them, they have to think it is out of nowhere. She suggested hiding a hair dryer under a nearby pillow and activating it in a way where kitty could not see it was coming from me. Like it just sprung out of the bed from somewhere else. Maybe also a can of coins or something like that, you could rig it somehow? 

In the case of my cat, the hair dryer was very effective bc she was not into loud noises out of nowhere lol. 

I also really liked the other poster's idea of giving them a more attractive alternative, using the stella and chewy's freeze dried raw food as "crunchies" for them. My kitties love them and they are very low cal, being raw and all that. You don't have to put water in therm or anything so it might be a nice morning or evening snack.

And like Anne said, taking the lead and changing their routine, giving them a new permanent structure, might be the way to go. Maybe it will work if you can give them their own room and put them to bed at the same time each night, after a play session, and putting some soft music in the room where they will not be able to hear you moving, snoring, or existing LOL. Also I am not sure where you live, but here where the temperature is starting to get warmer, you could open the window in their bedtime room and have their cat trees where they can look out the window at night and it will be a treat for them and make them like the new arrangement.

My cats can tell when my breathing changes from sleeping to waking, and they will come looking for me from anywhere in the house. So if you have music wherever you have them, that can also help deter them from trying to find you and wake you up. 

 

[feralvr]

I have TWO naughty nightly naggers (as I lovingly call them. :lol3 Pipsqueak and Presley. Relentless doesn't even begin to describe their advances. Presley is the worst offender of disturbing my sleep. I lay in bed and watch the news or read before I turn the light off. It is not the same time every night either. As soon as my light goes off, Presley promptly jumps up on the bed and begins to walk all over my head and neck. He also licks my face and this is all BEFORE I go to sleep. He waits out in the hallway after he brings me a few of his mouse toys while I watch TV or read. After this ritual, I usually get a few hours sleep with him nestled on my pillow. His purring lulls me to sleep. But he begins to wake me around 3 a.m. or so each night with the same routine. Pipsqueak starts about 4:30 a.m.. They both sit and stare at me. Put their paws on my closed eyes. Or worse, put their paws in my mouth and nose. I have tried many things such as hissing, shouting "go away", tossing them (gently) to the foot of the bed, ignoring them (which I swear they know that I am awake and ignoring them on purpose), treat balls on the floor, etc. I have even tried the hair dryer technique. Nope, nothing works, they always come right back. :lol3: I do not want to lock my cats out of the bedroom and have just accepted that this is the way life is going to be with these two. It is good to know that there are other cat lovers walking around in the mornings in a daze due to their furkid's naughty nightly nagging. :slant:

 

[Draco]

I had to kick Monet out at MIDNIGHT! and I had to be up at 3 am for work. I'm not sure if he was playing with Cassie or not, but they've never, ever ran across the bed in the middle of the night. Usually they'd stay with me all night until they noticed a shift in my breathing or they know it's 8am. which ever comes first.

 

[catspaw66]

I had to kick Monet out at MIDNIGHT! and I had to be up at 3 am for work. I'm not sure if he was playing with Cassie or not, but they've never, ever ran across the bed in the middle of the night. Usually they'd stay with me all night until they noticed a shift in my breathing or they know it's 8am. which ever comes first.

Sounds like they are trying to re-train YOU. The shift in the weather has mine going crazier all last night. They woke me up at 4:30 this morning playing.  Maybe when the weather settles down, so will Monet and Cassie.

 

[Draco]

nope, I'm untrainable.

 

[tabbymommy]

ok that is funny lol