Constant Morning Meowing/early morning meowing... HELP!

[lizk729]

Hello everyone!! Ive got a small problem with our Stormy and we are not sure how to deal with it. Stormy is 7 months old and is a spayed female. Shes a very loving kitty and we LOVE her to pieces. About 2 weeks ago she started up meowing in the AM. She used to do this when she was younger, 3months or so, and we ignored her so she stopped. Well we have been ignoring her BUT its not working this time. We thought maybe it was because she was hungry but even after she eats she comes back to meow at us. Now our conclusion is that she wants us all up. We are a family of 7 with two furbabies and quite frankly we dont want to get up at 6:30am. lol

We did use the squirt bottle at first but its not doing anything and I am scaring her from me so I stopped. Now I just want to figure out what we can do to curb this behavior. I know she will be vocal but Im wondering if it will stop being constant like this in the AM or if we are stuck with her meowing. She only meows like this first thing in the AM. Once we are all up she stops. But even if one of us is up thats not enough.

She has to keep at it until more of us are up. My husband is really really really tired of it.

Thanks for everyones insight......

 

[taurus77]

When my husband and I separated and I lived alone, my cat, Spot, would constantly meow! If I wasn't in his sight, he meowed. In the morning and all through the night, he would push his nose into mine, nip at my face, meow--just anything to keep me awake. I think it was because I worked a lot and wasn't home as much as I used to be and he really got lonely. When I was home, he made every effort to get ALL my attention, be it good, bad or ugly.
Now I am living with my boyfriend, and Spot is "purrfectly" fine. In fact, he doesn't have much to do with me until bed time. All the bad behavior stopped.
Is Stormy getting enough attention as before? Do you have young children that may bother her if you're not around?
If you find a solution to it, please let me know.

 

[batgirl2good]

I wish you the best! My cats meow if they want attention or if they want food. They are on a diet, so it is hard sometimes NOT to give them food. They act as if they are dying of hunger.

 

[lizk729]

Thanks for the insight.........
I do think shes lonely thats why she is meowing to wake us up or get us up, BUT she does not lack for attention. lol There are 7 humans in the house and she is not picked on but totally loved ALOT!! lol She even cuddles with me up by my face at night to sleep. She just wants us up. But the constant meowing is insane. lol I guess we just wait it out and hope she quits. My biggest concern is her waking the younger children. My 2 year old and four year old........very grumpy when they dont get enough sleep. lol

Her meowing can last for 30 minutes or more.........

Then of course we wake up...lol
Anymore insight would be GREAT!!!
Thanks

 

[lizk729]

Oh and she does meow to eat. I feed her four times a day.....lol She eats at 7am, 11am, 5pm and 10pm...........She gets about 1/4 a cup eat time. I dont want to overfeed her so I dont feed her more but sometimes her times change depending on how hungry she gets. Her 10pm feeding has slowly moved up to about 8:30pm....lol But I still try to give her a little around 10 or 11 because I was hoping that would make her sleep in longer and not meow for us.

NOT working.......

I was thinking maybe I should just give her a continuous bowl to eat from........fill it with the cup in the AM and just let her eat all day at her will, but Im afraid she will gobble it all down right away. lol Then I thought about taking a food bowl upstairs so that we can put food in that in the Am and maybe she wont bother us, BUT we do get up at 7 and feed her and the dog and then I go back to bed until 7:45 BUT she will come up right after shes done eating and cry........so Im really thinking the food thing might not help.
And we CANT get another cat right now......lol.........WE had hoped she would just go play with the dog but she wont go downstairs unless we come down with her.

And if we leave her downstairs eating as soon as shes done she books back up with us. lol

Then she will just sit in the hallway and meow...............**sigh**

 

[money]

Try a siamese with constant meowing at full volume. I cant help with any advice but I know what its like. But I like to think of it like this, humans talk a lot, and cats dont really understand a lot of what we say, perhaps we drive them up the wall with our constant talking. One thing I do (because in my case its not always a food thing) I pick her(the cat) up and carry her around as Im doing things for a few minutes, she loves this and will usually pipe down for a while. What about the litter tray? my siamese is very fussy about the state of her litter tray, if its not clean, she will behave a bit like this.

<3 $

 

[lizk729]

Hi..thanks for the advice.

Stormys litter pan is pretty clean....I clean it every other day and she doesnt seem to complain about that. She just wants attention. I had just hoped there was a way to "teach" her not to cry in the am. I can go and pick her up when she is meowing but shes not in a loving mood she is in play mode. So she wants to play. So I can play with her at 6:30am and that will quiet her down but who wants to play at 6:30 am........lol

 

[marin]

Ha!My little one meowed all the time,day and night.But he was just scared and hungry.Now hes ok,he just meows when he wants he wants something to paly with.

 

[trouts mom]

Our cat does the same thing, although she only does it on the weekend when we are trying to sleep in.

We sometimes just hang around in bed for a few minutes while we are waking up, and boy if she hears us talking, she will meow like crazy telling us to let her in..

The only thing we can do is try not to talk loudly, so she doesn't know we are awake..

 

[bab-ush-niik]

We're having the same problem with Puppy. Please let me know if you find a way to solve this problem. He doesn't even get fed in the morning, and he actually doesn't want attention. Once we're up, he continues to meow until we scratch his head. Then he runs off for a nap on the windowsill. He's started meowing 30 minutes before the alarm though, and it's getting really annoying. Litterbox is cleaned at night, he has food, and he has toys. We've been trying to keep him awake and active through the entire evening in hopes that he'll sleep through the night for once, but it hasn't worked yet.

 

[meechmelon]

Hello, everyone.

I know this is a bit similiar to a post below, but different, as I've got two cats who keep each other entertained most of the time.

My husband and I are going nuts. Our 1 1/2-year old cats are waking up really early now that it's spring. At 5 or 6 a.m., they start meowing and meowing and meowing. we live in a small apartment, so we can't just put them in another room. We can't sleep, and we don't want to get up and encourage the behavior by feeding them.

Is there anything we can do???

Thanks.

-- Michele

 

[dragonlady]

Wow, this is tough. Are they boy or girl cats? Are they fixed? If they are not fixed they could be in heat or if boys, smell a female in heat. This will result in the "calling" behaviour you are experiencing.

If they are fixed, I am not sure what you can do. Maybe an automatic feeder that will dispense their food? I hope someone else can come up with something for you!

Teresa

 

[lizk729]

LOL...........thats what we have tried with Stormy.......to play with her at night and try to wear her down so she wont wake us up so early BUT it has yet to work. At least my husband has been able to see the humor in it.

 

[kathryn41]

you have my sympathies. I have two who have decided that I need to be up and playing with them anytime between 4 am and 5:30 am, then again around 6:30. We have 5 and I keep saying 'Go play with someone else!". Doesn't work - they don't want someone else- they want me. Bear is the vocal one though - he will meow - and loudly - unless I get up - then he races off to the living room and starts his play enticement activity. I usually close the door on them, which is starting to work now after several months, but at 5:30 he starts it up again. What is working now is to make sure his food bowl is full which he eats, or if that doesn't work, picking him up and cuddling him under the covers for 10 minutes or so. He starts to purr and when he leaves he just goes and finds a place to sleep for a while. Good luck.

 

[maherwoman]

I'm sure this doesn't help much, but mine do it too...EVERY morning. They used to scratch on the door, too, so consider yourself lucky she doesn't do that, too!! We call their meows "doorbells" and their scratching "knocking". They're just lonely. We've gotten used to it.

One thing I just thought of that might help is adding white noise to your room. It will block out any additional sounds. For instance, buying a small fan (and pointing it away from you so the breeze doesn't make your room cold) and putting it somewhere either by the door, or by your bed. Works wonders! We do it for our six year old daughter, and NOTHING wakes that kid up!! (Which is especially cool when you consider we live right next to an alley that loud music-filled cars love to frequent, as well as all-night LOUD parties!! She doesn't even STIR!)

 

[maherwoman]

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to post the same reply I gave the other post:

I'm sure this doesn't help much, but mine do it too...EVERY morning. They used to scratch on the door, too, so consider yourself lucky she doesn't do that, too!! We call their meows "doorbells" and their scratching "knocking". They're just lonely. We've gotten used to it.

One thing I just thought of that might help is adding white noise to your room. It will block out any additional sounds. For instance, buying a small fan (and pointing it away from you so the breeze doesn't make your room cold) and putting it somewhere either by the door, or by your bed. Works wonders! We do it for our six year old daughter, and NOTHING wakes that kid up!! (Which is especially cool when you consider we live right next to an alley that loud music-filled cars love to frequent, as well as all-night LOUD parties!! She doesn't even STIR!)

I'll add that you should make sure they're not meowing for food (in which case you should either get a different, bigger, or just more food bowls so they don't run out. (Same thing for water.)

Another thing...are they fixed? If not, the best solution is to get them fixed. There are many places that will either do it for free or for very low cost, so unless you plan to breed them, I would just go for getting them fixed.

 

[bab-ush-niik]

Plenty of food, he's neutered...like I said, once we get out of bed, he's content.

BTW, this morning I was able to get him to be quiet when he started in at 5:30 am. He's not a big "bed cat", he usually hates being on the bed if we're in it. This morning, I just reached down and tossed him down by my feet. I scratched his head, then I curled up so my feet wouldn't hit him (he hates that). After 15 minutes, he curled up and went to sleep. Didn't wake up until I rolled out of bed at 8:30.

I think what happened was that we didn't play with him as much, so he actually got up EARLIER. But because it was so dark still, he didn't mind taking another cat nap after we gave him a little attention. We're trying it again tonight. I'd rather he wake me for 2 minutes at 5 than for 30 minutes before I get up.

 

[lizk729]

Stormy is a BIG bed kitty. She loves to sleep on my feet and snuggle on my head.

But when she starts meowing in the AM she doesnt want to snuggle she wants to play.

I just dont want to go get another furbaby and have it still happen.......so thats mainly what I was thinking of doing until someone posted that TWO cats do that every AM. lol
We will just wait and hope that Stormy grows out of this.....lol

 

[curlyq629]

I feel your pain!
My cat acts as my unofficial alarm clock every morning between 4:30 and 6. She usually gets on top of the computer monitor in my room (I live in an apartment) and meows down at me. If I don't get up in a timely fashion (about a minute), she'll paw at the window blinds, which makes quite a racket. I've tried all sorts of tricks with food, but even if her dish is full at night, she still does it. She's spayed, so that's not it either. I've tried closing her out of my room, but then she goes to the edge of the carpet by the door frame & pulls out the individual strands of carpet.
I really think she just wants me to get up, and she's quite insistent. I always find it of utmost irritation when I do get up, and then by the time I'm out of the shower, she's curled up sound asleep again!
My best strategy has been to put her in her carrier. Then I can finish getting my sleep; she likes her carrier a lot (I always leave it out, & she'll hop in during the day to take a nap sometimes) so it's not a bad thing for her. Good luck!

 

[charmed654321]

I don't know if this would help or not, but it came to mind as I was reading the thread.

Have you ever tried giving her a large pinch of good quality strong catnip? My guys get really excited, are distracted by it, roll all over in it, and by the time they're done, they're tired and flop down and sleep it off

I don't have the meowing problem, but their reaction to it might be just what you're looking for at least until she grows out of it.

What my Rocky does to wake me or get attention is get under the covers and nudge and nudge and nudge until I wake up (and no, I wouldn't lock him out I'm too much of a wimp). lol

What my Fuzz (who I miss so much -- he moved on last October) did was the worst. He would come up to me in bed, stick one claw up my nose and pull.

I woke up all right. lol