Hungry Cat at 3am

[gracie37]

I have a 5 year old Orange Tabby who loves to wake us up at 3 am for breakfast. No matter how late we feed him at night, he will roam the house meowing for food. I don't feed him because i am trying to get him out of the idea he will actually get what he wants that early. But it doesn't seem to be helping.

Any suggestions??

 

[tnr1]

Originally Posted by gracie37

I have a 5 year old Orange Tabby who loves to wake us up at 3 am for breakfast. No matter how late we feed him at night, he will roam the house meowing for food. I don't feed him because i am trying to get him out of the idea he will actually get what he wants that early. But it doesn't seem to be helping.

Any suggestions??

Welcome Gracie to TCS....I free feed my cats so I don't think I can be much help. Is there a particuliar reason why you aren't free feeding your cat? Is it because you want hiim on a schedule or is he on a diet?? Also, what brand of cat food are you feeding him?? Brands that don't have a lot of protein in them do end up leaving the cat hungry after only a couple of hours...so perhaps it would be worth exploring another brand of cat food.

Katie

 

[gracie37]

Hi Katie

Thanks for the welcome!!!
My cat is a very picky eater . He frowns on dry cat food, even the ones that have a little meat in the crunch. He always wants the moist cat food and is favorite is Friskies. He never liked 9 Lives very much. So what he wants is a new can opened at 3am.
He is also overweight. He used to be an outdoor cat, who enjoyed the delicacies of rodents and heads of bunnies

. He is quite a large cat. When we moved, we decided to keep him indoors for safety purposes. But his diet has been modified.
I try leaving him dried food for free feeding, but he doesn't want it

 

[urbantigers]

Do you think he's genuinely hungry at 3am? If so perhaps you could put a small amount of food (from his daily allowance) in an automatic feeder for him to eat at that time.

 

[gracie37]

I personally don't think he is ever genuinely hungry

He just wants to eat.
And will meow and meow and meow. I purposely won't feed him at that time so he doesn't think I will allow it, but how do I then make him stop meowing and waking us all up?