What is going on with Jordan?? Someone help us!

[pinkdaisy226]

Okay for those of you who don't know, Jordan is over a year old, he's been with us for a year, he's neutered and we found him outside when he was 8 weeks old. He's been living a pampered life ever since.

Recently he started waking us up... at 4am. We don't get up til 6 or 7am so this is rather annoying. He just sits at the door and meows and meows and meows. He jumps up and tries to get into the closet (which makes a lot of noise because the door is on the tracks).

We don't know what to do... he used to wake us up so we started playing with him at night and feeding him wet food and then leaving dry food out so that there was no way he could be hungry... but apparently it's not hunger that's motivating.

Possibly related to this... he has a kind of separation anxiety. If I go into the bathroom to get ready, he'll sit outside the door and meow endlessly, jump up on the door and hit it. Same with any other room... if he knows I'm in there and can't get in, he'll get upset.

PLEASE tell me what to do, I can't go another day waking up at 4am!!

 

[hissy]

Ari- sad to say but you have one spoiled kitty.

Cats run on different cycles than we humans do. They prey at night and early in the morning, this is when mice, birds and other sources of protein are out and about. You can't change their instinct, and we have been trying for centuries. Although they are not as wild as they used to be, they still respond to different stimuli, hear things that are unseen to us.

So what you do, is your re-program Jordan gradually. This will not happen overnight but it will happen. You can find this article might help-

Night Crazies

Also since very little sleep makes us cranky and sometimes that crankiness flows over to the cat causing us to lose sleep- set Jordan up with a nice little room to sleep-over in. Make it as comfortable as possible, if it is a spare bedroom, turn it into a cat room by pulling some of the drawers out of dressers and making a big cave he can explore. Put in a cat condo www.felinefurniture.com has wonderful condos that encourage even the laziest cat to jump and explore. Play harp music at night in the room to lull him to sleep or get a sound machine that plays soothing noises and put that in there. Burn night lights at night in that room so he isn't in total darkness.

Best way to keep a cat out of your bedroom, park your vacuum in front of your door. Run the plug underneath the door, leave the machine on, if kitty "knocks" on the door, get out of bed, plug in the machine 2 seconds then unplug.

Hope this helps-

 

[mamacat]

I feel your pain. We periodically go through spells where Nedicks gets us up at daybreak every day for several days, either by directly waking us up with meeps and head bonks, or by noisily getting into things in the bedroom. We've never figured out a way to completely solve the problem, but one way we've lessened it is by trying to minimize her opportunities to make noise. For example, I always make sure my closet is completely closed, otherwise she taps the door open with her paw and it is very squeaky, it sounds like one of those haunted house doors. We never close the bedroom door completely, always leave it open a crack, so there's no scraping and whining at the door. Basically, we've found that if she can come and go as she pleases and can quietly entertain herself, she will, for the most part, leave us alone. Occasionally if she sees DH roll over very early in the morning she will come over and start with the head bonks, but he encourages that sort of behavior by petting her when she does it. If she does it to me I just keep my eyes closed and don't respond and eventually she goes away (she does it to me much less now, I guess because she has learned she will get nothing out of it).

Like Jordan, she is a rather clingy kitty too, so maybe some of these things will work for you. Maybe he just needs to know he CAN get to you if he wants to, and then will become less inclined to actually wake you up. Good luck!

Edited to add: I see Hissy and I come down on completely opposite sides of the fence...I'd go with her approach first, as I would be the first to say that I probably spoiled my kitties too!

 

[rosiemac]

Sophies going through this at the moment. I have my house alarm set so the girls have to stay shut in the room with me until i get up and switch it off, but the light mornings don't help the situation either

Sophie just sits at the door meowing at the top of her voice and when i peep through the slits of my eyes i can see her look at me every now and then as if to say " Has that not woke her up yet!"

But like Stefanie, if you show Sophie the tiniest hint that your awake, she's there tapping at your face or arm and yelling at you to get up

My two are also spoilt

and Sarah(Sar) is making me a condo for the girls so hopefully that'll help, but in the meantime it's extra playtime tonight for Sophie to try and make her sleep

 

[pinkdaisy226]

Arg, I never figured Jordan for a spoiled cat! We don't really let him get his way... when he meows at me for 20 minutes because I'm in the bathroom getting ready I never let him in... he's never been allowed in. So I'm not sure how he became spoiled.

Thanks for the article MA, I'll try it however most if it is what we've tried already - playtime at night followed by wet food. And I'd love to get Jordan scared of the vacuum but actually he finds it fun... we have a Roomba and he loves chasing it around and getting in it's way. Therefore he's not at all fazed by the regular vacuum.

I'll see what I can do... it's just all so annoying because Baylee got out of that phase real quick when she was a kitten and Jordan's stuck in kitten-hood!

 

[mamacat]

Originally Posted by rosiemac

But like Stefanie, if you show Sophie the tiniest hint that your awake, she's there tapping at your face or arm and yelling at you to get up

Susan, this sounds like if you show ME the tiniest hint you're awake, I'll be there tapping at your face...

Gosh, I hope DH doesn't start trying to scare me with the vacuum...

 

[sarathan]

My first cat did this too, it drove us craaaazy!!! She would come in our room and do things that she knew she wasn't supposed to do...like scratch at the furniture, etc. She did it for attention. Finally, she stopped doing this, maybe at around 1 1/2 years old. She never stopped waking up at 4:00 am, but she did stop bothering us. I guess it was because she got older and calmed down a bit and wasn't so needy. She has since passed away.

We recently adopted two kittens (littermates) and we started shutting our bedroom door from day 1. We figured it would be okay since they have each other to play with at night and in the early morning hours. It's worked great and they never bother us.

Anyway, sorry I don't have any advice but wanted to say you're not alone!

 

[sarathan]

Also wanted to say that the vacuum idea is an awesome idea!! I wish I would have thought of that with our first kitty.... it probably would have saved my lots of sleep-deprivation!

 

[commonoddity042]

Pudge has been doing this to me. Not so much fun when I'm asleep, but hilarious when I am awake.

She likes to sit in the living room and meow. When I look up, she'll be just sitting there, staring at me as if to say "Ok, that worked." The second I turn away, she takes a few steps and does it again.

If I go to the bathroom, I'll usually see a little grey paw swatting around under the door after a few seconds if she's not darted in ahead of me. She's begun meowing while she does it as well. I believe that I am being trained.

 

[pinkdaisy226]

UPDATE: we did the playing thing again at night, really wore him out... then I gave him a whole jar of baby food (because Baylee didn't like it)... we went to bed at 11:30pm and he kept me up until 1am... playing with the bedroom door that creaks (he's never done that before), playing with the door stopper, meowing from the living room.

I think I'm gonna take the next step and start kicking them out of the bedroom and using the vacuum method. It makes me sad as I like them sleeping with us... but Baylee never sleeps with us anymore anyways.

 

[snowleop]

I have this problem with Molly. She gets on the bed and meows in my face until she's pet. Unfortunately, she doesn't want to snuggle. She wants attention. She moves her body around constantly so I'll pet the appropriate places and when I stop petting she starts meowing again.

Luckily, lately, she hasn't wanted attention until around 9 am. I'm on summer vacation so this is great for me.

My girls are incredibly spoiled and both resort to "vocal blackmail" to get what they want. I think Hissy's ideas are great and I will start using them myself when Molly goes back into her 4 am pattern. Why is it always 4 am?

 

[dawnofsierra]

I've become accustomed to Serenity's middle of the night wake up calls to play. Our best solution to decrease this behavior is having a long play time before bed. She chases her toys back and forth and back and forth as I throw them, always brings back her flutterballs and furballs to be thrown again. We then enjoy playing with her Da Byrd or some other wand toy. This gives us some special time and helps to tire her out nicely. Another good idea is a nice wet meal right before bed to help keep her tummy full longer.

 

[renovia]

Originally Posted by dawnofsierra

I've become accustomed to Serenity's middle of the night wake up calls to play. Our best solution to decrease this behavior is having a long play time before bed. She chases her toys back and forth and back and forth as I throw them, always brings back her flutterballs and furballs to be thrown again. We then enjoy playing with her Da Byrd or some other wand toy. This gives us some special time and helps to tire her out nicely. Another good idea is a nice wet meal right before bed to help keep her tummy full longer.

this thread really interests me. I have a kitten and my husband and i installed a cat door between the closets of the cat room and our bedroom. When Stoli seems tired enough we open the closets and he can choose where he sleeps. If he is wound even after night play sessions he has to stay in his room. I'm scared to let him roam the house at night with no supervision. How did other people do this - let their cats roam either when no one is home or at night?

 

[lotsocats]

How old is Stoli?

 

[renovia]

Originally Posted by lotsocats

How old is Stoli?

he's 20 weeks

 

[lotsocats]

Aaah...so he's still a small kitten. I think you are right that he might get into trouble roaming the entire house at night all alone. Is there a guest bedroom you could keep him in instead (if he is too noisy in your bedroom)?

 

[renovia]

Originally Posted by lotsocats

Aaah...so he's still a small kitten. I think you are right that he might get into trouble roaming the entire house at night all alone. Is there a guest bedroom you could keep him in instead (if he is too noisy in your bedroom)?

His room is actually our second bedroom which we have connected to our room (through the closets) with a cat door.

It sounds as if I'm not totally off my rocker about keeping him in (as my husband would say) 'kitty prison'

Renovia

 

[kittyluver27]

well what works for my cats is playing with them for a long time right before yoou go to bed so that they will get tired out. it usually works. I would just try tiring him out before bed in any way you can.

 

[cindyloohoo13]

My cat does the exact same thing. Unfortunatley, he is pretty good until I have to get up to pee (not something I can control). Then he starts to get more and more demanding for my attention. He starts vocally and then moves onto biting my hand. I got bit on the lip last week (that was when I got home REALLY late so he didn't get as much attention in the evening as he was used to). I know it isn't his fault - he is just trying to communicate with me in his most effective manner. However, that doesn't mean I want to encourage it or have it continue.

I know my cat is spoiled. Unfortunately, I am so determined to show this cat how much he is loved and to ensure that he is happy that he ended up spoiled. He came from a shelter and I think he still has abandonment issues, even over a year later. I just want him to be happy and to know that he is loved and I just want to be a good parent.

I can't really try the vacuum trick as I live in a condo. Does that Feliway stuff work? If so, I just have to figure out how to get it in Canada.

Cindy

 

[furbum]

Monty and Bootsie also have this problem. They wake up around 4 or 5 and start chasing each other around the house. Their chases often wind up on the bed and even on top of me!

Bootsie likes to run around real fast on top of the comforter (it's got a sheet-like texture). She also likes to walk around on top of the alarm clock until the radio turns on. Monty will look for any of my skin that is showing and get to work licking me (that wakes me up without fail). When I pull the comforter over my whole body including my face he tries to shove his way under it.

They are spoilt. But, it is less bad if I don't move, because the minute I move their purring bodies are walking all over me. But they give up after I am still for a while, and I never feed them before 7.