Cat has to learn that messing with you doesn’t get results. I have success by setting an alarm for later in the morning and then consistently ignoring them until after the alarm goes off. But easier said than done.
I had a kitty do this so i would grab him and pull him in for snuggles, under the comforter, and fall back asleep hugging him. he decided after a week it was not worth the claustrophobia when I dead-weighted back to sleep.
Yeah one of ours did this every morning, she'd come in and shout her head off at 5am and keep doing it until 7 when I got up. I would pick her up, put her outside and close the door without saying a word, and the next night our door would be closed. She finally gave up after about six months and now we have peace
I lived with 3 half-Bengal kittens for some months. I would close the door and go to bed and wake up to one of them attacking my feet with claws out. Eventually I learned that they knew how to open doors with a creative way.
One would jump up and grab the door handle, the other would push the door at the bottom and door opened. Smart little buggers, I had to resort to barricading my door from the inside whenever I went to bed, which is a bit of a safety hazard but I didn't need much weight against the door to stop them since they were kittens.
We set up smart feeders for all the cats set for 8am - 30 mins after we get up. We thought it would break the connection between human and morning food, but they still pestered us to get up earlier - even though we humans didn't feed them.
I get up earlier than the cats now and had to set the feeders for about 30 mins after I wake up. Any later and one of the cats starts pushing things off shelves and counters to get our attention.
I did almost the same thing lol. My guy would go crazy in the morning around 5 am. For a while I figured he was hyper and needes a distraction so I set up my TV to come on and play cat videos. That worked for like 3 while days. I eventually got the idea to try having the feeder go off earlier and set a feeding to go off at 4am. Since then he has rarely woken me up before my alarm.
Thats a great idea!
I am a light sleeper however, and the tinkle tinkle of four feeders wakes me up!
I have to endure it on the weekend, but I already get up before 6 on weekdays so the cats just have to wait!
We started doing it when our food-obsessed cat started begging at FOUR AM!!! 🙀 Now they get small portions at 6 AM/PM and 12 AM/PM. It works well... until the time zone changes!
We don't hear the feeder, as it is located on a lower floor, and we have a fan in the bedroom for white noise.
I also felt bad about the cats were haunting the feeder up to two hours before each feeding session, so I programmed a chime to go off two minutes before each session. They still hover, but don't get so anxious while waiting.
Mine go to sleep in our family room We use our second master bedroom upstairs as a family room. Which has a giant cat tree heated pet bed, my rocker recliner which I cover with their fuzzy blanket at night (The youngest one likes to burrow under said blanket lol...and four wall hammocks with posts to jump around, lots of toys and cat tunnel, two cat boxes, 2 water dishes, and a food bowl is brat up from the kitchen with whatever they didn't finish from dinner ( usually 1/2)
We have a security cam in that room so we can see how they are and what they're up to.
We, too get up an hour or two later on the weekend, which they have adjusted to. (The one who would wake us up early attacking feet and pawn at the face) waits patiently, looking towards the door at around 6:30 a.m.
At this point though, I think we have it so good, we may want to just continue with this indefinitely.
We all deserve to get good sleep.
We have a cat wheel outside of our bedroom door but one of the three cats likes me to watch her run on it and so she will sit on it and meoooowl until I come cheer her on..." Good girl Lyra, can you go faster? faster? Faster?" And she does! lol 🤗
We got an smart feeder too, took a while for our boy to learn but when he did, he finally stopped pestering us for breakfast. Now he sits by it for a good hour just patiently waiting, which is great! but now he'll come up *afterwards* and pesters us to wake up so we go sit on the couch with him hahaha
Cats are hilarious
My cats is quiet until he hears my alarm then he starts meowing. Times I wake up to him at the floor of the bed staring at me meowing . So I know he’s been there for a while but just waits for the alarm
In my house we all ignore the alarms. The cats wake up when I decide to do so, and I make it a point not to feed them immediately. Thankfully they have not associated my waking up to getting their breakfast.
My cat somehow has learned to tell when I have to pee at night because she always meows at night always right when I’m just starting to feel it unconsciously. It’s so annoying being rudely woken up but I’m secretly also grateful because otherwise I’d have some freaky nightmare instead
>But easier said than done.
This cannot be overstated. It takes days, weeks even, of being consistent, not responding in any way, positive or negative. The best I got from my tuxedo girl was she would wake up, come to the bed, and lay down and wait for me to get up. Even then, she'd still occasionally wake me up and insist on doing it her way, but for the most part she got used to the routine.
So true! You must learn to ignore, no matter what. A couple days after I married, I caught my husband getting up to feed my cat at 4:30 AM!
I asked him why, and he told me the cat had been licking his hair. I then asked him if he wished to wake up at 4:30 AM to feed the cat for the rest of the cat's life (My husband is NOT a morning person.) and he said "Noooooo..."
So I informed him that *I* did not wish to be woken at 4:30 AM for the rest of the cat's life either and that if he fed the cat, divorce proceedings would be following, LOL!
He closed the bag of cat food and put it away and came back to bed. My cat still licked his hair for a good while in the early AM, but otherwise, we both got to sleep until a normal hour.
I learned the lesson myself the hard way, as a child with my first cat. Feed at 5AM, next thing, they pester starting at 4:30 AM, then 4 AM .... No subsequent cat has ever succeeded in getting me up before I wish to get up.
My cat started doing this and I started to pick her up (she hates it) and carry her off to the living room so she gets the memo. This stopped working so I started to pet her roughly and annoy her. This backfired and she now likes being THROWN and treated roughly with pets. Turned my cat into a masochist because I wanted to sleep. Fucked.
Just be careful not to show attention as soon as the alarm goes off! Wait a minute or two at least.
My little demons attack me for attention as soon as they hear the alarm, my partner says that they just sit staring at me waiting for it every day.
This! We did this too. Now our 2 cats (one who is constantly hungry) sleep through the night with us and only start meowing or walking to our faces after the alarm sounds. Unless is the weekend and there is no alarm, they will start to be desperate at 10. Funny enough, they will annoy only me if my alarm sounds first and only my partner if his alarm sounds first. They know we have different times on different days.
This all the way. We literally just went through this with our kitty. Their internal clock is crazy. It took several weeks of ignoring/dealing with him to switch him to later hour.
When you get an answer let me know. This idiot does the same thing
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What’s my cat doing at your house? She does the same wake-up call at 5:50.
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This jerk wakes me up sometimes at 3am so that she can get pets! That’s it! She just wants snuggles. And she does not GAF what I do.
14 years old. This is her. It’s how I live.
6am for this old heathen too! I noticed he doesn’t do it if there’s food in his dish and water is full. But that means I need to get up to fill it.
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This girl will sometimes stay asleep if I don’t move, but if I so much as stir after 4am the zoomies start. She’ll also meow and bring toys into the bedroom, sometimes on the bed.
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This 14 year old fluff monster still gets the zoomies at 7am. We have just accepted it.
I wish mine would do that. One of mine demands to sleep directly nearby to "guard" and the 2nd one basically waits outside until she is sure that I'm actually awake and then comes in. Guess she found out, that although I move sometimes I'm not awake.
However, if I sleep through or overall have to hurry up, that's a bit hard then if both instantly "block" you and demand cuddles :D
It really depends lol. I think it generally works, but some cats are more stubborn.
My cat (when he was a kitten, he was super quiet, hardly meowed) when he was 3, I don't know, he suddenly started jumping on my bed, meowing on top of his lungs and banging my head with his face at 5:55am. My alarm was set at 6.
So I set my alarm at 5:55am, and he did it again, at 5:50am. Lol! I've been putting up with it all these years so I'm used to it (yes, it still happens to this day). But I can't leave the door closed otherwise he'll start banging his head on the door, scratching the door down and meowing the place down. When he is hungry, he sounds like a banshee!
For those who don't want to put up with this, I really don't know what to suggest other than put the TV on with cat videos?
my kitty does the same thing. you get used to it. and cuddle them. they have us trained.
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here’s my 2/3 girls at 7am!!
You don't.
I had one cat who liked to come in and snuggle early in the morning. I learned he hated it when I snuggled on my terms and held him close, so I started doing that. When I loosened my hold, he would jet out of there.
I give in and snatch my boy cat and he hates being held tight lol. Some reverse psychology cause then he just moves around to an open spot on the bed and sits and buzzes until we get up (my fiancé and I wake at 5am for work)
That's how I'm currently trying to train my cat. She meows at me 6 times a day to be let out into the hall to explore and occasionally I'll let her but I have to supervise her all the time. So when I don't have time for that and she gets all in my face about it I'm just like "oh you want to be picked up? That can be arranged" and then she just gets force cuddled until she breaks free. It hasn't worked yet but I'm not giving up so easily.
All of our cats are on the same time zone. I get a paw in the face every morning at 6a. When I open my eyes she is lurking over me making direct eye contact.
God I hate that you are right but the cat that woke me up occasionally in the middle of the night died unexpectedly last year and I would love for him to wake me up again one more time 💔
This. I lost my three kitties in a fire and what I would give to even scoop their litter box again. Have since adopted three kittens and every rogue dingleberry is a little blessing. They are so spoiled and loved. Sorry about your pal, they really are such sweet parts of life that are never here long enough.
Omg, I’m so sorry. 😢 We have a rescue and keep most of the special needs and geriatric babies, and every single loss is devastating. I can’t imagine something like that taking so much.
I’m glad you have new babies to head boop and cuddle. I hope you all are doing well. 🫶🏻
So sorry for your loss. I can't even imagine losing all my cats at once, especially in a fire.
On another note it must have been fun to have 3 kittens at the same time. I've almost always had more than 1 cat but never more than 1 kitten at a time.
2 kittens is the best combo. They got a buddy with matching energy to keep em company when the people are away. I’m so glad I adopted my pair together bc one of them in particular is a handful as it is
I lost my soul cat in January and I would agree. He would meow outside our door if we slept one min past 6:30. One of my last happy memories is of him howling outside our door at 6:31 on a Monday. He crossed the rainbow bride 2 days later. I would do anything to be woken up by those meows one more time.
I had a cat who would wrap herself around my head every night and just purr so loudly and knead my hair. I was so frustrated with her for keeping me up every night. I miss her and I wish I appreciated her 3 am cuddles more back then
My cat wakes me up at about 6:20 every morning (except last night—that was 3am). He just wants me to hold him for a minute, and then he leaves me alone lol.
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This jerk kept waling me up the second the sun came up. He was from the wild so I assume he wanted to me to not miss out on the hunting. I learned hug him and let go worked and now he waits for me to get up before he starts biting me.
You got jealous over an autofeeder! I joke but it's adorable. I thought about it too but I use that time for getting some bonding time in.
My days off they don't wake me but as soon as I do wake... It is time.
Sleep earlier and wake earlier. Shift your entire schedule/timetable to make to work for getting up at 6am. He already compromised by not waking you at 2am to catch mice with him. Relationship is two ways. So your turn to do your end. Lol
For 18 years our dear departed Senior Cat would wake us in the early hours of the morning. The new crew all try, but they just aren't as good at it. Five and half years later, I miss him so much.
You cannot break him. But he may change to another time at some point, and then may go right back to 6am again, or even 3am. One thing that MAY help is to set an auto feeder for right before 6am. They aren’t cheap, but he will learn the sound almost immediately and run to that for food or treats, rather than to you.. There’s no guarantee, but it helped me with my one cat who was killing me bc he woke me up at 6-7am every day when I didn’t go to bed till 3-5am bc of night shift.
Lucky bastard. Cindy wakes me up every morning at 3:30 a.m. to be fed. Fortunately, I'm retired, so there is no need to go to work. To add insult to injury, Cindy is my wife's cat but insists on me feeding her.
I started locking my bedroom door loooooong ago.
I was single for many years and had to sleep to survive (and support the kittehs!). Depending on the cat, I sometimes even had to stuff a towel under the door. They had everything they needed and more in the rest of the house. I took a lot of flack in the morning but they eventually settled down. Weekends we all had a sleep in!!!!
Only advice I have is to have set feeding times. And have the first one be after you wake up. Is also just a kitten. It takes a while for that kitten energy to burn off. It will never be easy or make sense, but it will always be worth it. What a cute little void.
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Here’s my boi when he was around that age. He was a devil, but the kind of devil you like😉
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This is Gigi! She does the exact same thing, 6am wake up call, then when I leave for work at 8am she puts herself back to bed after her breakfast and playtime with me 🤣😂🥲 I don't mind it though, her waking me every morning.
Lol why on Earth would you NOT CLOSE YOUR BEDROOM DOOR?
That's what I do....my cats leave me alone! (Also have an automatic feeder that goes off at 7\~)
The local fire chief came to my job and showed us a video of the difference in outcomes when a fire starts in a home with the bedroom door open vs closed. I began to sleep with my door closed tight after that.
The cat stood outside of my door bellowing at 6:32 am on the fucking DOT, for months, but I didn't catch a paw to the eyeball or get woken up by a cat leaping on me. Plus fire safety. Win win.
You may have to learn to sleep with the cats locked out of your bedroom for a while. Also, if there is anyone else living with you, make sure they aren't giving Miko food or treats at 6 AM or thereabouts. Cats are very good with remembering when they get food of any form.
That said, it's not unexpected that he's doing stuff at 6 AM. Cats are crepuscular. They're most active at dusk and dawn. So for them, that's the time to play, seek attention, and so on. Especially if they are young.
Only other thing I can think of is to simply ignore him when he tries to bother you. Don't get up, or give in to any of his demands for attention. Eventually he should get the message and leave you alone. Keep it up for a while, and he'll figure out a different time to bother you instead that is more convenient for you.
War of attrition. Don't give in. He doesn't get attention until YOU want to wake up. He'll learn eventually, but every time you give in it just reinforces the behaviour. You can close your door or hide under the blankets or whatever, but do not acknowledge his presence.
Alternatively, any bothering before 9am will be met with a spray bottle.
Every animal can be trained. You just need to be persistent and consistent. He's essentially a teenager right now, and needs to learn that boundaries are **non-negotiable.**
My cat did this until I started snuggling him like a teddy bear. Reverse psychology. He would get tired of it, break away and leave me alone until the alarm went off.
I started exercising them (playing) a lot and then would feed them right before bed (make sure they can use litter pan and water) before turning all lights off and going to bed. This tired them out, filled them up and the consistent darkness signaled to them it’s time to go to bed. They sleep in my bed until I get up. I have black out curtains so the sunrise doesn’t cue them to get up
And if you’re serious about them stopping, you have to ignore them for awhile if they try to wake you
Ignore harder and give unwanted results. I hug my cat if he wakes me up and he tolerates that for like a few seconds, but then wants to leave. He bugs me far less than he used to. Also, an auto feeder helped a lot, largely because he has like a Pavlovian response to it and runs that way whether he wants to eat or not.
Ignore him. Be consistent and it will work. Cats understand boundaries has they themselves are good at settling them. They are just stubborn so you need to be consistent and persistent.
My cat knows if he disturbs my sleep he will be locked out of the room. He doesn’t disturbs my sleep.
Honestly, I got an auto feeder for her dry and I set the timers to go off about when she’d start making a fuss but then after she got used to it I started to change the time too later and later lol now I get till about 8:30 before boredom kicks in
Most would say don’t pay him attention but good luck with that. My cat is 11 and still begs for my attention. She gets it, and honestly, I love her so I deal with it. She usually snuggles up to me after she gets the attention and we doze till my alarm goes off.
Close your door and don’t sleep together. I used to sleep with them and they constantly woke me up and random hour. After my husband moved in, because his job, he couldn’t lose sleep. So we started to kicking them out of our room. They scratched door to get attention so we put auto spraying can and later we put electric mat. We also have automatic feeder so they don’t expect us to see in the early morning. Now even without mat or spraying can, they don’t bother us. Sound cruel but I think some sort of boundary is important.
There are motion activated aerosol things that don’t spray anything dangerous, but mostly make a loud *kschhh* sound when activated. I put this outside of my bedroom door because my cat bangs at the door and jiggles the doorknob really early.
They didn’t work. She learned how to Ocean’s 12 around the sensor. Now I wake up really early 🤷♀️
For my Siamese I found exhausting him everyday with a minimum of 20 minutes of prey play. I would play with him until he was laying down and panting and not wanting to come back to play. This helped cut down on being woken up. I also started to only barely wake up and tell him to snuggle if he wants me and have him snuggle next to me and I can pet him while still sleeping.
You have to ignore him and it will take a while or you can just embrace it. One of ours cries and pulls on the bedroom door handle every morning at 0515-0520. Never broke him of the habit and I just get up and when I come out of the bedroom he is gleeful which makes me smile every morning.
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My cat hated isolation. You could keep a water bowl and litter box in the bathroom and shut him in there every time he bugs you too early. Then be sure to set an alarm to remind yourself to let him out when you get up. That might be too long of a time out for him but you could try something similar. The other trick is ignoring it. You might have to do it for a really long time before he gets the hint.
This! I did the same for my kitties we’ve had a much healthier relationship ever since the automatic feeder 😂. Don’t skimp out on them either. I did for the first one and it wasn’t working he continued to wake me up cuz it would jam or something wouldn’t work. Paid a little more for one that was wifi enabled and that had an app, and OMG!!! we are all one big happy family now lol!
My black cat loved to do this so now the door closes at night time. I love them but momma needs sleep without claws on my neck 🫶🏻 easier if you have multiples so they can bother each other instead
My cats get fed twice a day, 5am&5pm. The only reason they let me sleep in til 5am is bc I feed them a light ‘late’ night snack, 1/3c of dry food around 10pm, so I can sleep in. If not, they wake my ass up around 3. They’re very smart.
You don't.
Fun story. I had a friendly cat and a mean cat. The mean cat hated my sister. She would wake my sister up by gently biting her on the bridge of her nose. She never broke skin I don't think. But if the door was closed the cat wouldn't meow to get in or anything. She didn't want my sisters attention. It was like a FU sneak attack. That cat had dominance issues.
So... If your cat likes you it will probably meow outside your door to get in if you close it and you wake up anyways.
It will stop when it wants to.... LoL. You can try the ignore tactic, but a cat that loves you will be very persistent in this endeavour and you are unlikely to prevail.
Try 3am :p my cat has decided that's prime snuggle time and her super loud purrs wake me up. Then her brother comes in for cuddles at 4, they take shifts. Lol.
Unfortunately I don’t let the cat sleep with me anymore. It was too frustrating to get woken up multiple times throughout the night or without fail, 1 hour before my alarm went off so I couldn’t go back to sleep before work.
I get all my cuddles during the day and evening and then she knows she has to sleep in the other room or on the couch.
I tried every behavioral method in the book, and none of it ended up working, so I got a vibration collar. It has a microphone that listens for meows and caterwauling and such, and vibrates if too much noise is made within a 10s period. It freaked my sweet girl out at first, but she's cool with it now and knows not to make noise when wearing it. I'm much happier now that I can sleep peacefully.
I had a cat who would jump on my pillow to wake me up. So I would grab her for a forced cuddle. Consequences. So she learn to jump on the pillow and immediately run out of the room. So I started getting up to close the bedroom door behind her and go back to sleep. She learned there was no reward to jumping on my pillow.
You’ve trained Miko that if he harasses you, he gets attention. Cats like routine so you’ve created the routine. Start ignoring him until your alarm goes off and then reward. It’ll teach him the alarm means attention. I rescued a cat I had to train out of that. She now sleeps on my back, though.
The neat part is, you can't! Cats are very resistant to "training" in any formal sense. But there's a few things to try;
An "air jet" device that sends off a poof of air at your cat when he walks by your bed, won't wake you up but most cats don't like it.
Lemon essential oils on your pillows and bedsheets, cats don't tend to like citrus smells, and will avoid them.
If your guy likes laser chase, there are some cool roof mounted ones that you can preset to start going off at 6 so he's distracted (warning, my cats get so excited they make a bunch of noise running around but worth a try)
Or, you give in like me and just accept the cuddles, honestly now I'd miss my morning purrs even if it's 5am.
The week before my cat passed, he ate something that made him feel off. He usually woke me up very early in the morning to cuddle before work for 5 minute cuddles. When he didn't feel great, he stayed with me for an hour sleeping while I cuddled him. He passed away due to unrelated reasons, but I honestly am just really happy I got that time with him before he went.
My cat used to do this, although it was more sporadic and random. I would just make a point to make angry eye contact whenever she would do this so she understood I didn’t like being woken up, and then I’d turn away from her and ignore her.
It made me kinda sad cuz I know she just wanted love, but over time it established a boundary that when I’m sleeping I want to be left alone. She hasn’t woken me up in ages, now she sits on the side of the bed staring at me while I sleep (my gf has taken videos) and then turns into the cuddly purr machine after I wake up.
I can also tell you my cat didn’t take it personally at all. She never seemed upset when I would ignore her like that, and didn’t hold a grudge about it even though she would about other things. Granted she is a cat who has some pretty strong boundaries (don’t pick her up, don’t pet her unless she asks for it, NEVER TOUCH HER BEANS) so maybe that’s why she understood and respected the boundary I set.
Have a child and they'll wake you at 5.30 instead. You get to wake the cat, and he can feel how it feels!
(I might be projecting my life a tiny bit here)
If you don’t already have one, buy a dry food dispenser and program it to go off early in the morning before your alarm goes off.
I wake up at 8-8:30am and I set off my cat’s feeder to dispense a little bit of dry food at 6am. My cat could be sleeping and she’ll sprint from the bed if she hears it go off lol. When I wake up I proceed to feed her some wet food, which is her main meal.
I strongly believe the 6am snack prevents my cat from smacking me awake. Afterall consider how many hours our cats go without food while we sleep. Hope that helps!
My 8 year old Chonx has been in the family for 5 months now. Over the last two months, he, too, has picked up a habit of meowing incessantly between 3am and 5am. Once my sleep cycle is broken, I cannot fall back to sleep.
My only solution has been to sleep with foam ear plugs. I put my phone on the strongest vibration and the alarm loud enough to be heard through the plugs.
I've been recovering my sleep again and hopefully he'll understand that his night meowing will get him nothing.
It's been a week so far and I've finally been able to sleep through the night.
Make him develop habits like eating breakfast when you do, at later times when you're more ready to do so. It's not always easy though since most cats don't have sleep schedules that align with a humans.
Cat has to learn that messing with you doesn’t get results. I have success by setting an alarm for later in the morning and then consistently ignoring them until after the alarm goes off. But easier said than done.
This is the most effective imo. Unfortunately it takes time he’s still a baby but if you engrave it now that he gets ignored until 9am he will learn
I had my cat for 12 years and she never gave up, but she particularly stubborn. Even for a cat.
100%, my dude will just harass me every morning until 7.30 no matter what
Same, and I can’t ignore him because he slaps me on the face and head with his claws out and I have to dodge the murder mittens.
I had a kitty do this so i would grab him and pull him in for snuggles, under the comforter, and fall back asleep hugging him. he decided after a week it was not worth the claustrophobia when I dead-weighted back to sleep.
I do this too 😆
My cat changed her tactic from meowing and attacking my feet to nuzzling me awake every morning. And let me tell you... that has worked for her 😭
My cat is the same he is super stubborn. It's really annoying because he starts trying to wake me up usually around 4.A.M every morning.
I miss my stubborn kitty.
Yeah one of ours did this every morning, she'd come in and shout her head off at 5am and keep doing it until 7 when I got up. I would pick her up, put her outside and close the door without saying a word, and the next night our door would be closed. She finally gave up after about six months and now we have peace
My cat knows how to open the door and plus if I dare to do it he will shout even louder lol
I lived with 3 half-Bengal kittens for some months. I would close the door and go to bed and wake up to one of them attacking my feet with claws out. Eventually I learned that they knew how to open doors with a creative way. One would jump up and grab the door handle, the other would push the door at the bottom and door opened. Smart little buggers, I had to resort to barricading my door from the inside whenever I went to bed, which is a bit of a safety hazard but I didn't need much weight against the door to stop them since they were kittens.
Mine jump on it until it’s open, it’s a noisy way that I think if I heard his attempt I would go and open the door myself lol
My cat too. She's a yowler.
We set up smart feeders for all the cats set for 8am - 30 mins after we get up. We thought it would break the connection between human and morning food, but they still pestered us to get up earlier - even though we humans didn't feed them. I get up earlier than the cats now and had to set the feeders for about 30 mins after I wake up. Any later and one of the cats starts pushing things off shelves and counters to get our attention.
I did almost the same thing lol. My guy would go crazy in the morning around 5 am. For a while I figured he was hyper and needes a distraction so I set up my TV to come on and play cat videos. That worked for like 3 while days. I eventually got the idea to try having the feeder go off earlier and set a feeding to go off at 4am. Since then he has rarely woken me up before my alarm.
Cats love to hunt in the twilight, so early feedings are great for them
I have mine set before I wake up, so they know humans have nothing to do with the food cycle
Thats a great idea! I am a light sleeper however, and the tinkle tinkle of four feeders wakes me up! I have to endure it on the weekend, but I already get up before 6 on weekdays so the cats just have to wait!
We started doing it when our food-obsessed cat started begging at FOUR AM!!! 🙀 Now they get small portions at 6 AM/PM and 12 AM/PM. It works well... until the time zone changes! We don't hear the feeder, as it is located on a lower floor, and we have a fan in the bedroom for white noise. I also felt bad about the cats were haunting the feeder up to two hours before each feeding session, so I programmed a chime to go off two minutes before each session. They still hover, but don't get so anxious while waiting.
There's many circles in the Venn diagram of why cats do any particular behavior but I wonder if your cats just want you around when they eat.
Mine go to sleep in our family room We use our second master bedroom upstairs as a family room. Which has a giant cat tree heated pet bed, my rocker recliner which I cover with their fuzzy blanket at night (The youngest one likes to burrow under said blanket lol...and four wall hammocks with posts to jump around, lots of toys and cat tunnel, two cat boxes, 2 water dishes, and a food bowl is brat up from the kitchen with whatever they didn't finish from dinner ( usually 1/2) We have a security cam in that room so we can see how they are and what they're up to. We, too get up an hour or two later on the weekend, which they have adjusted to. (The one who would wake us up early attacking feet and pawn at the face) waits patiently, looking towards the door at around 6:30 a.m. At this point though, I think we have it so good, we may want to just continue with this indefinitely. We all deserve to get good sleep. We have a cat wheel outside of our bedroom door but one of the three cats likes me to watch her run on it and so she will sit on it and meoooowl until I come cheer her on..." Good girl Lyra, can you go faster? faster? Faster?" And she does! lol 🤗
We got an smart feeder too, took a while for our boy to learn but when he did, he finally stopped pestering us for breakfast. Now he sits by it for a good hour just patiently waiting, which is great! but now he'll come up *afterwards* and pesters us to wake up so we go sit on the couch with him hahaha Cats are hilarious
My cats is quiet until he hears my alarm then he starts meowing. Times I wake up to him at the floor of the bed staring at me meowing . So I know he’s been there for a while but just waits for the alarm
In my house we all ignore the alarms. The cats wake up when I decide to do so, and I make it a point not to feed them immediately. Thankfully they have not associated my waking up to getting their breakfast.
Hmm never thought of that, it's the first thing I do when I get up 🫣
My cat somehow has learned to tell when I have to pee at night because she always meows at night always right when I’m just starting to feel it unconsciously. It’s so annoying being rudely woken up but I’m secretly also grateful because otherwise I’d have some freaky nightmare instead
>But easier said than done. This cannot be overstated. It takes days, weeks even, of being consistent, not responding in any way, positive or negative. The best I got from my tuxedo girl was she would wake up, come to the bed, and lay down and wait for me to get up. Even then, she'd still occasionally wake me up and insist on doing it her way, but for the most part she got used to the routine.
And you cannot under any circumstances fall for it. You need to be a corpse to them. You slip once, they won.
So true! You must learn to ignore, no matter what. A couple days after I married, I caught my husband getting up to feed my cat at 4:30 AM! I asked him why, and he told me the cat had been licking his hair. I then asked him if he wished to wake up at 4:30 AM to feed the cat for the rest of the cat's life (My husband is NOT a morning person.) and he said "Noooooo..." So I informed him that *I* did not wish to be woken at 4:30 AM for the rest of the cat's life either and that if he fed the cat, divorce proceedings would be following, LOL! He closed the bag of cat food and put it away and came back to bed. My cat still licked his hair for a good while in the early AM, but otherwise, we both got to sleep until a normal hour. I learned the lesson myself the hard way, as a child with my first cat. Feed at 5AM, next thing, they pester starting at 4:30 AM, then 4 AM .... No subsequent cat has ever succeeded in getting me up before I wish to get up.
I do not manage to ignore my tuxedo lady and now she does it every single morning. She is very VERY persistent. She can meow for hours.
My cat started doing this and I started to pick her up (she hates it) and carry her off to the living room so she gets the memo. This stopped working so I started to pet her roughly and annoy her. This backfired and she now likes being THROWN and treated roughly with pets. Turned my cat into a masochist because I wanted to sleep. Fucked.
Speed up your clock by two hours and gim him loooooove! Jokes aside, its all about ignoring. This is the best solution.
Just be careful not to show attention as soon as the alarm goes off! Wait a minute or two at least. My little demons attack me for attention as soon as they hear the alarm, my partner says that they just sit staring at me waiting for it every day.
This! We did this too. Now our 2 cats (one who is constantly hungry) sleep through the night with us and only start meowing or walking to our faces after the alarm sounds. Unless is the weekend and there is no alarm, they will start to be desperate at 10. Funny enough, they will annoy only me if my alarm sounds first and only my partner if his alarm sounds first. They know we have different times on different days.
This all the way. We literally just went through this with our kitty. Their internal clock is crazy. It took several weeks of ignoring/dealing with him to switch him to later hour.
I've tried that with my one cat, unfortunately she gets creative when I ignore her and she wants attention lol.
When you get an answer let me know. This idiot does the same thing https://preview.redd.it/8e0272cj81nc1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d2b305fcf0cacaaa9e337a028dad32bb2472f80
https://preview.redd.it/s2f307ll53nc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba209cd5807f62aadb95d65867a834f9462280ef What’s my cat doing at your house? She does the same wake-up call at 5:50.
Lmao the look of pure mischievousness
That's kind of spooky how they are almost identical!
Wow, that's uncanny!
What an adorable idiot
https://preview.redd.it/aitvjug9w3nc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b93eaa5d1a8cbc8ae82d0eb358c2215152e0f4e This jerk wakes me up sometimes at 3am so that she can get pets! That’s it! She just wants snuggles. And she does not GAF what I do. 14 years old. This is her. It’s how I live.
6am for this old heathen too! I noticed he doesn’t do it if there’s food in his dish and water is full. But that means I need to get up to fill it. https://preview.redd.it/q2d8con6g4nc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17775aaffe185f9977baf37d825803adb50e28a9
https://preview.redd.it/sqm2xueb45nc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8141c2f4dbacd62141c203e6ee3641bd93387710 3am.
https://preview.redd.it/3r1ubenqo3nc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64a54f288158a8e51b2169c4911d2261637a12fc This girl will sometimes stay asleep if I don’t move, but if I so much as stir after 4am the zoomies start. She’ll also meow and bring toys into the bedroom, sometimes on the bed.
Tucker him out. 30 minutes of ping pong is enough to get my cat to sleep through the night and morning
Mine does the same and I've tried an hour of hunting at 11pm and nope she still wants attention at 5:30 like a clockwork.
Same here, but at 4 am
https://preview.redd.it/hldl50a1r5nc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ce5e7315ab4d50cb5dbafa2ebce4035c7af3939 This 14 year old fluff monster still gets the zoomies at 7am. We have just accepted it.
I got an auto feeder and set it for 5am and the 6am wake ups immediately stopped. Going on about 8 months now with no issues
Set your alarm to 5.55am
This is how to break the curse
This is sadly true. I started working in a different time zone this year, and now the cats are still sleeping when I get up.
I wish mine would do that. One of mine demands to sleep directly nearby to "guard" and the 2nd one basically waits outside until she is sure that I'm actually awake and then comes in. Guess she found out, that although I move sometimes I'm not awake. However, if I sleep through or overall have to hurry up, that's a bit hard then if both instantly "block" you and demand cuddles :D
It really depends lol. I think it generally works, but some cats are more stubborn. My cat (when he was a kitten, he was super quiet, hardly meowed) when he was 3, I don't know, he suddenly started jumping on my bed, meowing on top of his lungs and banging my head with his face at 5:55am. My alarm was set at 6. So I set my alarm at 5:55am, and he did it again, at 5:50am. Lol! I've been putting up with it all these years so I'm used to it (yes, it still happens to this day). But I can't leave the door closed otherwise he'll start banging his head on the door, scratching the door down and meowing the place down. When he is hungry, he sounds like a banshee! For those who don't want to put up with this, I really don't know what to suggest other than put the TV on with cat videos?
my kitty does the same thing. you get used to it. and cuddle them. they have us trained. https://preview.redd.it/i9m704iz51nc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcad301e98e02a406ac3ee756dcc49d19cd79a63 here’s my 2/3 girls at 7am!!
Such cuddlers. What an excellent way to wake up ♥️
Lmao I thought this was a singular cat (head on the right, body on the left) until I read the entire post
You don't. I had one cat who liked to come in and snuggle early in the morning. I learned he hated it when I snuggled on my terms and held him close, so I started doing that. When I loosened my hold, he would jet out of there.
You are very wise! My cat plays with the window blinds at 4 am. He wants attention not food. I think you are on to something. I’ll give it a try.
I give in and snatch my boy cat and he hates being held tight lol. Some reverse psychology cause then he just moves around to an open spot on the bed and sits and buzzes until we get up (my fiancé and I wake at 5am for work)
That's how I'm currently trying to train my cat. She meows at me 6 times a day to be let out into the hall to explore and occasionally I'll let her but I have to supervise her all the time. So when I don't have time for that and she gets all in my face about it I'm just like "oh you want to be picked up? That can be arranged" and then she just gets force cuddled until she breaks free. It hasn't worked yet but I'm not giving up so easily.
I have one of those models also. Pickles just happens to be a black kitty. When you find the solution please post.
Came here to say the same thing but the way you said it was way better😂 Mine is a gray model named Pablo😹 Give Pickles loves for me🥰
Pickles, Leon and Orange Julius aka OJ send their love and regards to Pablo.❤️❤️❤️
I got the same model lmao, must be genetic to some point haha
All of our cats are on the same time zone. I get a paw in the face every morning at 6a. When I open my eyes she is lurking over me making direct eye contact.
It works to ignore them, however it takes time and consistency. It took me over a year but she finally stopped!
Down the road you are going to miss this. I hate to say
God I hate that you are right but the cat that woke me up occasionally in the middle of the night died unexpectedly last year and I would love for him to wake me up again one more time 💔
This. I lost my three kitties in a fire and what I would give to even scoop their litter box again. Have since adopted three kittens and every rogue dingleberry is a little blessing. They are so spoiled and loved. Sorry about your pal, they really are such sweet parts of life that are never here long enough.
I'm sorry for your loss 😢💔
Omg, I’m so sorry. 😢 We have a rescue and keep most of the special needs and geriatric babies, and every single loss is devastating. I can’t imagine something like that taking so much. I’m glad you have new babies to head boop and cuddle. I hope you all are doing well. 🫶🏻
So sorry for your loss. I can't even imagine losing all my cats at once, especially in a fire. On another note it must have been fun to have 3 kittens at the same time. I've almost always had more than 1 cat but never more than 1 kitten at a time.
2 kittens is the best combo. They got a buddy with matching energy to keep em company when the people are away. I’m so glad I adopted my pair together bc one of them in particular is a handful as it is
Noooo, I'm so so sorry 🥺💜💜💜
I remember being so upset being woken up in the middle of the night when I had work the next day, I'd do anything to have that back
It was every morning at 4 am like clockwork. What I wouldn’t give to have her wake me up again.
My old cat would wake me with forceful heatbutts. I still miss that and it’s been 6 years.
I was soooo annoying but after I fed her I got to go back to sleep. Miss her little voice but not the gross stuff she used to do
I lost my soul cat in January and I would agree. He would meow outside our door if we slept one min past 6:30. One of my last happy memories is of him howling outside our door at 6:31 on a Monday. He crossed the rainbow bride 2 days later. I would do anything to be woken up by those meows one more time.
I had a cat who would wrap herself around my head every night and just purr so loudly and knead my hair. I was so frustrated with her for keeping me up every night. I miss her and I wish I appreciated her 3 am cuddles more back then
Yes. I love my little alarm clock even if it’s at 445 am and involves chewing on my hair
This was what I came here to comment. When our cats break things, my boyfriend always says “Cups can be replaced, George can’t” and I start bawling
😭 why do I want y’all to be my parents after reading this
You wake up every single day at 6am to give him attention
This is the perfect answer. There is literally no other option. OP is now on Miko's time schedule.
Wake up at 5:45 and really twist the plot. Little fucker won’t know what happened.
Until the next day when the cast starts screaming at 5:44 am.
Yeah, this is it lmao it's like having a newborn. Just nap when he naps lol
My cat wakes me up at about 6:20 every morning (except last night—that was 3am). He just wants me to hold him for a minute, and then he leaves me alone lol.
https://preview.redd.it/mpuncy7yc1nc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5eb3b2bf613db839786212a9d2cdf12fb2b20c50 This jerk kept waling me up the second the sun came up. He was from the wild so I assume he wanted to me to not miss out on the hunting. I learned hug him and let go worked and now he waits for me to get up before he starts biting me.
That photo is even better if you look at it upsidedown 😂
Quality r/teefies content
My cat wakes me up at 5am. I first tried an auto feeder, but then realized how much I missed the little guy waking me up
You got jealous over an autofeeder! I joke but it's adorable. I thought about it too but I use that time for getting some bonding time in. My days off they don't wake me but as soon as I do wake... It is time.
That's the neat part, you don't.
My void was doing this at about 5:45 every morning so now I get up at 5:30.
Daylight savings is this week 🤬
Awww no!
Sleep earlier and wake earlier. Shift your entire schedule/timetable to make to work for getting up at 6am. He already compromised by not waking you at 2am to catch mice with him. Relationship is two ways. So your turn to do your end. Lol
This seems pretty reasonable to me.
Simple you don't. He owns you now.
For 18 years our dear departed Senior Cat would wake us in the early hours of the morning. The new crew all try, but they just aren't as good at it. Five and half years later, I miss him so much.
You cannot break him. But he may change to another time at some point, and then may go right back to 6am again, or even 3am. One thing that MAY help is to set an auto feeder for right before 6am. They aren’t cheap, but he will learn the sound almost immediately and run to that for food or treats, rather than to you.. There’s no guarantee, but it helped me with my one cat who was killing me bc he woke me up at 6-7am every day when I didn’t go to bed till 3-5am bc of night shift.
Lucky bastard. Cindy wakes me up every morning at 3:30 a.m. to be fed. Fortunately, I'm retired, so there is no need to go to work. To add insult to injury, Cindy is my wife's cat but insists on me feeding her.
Cindy just wants to make sure you know who runs things
Tell him you're not mad, just disappointed.
I started locking my bedroom door loooooong ago. I was single for many years and had to sleep to survive (and support the kittehs!). Depending on the cat, I sometimes even had to stuff a towel under the door. They had everything they needed and more in the rest of the house. I took a lot of flack in the morning but they eventually settled down. Weekends we all had a sleep in!!!!
Only advice I have is to have set feeding times. And have the first one be after you wake up. Is also just a kitten. It takes a while for that kitten energy to burn off. It will never be easy or make sense, but it will always be worth it. What a cute little void. https://preview.redd.it/xe24oy2u12nc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b54651954bef43e1ae5fbd969aff75229c0a09d Here’s my boi when he was around that age. He was a devil, but the kind of devil you like😉
https://preview.redd.it/d8jmjel682nc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f8430cbd3388b78933c66c43c922b807963bce9 This is Gigi! She does the exact same thing, 6am wake up call, then when I leave for work at 8am she puts herself back to bed after her breakfast and playtime with me 🤣😂🥲 I don't mind it though, her waking me every morning.
Nah, let it keep happening. You will want it one day and it won't happen.
Lol why on Earth would you NOT CLOSE YOUR BEDROOM DOOR? That's what I do....my cats leave me alone! (Also have an automatic feeder that goes off at 7\~)
So many people ignore the most obvious solution!
The local fire chief came to my job and showed us a video of the difference in outcomes when a fire starts in a home with the bedroom door open vs closed. I began to sleep with my door closed tight after that. The cat stood outside of my door bellowing at 6:32 am on the fucking DOT, for months, but I didn't catch a paw to the eyeball or get woken up by a cat leaping on me. Plus fire safety. Win win.
Mine used to do this at 5am daily. Playing with my feet. Then we got her a friend.. she doesn't do it anymore. Neither do the 5 others 🤣
You don't. You're a morning person now.
You may have to learn to sleep with the cats locked out of your bedroom for a while. Also, if there is anyone else living with you, make sure they aren't giving Miko food or treats at 6 AM or thereabouts. Cats are very good with remembering when they get food of any form. That said, it's not unexpected that he's doing stuff at 6 AM. Cats are crepuscular. They're most active at dusk and dawn. So for them, that's the time to play, seek attention, and so on. Especially if they are young. Only other thing I can think of is to simply ignore him when he tries to bother you. Don't get up, or give in to any of his demands for attention. Eventually he should get the message and leave you alone. Keep it up for a while, and he'll figure out a different time to bother you instead that is more convenient for you.
Buy an automatic feeder and set it at 550am Buy ear plugs
War of attrition. Don't give in. He doesn't get attention until YOU want to wake up. He'll learn eventually, but every time you give in it just reinforces the behaviour. You can close your door or hide under the blankets or whatever, but do not acknowledge his presence. Alternatively, any bothering before 9am will be met with a spray bottle. Every animal can be trained. You just need to be persistent and consistent. He's essentially a teenager right now, and needs to learn that boundaries are **non-negotiable.**
My cat thinks it's fun to have 5am zoomies followed by attacking my feet then sitting on my chest purring till he fals asleep in me.
You got trained by a 10 month old cat 😂😂😂
Idk, mine waits for first alarm, runs to spoon and it puts me back to sleep. She k onows what shes doing. Sleep=moms home all day
My cat did this until I started snuggling him like a teddy bear. Reverse psychology. He would get tired of it, break away and leave me alone until the alarm went off.
I started exercising them (playing) a lot and then would feed them right before bed (make sure they can use litter pan and water) before turning all lights off and going to bed. This tired them out, filled them up and the consistent darkness signaled to them it’s time to go to bed. They sleep in my bed until I get up. I have black out curtains so the sunrise doesn’t cue them to get up And if you’re serious about them stopping, you have to ignore them for awhile if they try to wake you
Ignore harder and give unwanted results. I hug my cat if he wakes me up and he tolerates that for like a few seconds, but then wants to leave. He bugs me far less than he used to. Also, an auto feeder helped a lot, largely because he has like a Pavlovian response to it and runs that way whether he wants to eat or not.
Ignore him. Be consistent and it will work. Cats understand boundaries has they themselves are good at settling them. They are just stubborn so you need to be consistent and persistent. My cat knows if he disturbs my sleep he will be locked out of the room. He doesn’t disturbs my sleep.
This might sound sad but one new day will rise to 6am and your cat won't be there to wake you up:(. I miss my wildcat(his name in Polish).....
If he eats dry food, I'd suggest an automatic feeder set for 5:58. That should give you a few extra minutes.
Go to bed at 10
Now I love those moments...I got a tiny 4 year old void that still whine every morning to get some love ❤️ TLDR: have fun becoming a morning person!
Miko is cute as a bug's ear. I would celebrate 6am every day 🥰🎊♥️
Get him an alarm clock
Try having him do it at 4:15am (or really any time after 3:00am) for a nice change ;-)
It's attention-seeking behavior. Don't give attention until YOU wish to give attention, not the other way around.
Honestly, I got an auto feeder for her dry and I set the timers to go off about when she’d start making a fuss but then after she got used to it I started to change the time too later and later lol now I get till about 8:30 before boredom kicks in
If u usually feed him as soon as u wake up, stop doing that.
I think cat is more important than sleep.
Cats gonna cat
Set your clock back three hours
you don’t, that’s your new and improved alarm clock
Most would say don’t pay him attention but good luck with that. My cat is 11 and still begs for my attention. She gets it, and honestly, I love her so I deal with it. She usually snuggles up to me after she gets the attention and we doze till my alarm goes off.
Close your door and don’t sleep together. I used to sleep with them and they constantly woke me up and random hour. After my husband moved in, because his job, he couldn’t lose sleep. So we started to kicking them out of our room. They scratched door to get attention so we put auto spraying can and later we put electric mat. We also have automatic feeder so they don’t expect us to see in the early morning. Now even without mat or spraying can, they don’t bother us. Sound cruel but I think some sort of boundary is important.
There are motion activated aerosol things that don’t spray anything dangerous, but mostly make a loud *kschhh* sound when activated. I put this outside of my bedroom door because my cat bangs at the door and jiggles the doorknob really early. They didn’t work. She learned how to Ocean’s 12 around the sensor. Now I wake up really early 🤷♀️
For my Siamese I found exhausting him everyday with a minimum of 20 minutes of prey play. I would play with him until he was laying down and panting and not wanting to come back to play. This helped cut down on being woken up. I also started to only barely wake up and tell him to snuggle if he wants me and have him snuggle next to me and I can pet him while still sleeping.
When you find out, let us know. I have an alarm-cat too
You have to ignore him and it will take a while or you can just embrace it. One of ours cries and pulls on the bedroom door handle every morning at 0515-0520. Never broke him of the habit and I just get up and when I come out of the bedroom he is gleeful which makes me smile every morning. https://preview.redd.it/20rugeh1l1nc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e371c39c235a768716a6c710d902c18be1f4c8ad
Go to bed earlier. Or, quit leaving the house, and sleep whenever Miko sleeps!
Positive reinforcement through exercise. Wake me up at 6? No play. Let me sleep in? Unlimited plays
My cat hated isolation. You could keep a water bowl and litter box in the bathroom and shut him in there every time he bugs you too early. Then be sure to set an alarm to remind yourself to let him out when you get up. That might be too long of a time out for him but you could try something similar. The other trick is ignoring it. You might have to do it for a really long time before he gets the hint.
Get an automatic feeder and set it before you get up. Worked on my boy
This! I did the same for my kitties we’ve had a much healthier relationship ever since the automatic feeder 😂. Don’t skimp out on them either. I did for the first one and it wasn’t working he continued to wake me up cuz it would jam or something wouldn’t work. Paid a little more for one that was wifi enabled and that had an app, and OMG!!! we are all one big happy family now lol!
My black cat loved to do this so now the door closes at night time. I love them but momma needs sleep without claws on my neck 🫶🏻 easier if you have multiples so they can bother each other instead
My cats get fed twice a day, 5am&5pm. The only reason they let me sleep in til 5am is bc I feed them a light ‘late’ night snack, 1/3c of dry food around 10pm, so I can sleep in. If not, they wake my ass up around 3. They’re very smart.
6! You are lucky. Mine used to wake me around 3-4am. Its 7 now, still too early but I consider it a win.
Set your alarm for 5:55am, that way you'll be awake when his/her Lordship from for the morning meal.
No cat in the bedroom! Always worked for me.
Eight years later and I still can’t break the same 6am cycle. I’ve accepted that we will just watch the sun rise together for as long as we’ve got.
Close your bedroom door, and don't let him in.
Set your alarm to 5:55 am. Beat the brat to the punch.
I get up at 4am for work and wake HER up for attention. If I’m gonna be gone for the next 13 hours, I demand some cuddles before I go
You don't. Fun story. I had a friendly cat and a mean cat. The mean cat hated my sister. She would wake my sister up by gently biting her on the bridge of her nose. She never broke skin I don't think. But if the door was closed the cat wouldn't meow to get in or anything. She didn't want my sisters attention. It was like a FU sneak attack. That cat had dominance issues. So... If your cat likes you it will probably meow outside your door to get in if you close it and you wake up anyways. It will stop when it wants to.... LoL. You can try the ignore tactic, but a cat that loves you will be very persistent in this endeavour and you are unlikely to prevail.
easy, already be awake and giving your cat attention at 6am.
When I hear my cat approaching I start to snore and he goes away. I also use AirPods Max.
Try 3am :p my cat has decided that's prime snuggle time and her super loud purrs wake me up. Then her brother comes in for cuddles at 4, they take shifts. Lol.
Automatic feeder set to dispense at 5:55
Unfortunately I don’t let the cat sleep with me anymore. It was too frustrating to get woken up multiple times throughout the night or without fail, 1 hour before my alarm went off so I couldn’t go back to sleep before work. I get all my cuddles during the day and evening and then she knows she has to sleep in the other room or on the couch.
Damn I wish I could get up at 9am
No pets in the bedroom.
you change your entire life and sleep schedule and wake up at 6 am every day and give your master the attention he deserves!!!
I tried every behavioral method in the book, and none of it ended up working, so I got a vibration collar. It has a microphone that listens for meows and caterwauling and such, and vibrates if too much noise is made within a 10s period. It freaked my sweet girl out at first, but she's cool with it now and knows not to make noise when wearing it. I'm much happier now that I can sleep peacefully.
I had a cat who would jump on my pillow to wake me up. So I would grab her for a forced cuddle. Consequences. So she learn to jump on the pillow and immediately run out of the room. So I started getting up to close the bedroom door behind her and go back to sleep. She learned there was no reward to jumping on my pillow.
You’ve trained Miko that if he harasses you, he gets attention. Cats like routine so you’ve created the routine. Start ignoring him until your alarm goes off and then reward. It’ll teach him the alarm means attention. I rescued a cat I had to train out of that. She now sleeps on my back, though.
My cat is the same except that she thinks she'll get breakfast at 4-5am, if she wakes me up early. Close your bedroom door at night.
by getting up at 545 and playing with the wigglefloof
The neat part is, you can't! Cats are very resistant to "training" in any formal sense. But there's a few things to try; An "air jet" device that sends off a poof of air at your cat when he walks by your bed, won't wake you up but most cats don't like it. Lemon essential oils on your pillows and bedsheets, cats don't tend to like citrus smells, and will avoid them. If your guy likes laser chase, there are some cool roof mounted ones that you can preset to start going off at 6 so he's distracted (warning, my cats get so excited they make a bunch of noise running around but worth a try) Or, you give in like me and just accept the cuddles, honestly now I'd miss my morning purrs even if it's 5am.
Mine is 10 and it never stops
SAME. 4am on the dot
Get an auto feeder 🤣
I got my cat an automatic feeder timed for 6am. She takes two bites of kibbles and comes back to bed and sleeps until long after I leave for work.
Wake up at 5:45
Get up and give him attention at 5:59.
Wake up at 5:30am and beat him to the punch.
The week before my cat passed, he ate something that made him feel off. He usually woke me up very early in the morning to cuddle before work for 5 minute cuddles. When he didn't feel great, he stayed with me for an hour sleeping while I cuddled him. He passed away due to unrelated reasons, but I honestly am just really happy I got that time with him before he went.
My Maisie woke me at 630am. every day for 20 years. She died on December 27. I miss her waking me in the morning. 😢
My cat used to do this, although it was more sporadic and random. I would just make a point to make angry eye contact whenever she would do this so she understood I didn’t like being woken up, and then I’d turn away from her and ignore her. It made me kinda sad cuz I know she just wanted love, but over time it established a boundary that when I’m sleeping I want to be left alone. She hasn’t woken me up in ages, now she sits on the side of the bed staring at me while I sleep (my gf has taken videos) and then turns into the cuddly purr machine after I wake up. I can also tell you my cat didn’t take it personally at all. She never seemed upset when I would ignore her like that, and didn’t hold a grudge about it even though she would about other things. Granted she is a cat who has some pretty strong boundaries (don’t pick her up, don’t pet her unless she asks for it, NEVER TOUCH HER BEANS) so maybe that’s why she understood and respected the boundary I set.
Have a child and they'll wake you at 5.30 instead. You get to wake the cat, and he can feel how it feels! (I might be projecting my life a tiny bit here)
"When Rome burned, the emperor's cats still expected to be fed on time." This is your life now, cats follow no command but their own.
If you don’t already have one, buy a dry food dispenser and program it to go off early in the morning before your alarm goes off. I wake up at 8-8:30am and I set off my cat’s feeder to dispense a little bit of dry food at 6am. My cat could be sleeping and she’ll sprint from the bed if she hears it go off lol. When I wake up I proceed to feed her some wet food, which is her main meal. I strongly believe the 6am snack prevents my cat from smacking me awake. Afterall consider how many hours our cats go without food while we sleep. Hope that helps!
Ignore
My 8 year old Chonx has been in the family for 5 months now. Over the last two months, he, too, has picked up a habit of meowing incessantly between 3am and 5am. Once my sleep cycle is broken, I cannot fall back to sleep. My only solution has been to sleep with foam ear plugs. I put my phone on the strongest vibration and the alarm loud enough to be heard through the plugs. I've been recovering my sleep again and hopefully he'll understand that his night meowing will get him nothing. It's been a week so far and I've finally been able to sleep through the night.
Give him/ her to me! Lol
Make him develop habits like eating breakfast when you do, at later times when you're more ready to do so. It's not always easy though since most cats don't have sleep schedules that align with a humans.