Cats and lie ins

[SheldonTheWonderShlong]

What happens if you feed your cat at approx 7am Monday to Friday but want a lie in at the weekends to say 9am. Is it possible or is the idea of a lie in ridiculous?

The only way is to feed the cat, then go back to bed for a lie-in - or get an automatic cat feeder!!

Feed the cat when the cat tells you. That way - happy cat = happy family. Do not upset the feline overlords.

You're underestimated a cats ability to out-lazy you. And if they do want feeding before you're up they'll definitely let you know!

I don't have a cat but am thinking about it for the future.

I have other questions.

Is it impossible to keep a cat off of kitchen counters? I mean, how would you know if you were out that they hadn't been on it?

In the winter I try and keep doors shut inside to keep the heat in. If I'm in I will be able to hear miaows to go in/out of a room. What if I am out all day? I want the doors shut but that means cat in same room all day. Fine if it's the room with the litter tray and food bowl in but what if s/he is hiding and won't come to the designated room before I have to go out?

Does being the main feeder mean I won't get an out of the blue clip round the ear?

Catface needs feeding at 630am every day. If we don’t she just pats our faces and meows loudly.

Same with her litter tray. If it’s not done immediately after we’ve fed her the noise is astounding.

I get up do it and then go back to bed. Or used to. Ds (15 months) is usually up by 630/7 too so once I’m up I’m up.

My cat has an automatic timed feeder as she likes being fed at 5ish and I don’t want to get up at then! If for some reason the timer doesn’t go off then she’ll come and let me know.

She’s never been on the kitchen counter. If they jump up I suppose you can scare them down and then they’ll learn not to do it again.

I can’t comment on your closed doors issue as we don’t have that. Are your rooms big enough for a cat to be in there with food/litter tray and enough space for a play and a snooze?

All cats are different. Our's has never shown any interest in jumping on kitchen worktops and she eats dry food which is always available to her. She eats as and when she wants.

My cats don't eat all the food all at once so if we put a little dry food out at bedtime that does them overnight and in the morning. Only one of mine can get up on the counters but doesn't tend to do so. Cats hate closed internal doors so ours tend to sit slight ajar so they can get through.

Mine just sleeps when I sleep. If I am still and quiet he sleeps too. If I wake early I give him a little food then we both go back to bed for another doze.

As said it completely depends on the cat. My cat rarely goes into the kitchen. He eats dry so there's food in his bowl usually so morning is ok. But that said occasionally he wakes me up to let him out. But that's ok I'm happy to do that because cats train their owners

My cats and dogs have always just been fed whenever I get up and have been fine with that, the cue that it’s breakfast time is me getting up, not what actual time it is...

There are people who swear they’ve trained cats to keep off worktops, I’ve only ever managed to train them to keep off when they know I can see them... so I assume a cat may have been on there and wipe it down before I use it.

Yes you’ll hear a cat who wants a door opened.... I wouldn’t shut them in one room when I was out though, I mean I could and I’m sure they’d be fine, I just wouldn’t...

And I’ve never had a clip round the ear, for food or otherwise, they tend to come and purr at me if they want something.

Same here beachy , dcat waits till I'm awake to demand breakfast which consists of sorrowful eyes and head-nudging.

I cannot imagine not shutting the doors in the winter and I have double glazing and central heating. Anyway cat would be for when we move eventually to a bigger place.

Am I to assume then that there are no 'cat free' areas in a house?

Where do you all keep litter trays and food bowls? I would assume kitchen.

Our only cat free areas are the bathrooms. We have a big kitchen diner so litter tray and food is in there (not close to each other though).

I find the best way to distract furry overlords is with plenty of biscuits overnight. Seems to work until they get more aged! Then all bets are off. Gave up a long time ago trying to keep them off the work top ....

I am very lucky with my boy. He curls up on my bed till whatever time I decide to get up, be that 6am, 10am or 3pm!
He has never brought me any dead things, and doesn’t jump up on the worktops.
He’s also incredibly handsome.

We have an automatic at feeder. Our cat can hear it open but he still wants DH to take him to it every morning.

The cat wakes us up more than the toddler.

We leave good quality dry food (Orijen) out all the time, and give them wet food (Nature's Menu) at dinner time.

We have a cat flap which we lock when it's dark, so we do have to unlock it to let them out in the morning. It's never been too much of an issue, they would only miaow at our bedroom door if they could hear we were awake. Anyway we have a toddler now so one of us is always up with him and can let them out.

We do have cat-free zones in the house, we keep bedroom doors closed so they can't go in there. At night we also keep the living room closed as they have been known to scratch our nice rug. But cats do need different places to go in the house, especially if you have more than one cat as they're territorial.

If you really want to keep all your doors closed you could put cat flaps in some of them. Bit of a shame to do that though. I would just leave a few doors open.

I gave up on cat free rooms long ago as one learned how to open doors. He's very nosy, unlike his brother. He also jumps up to investigate all taps.
Lie-ins, as others they have dried overnight and just help themselves.
Food is in the kitchen.
Litter in the hall. I wouldn't shit in my kitchen so don't want them to either. Covered box and regularly deal with the filter.

I don't allow my cats upstairs when we go to bed and they accept that fine. I do leave doors open all day and I get drafty too in winter but thy do like to wander about freely

Thanks for all the tips though wondering how you tell a cat to go downstairs when you want to go to bed. Don't they just ignore you? 😂

All cats are different, apart from the cats my family had when I was a child I've owned two separate cats.

Cat 1 was a nightmare for food, woke us up all night, had to have loads of automatic pop up trays over night and during the day. She was an indoor cat due to previous abuse so never had issues with doors, being out when we were.

Cat 2 is as good as gold at night, sleeps until we're up in the morning. he goes out, I'm a sahm so never out for too long but if we are he comes in, he doesn't go out at night.

Cat 1 was elderly when we adopted her and cat 2 was a kitten so they are differ anyway. cat 2 is a terror for getting on the kitchen work tops, cat 1 never did. cat 1 despite being a gannet for her food, was never interested in begging for ours, cat 2 is terrible.

You really won't know until you get one. Both ours have been rescues so had a good idea on their temperament. My brother has a cat same age as cat 2 and he's a nightmare for wrecking the house and not coming in but DB and DSIL both work full time so he doesn't get enough attention/time outside.

Litter trays in basement. No areas are cat free. They don't go on the worktops when anyone is watching

One of ours has a watch. It's v accurate. We do often shut our bedroom door but he sort of flings himself at it to wake us up

Just seen your last message. Both cats were able to go where they pleased. Cat 1 always slept on our bed, cat 2 has a bed on the floor. Their preference.

Without shutting doors/them behind doors you won't be able to 'tell' them not to go upstairs.

You can train cats mine know in the morning while I'm going psycho about being late they come down and insert themselves into the living room next to the kitchen they then get shut in there till I get home