The proper place and time for food...

[LastingLight]

We have a problem with neighbourhood cats coming in and eating our cats' food, which is situated in the passage. In winter we solved the problem by shutting them in at night. When the weather started turning warmer, grey girl decided she would like to go out in the early hours and started waking DH up, much to his disgust. So he partially solved the problem by leaving the window open for them and putting the food next to his bed, covered up. When grey girl comes and asks for food in the night he wakes up just enough to remove the cover. So far so good. Then the girls decided they can only eat next to the bed when it's dark so as soon as it starts getting light in the mornings they demand that the food is moved to the passage... it gets worse. Last night DH forgot to move the food to his bedside. At 3:00 grey girl woke him up, complaining that there wasn't food in the correct place. Got to love cats!

I can see who wears the furry trousers in your house!

Too right.

Put a cat flap in, keep them in at night, decide what the appropriate feeding times are - and stick to them. Being topcat in your own household won't upset them (after a day or two of moaning.) They're just pushing the boundaries now.

no way do i pander to my lot like that they get lobbed out the house for half an hour when i get up thwen they get their breakfast 9wet food) in the kitchen then they get their biscuits again in the kitchen about 2.30 pm and thats their lot for the day

I think you'd benefit from a microchip operated cat flap & a routine that suits you, not them.

We like to have food available for the girls whenever we're home as they are "grazers" - they eat little bits at a time rather than gobbling up a whole meal.
We're considering a Sureflap but worried that the intruders will then just come in through the bedroom/bathroom windows which are always open in summer. This morning there was wee and poo in the kitchen and I vaguely remember hearing a fight in the night. :(

Is there any way of stopping cats climbing through windows apart from putting in screens? We want to stop our two from doing that anyway as they set off the burglar alarm.

Put sure flap in at the weekend - brilliant. Had next door's cat staring in all day looking mourneful but at least we're only feeding two cats and not four now! Can't seem to stop my ginger boy waking me up at 3am for food though - even when there's food down he still does it!

And you get up and pay him notice, right? He's not hungry - just seeking attention.

Are you in a bungalow or a flat if they can get in through those windows?.

Bungalow. (And if I hadn't lived in the UK for 1.5 years I would have had no idea what you were asking as that term is used differently in South Africa.