Young cat in the mornings - advice!

[IndiaMay]

Sorry, this is a long one. But looking for cat advice from cat lovers to a first time owner.

We got a kitten during lockdown and he was very good from day one. Immediately understood the litter tray and never cried at night. He also wasnt bothered to cry for food in the mornings. We get up at 7am in the week and would feed him but he wouldnt make a peep at weekends if we didnt come downstairs until 9am to feed him. He was always so happy to see us but didnt fuss for food.

Our downstairs is completely open plan and so we got a little free standing pet gate to put at the bottom of the stairs whilst he was a tiny kitten so that he could stay down in the one large open plan living/dining/kitchen room until he got a little older and more sensible as there is a lot of rooms upstairs to get lost in. Hes now allowed free roam of the house during the day but we put the pet gate at the bottom of the stairs still at night.

Now, the last 3 mornings he has been crying at 5.20am. The first morning I put it down to the fact that as he was getting spayed that day we had taken away his usual little bowl of biscuits he has out to nibble on as he couldnt eat after midnight and he was hungry. He cried solidly until 6.30 when I got up and comforted him.

Yesterday and today he has cried solidly from 5.30ish until 6.30 when he has then managed to jump the pet gate and come up stairs. Thing is, I dont think he is hungry, I think he just wants a cuddle as he jumps into bed with us and rubs his chin on ours, kneads our chest, purrs, even licks us. Hes very loving and cute for about half an hour before he goes into full blown crazy kitten mode (burrowing under the covers to nip our toes, bouncing off the walls, pouncing on our heads...) Hes an incredibly affectionate and people loving cat until his kitten crazies. Good job hes cute

Any idea what we should do? I think the only option is to remove the pet gate and close our bedroom door but our house is sweltering at night in the summer and we would boil in our bedroom. He would also just cry and cry outside the door. Any ideas?

Get used to early morning kitten cuddles? My two generally always sleep on our bed with us and the younger will go out around 6am when the cat flap automatically opens, but if its raining he will come straight back in and do some laps of the bedroom to burn his energy off instead.

I dont mind the cuddles, he just gets playful after for hours. He has lots of toys and things but he will pounce on us, nip us, biff us playfully until we get up

It doesn't get any better, my girl is 8 and if I so much as move. She wants a cuddle. Problem is she doesn't sit still, by which time I'm wide awake!

Is it a boy? And he's now been castrated? My male dog had to go in overnight for an emergency op during lockdown and he suffered with separation anxiety for about a week. It sounds like your kitten has had a change in routine that he doesn't like. I would try to keep things as normal as it suits you better but you may need to work out how to keep him contained if you don't want him wandering until you are up.

More play time, they need a lot of stimulation at this age. If your not entertaining him he’s not got much else has he?.

A little friend before hes too old to accept?

@Sooverthemill it could be separation anxiety, he only went in for a day but hasn't been apart from us before so may be nervous about being separated again.

@Fluffycloudland77 he normally has lots of play time (he has a set of tunnels and huts to play through, a laser pen he chases in the evening, robot toys that he can hunt/chase and a cat tree, lots of ping pong balls etc). But with the castration having been on thursday afternoon we're trying to keep him calmer whilst the stitches heal (fat chance!) So maybe it is pent up energy these last few mornings

Tuesday afternoon sorry

He’s learnt humans make good slaves!!
Remove the gate and just let him come and cuddle up with you. Yes he will wake you, but strangely you do learn to sleep through having your eyebrows chewed and they learn to just settle for a nap until you deem it an appropriate hour. !!!

@Bargebill19 I was thinking that would be the case. We ended up using the pet gate as we didnt want him wondering too much the first few weeks in the house when he was tiny but now it's probably best to remove it.

Any chance of a picture of the lucky boy? Sounds like he’s found a good home.

they learn to just settle for a nap until you deem it an appropriate hour. !!

Someone please tell Cheddar that!

It took mine 13 years to learn!!

Mine wakes me up at 4:45am every day without fail. He jumps on me and sticks his whiskers up my nose.

What you’ve got to admire is that if you wake them up you get the death stare. Such hypocrites.

And a stinky poo as your reward (or is that just us?)

Can you not lock him in the kitchen?
We have to do that with our cats as when they were free range they had a curtain pole down in the middle of the night walking across it.

Lie ins don’t really happen with cats. We lost ours 36 weeks ago and I’m still up at 6 every morning.

I think the change in routine has unsettled him.

I laugh at all these lovely cat stories, but actually cats are more trainable than you think.
Mine doesn't wake us up unless he is really hungry.
If he does he gets put outside of our bedroom door sharpish, and gives up.
If he is hungry he will keep meowing even outside the door, but this is unusual.

He sleeps on our bed sometimes, but only gets up when we do, or gets up and goes off downstairs by himself. Most cats I have had are like this, fundamentally, I don't get up when they tell me to, so they don't ask!

But I do leave dried food out overnight, so they are rarely hungry in the mornings

We shut ours downstairs completely at night - otherwise nobody would get any sleep. There are three of them though, so they have company, plus we leave food down for them as well. There are two doors between us and them!

We also have a dog who sleeps upstairs so there's clear boundaries in place - otherwise our nights would be spent telling the dog off for chasing the cats, and telling the cats off for smacking the dog

Get him a friend! The only thing better than a kitten is two kittens - or maybe three kittens...

My cat is 19 and God help me if she she doesn't get her breakfast at 5.30 am.
She bit my nose last Sunday when I wanted a lie in!!

Sounds like he has all the toys but wants human companionship as cats love this and you want him to be content and thrive.

You can rotate their toys so they don’t get bored.