Can I train my cat to stop waking me up?

[maggiethecat]

We're new cat owners and have had our 2 yo rescue cat for about 6 weeks and she's lovely. However I've never been so sleep deprived for a long time!

She sleeps in dd's top bunk bed but gets out at about 6am, or earlier, and insists on someone escorting her downstairs for breakfast which someone usually does and then they go back to bed. But after she's had breakfast she'll go back upstairs, sit on the landing and meow until someone pays some attention.

If she wakes me up too early I'll go on to the landing and say "No Lola" and then go back to bed but tbh I don't think she stops meowing, I think someone else has just been getting her so she stops the racket

Any hope at all of trying to get her to stop waking us up

My cat is a dream in this respect as he is totally silent 99% of the time and doesn't get up until we do but if I had a sleep depriving cat I'd shut them up at night.

BTW he leaves half eaten creatures on the carpet and occasionally shreds my ankles so it's swings and roundabouts

maggiethecat

She is adorable, she needs a belly rub at 5.00am

We lock ours downstairs or he terrorises the kids.

Larsingsong - we've definitely got twins! Whoever posted in this forum that cats ignore you?!

Going to try locking her downstairs although am terrified that she'll then decide to glue herself to me 😱

Sashh - belly rub at 5? More like a tranquilliser gun!

Um, we locked ours in the kitchen from day one with litter tray and food. She now sleeps through the night or she doesnt. I have no idea as she is locked in the kitchen . Nice warm bed by the radiator with a fluffy hit water bottle in the winter. What's wrong with that?

Last night "D"cat woke me up my slapping round the face continually. Woke up and turned the light on and she had walked shit all over my bed. This was 2.30 am.
I had to get up, give her a bath and change the sheets and duvet cover. It was 4am before I went to bed again, then alarm went of at 6.
I'm at work absolutely knackered, can't keep my eyes open.

@lockdownbreakdown

Um, we locked ours in the kitchen from day one with litter tray and food. She now sleeps through the night or she doesnt. I have no idea as she is locked in the kitchen . Nice warm bed by the radiator with a fluffy hit water bottle in the winter. What's wrong with that?

That’s what we did too from day one. I couldn’t have a cat roaming around upstairs waking us all up during the night! We moved when our cat was quite young and got a cat flap put in. So she can sleep in her basket or go out on the prowl now.

Years ago our house was quite open plan. Fil ended up putting a door at the bottom of the stairs to keep dcats down there. Kept us all awake all bloody night chasing around!!
Yabu to not accept your fate as a dedicated dcat slave op.

I like to think I have trained my cats not to wake me, but more likely it is just luck.

They all did when little, but I would shut them away when they woke me and gradually they got the message. Very occasionally the current two will start fightingt at 3am and that will disturb me but they don't deliberately come on the bed.

One is really friendly during the day, other not bothered.
Having said that they do wake the dc more often!
Never feed them before your usual get up time!!! And feed them before you go to bed I think.

@madcatladyforever was she sleeping peacefully as you left?.

We put ours downstairs from day one too, I always promised him he’d sleep with us when he was an old man but he died on the road at 10 so I’m very guilty about that. He had three beds and two hot water bottles down there but preferred our bed.

Mine is shut downstairs at night but can go out on the prowl through the cat flap. He's more of a dick during the day whilst I'm trying to work. If he thinks I should be paying him attention he'll either climb on the keyboard or start shredding his cardboard scratcher

Mine free feed so there's four bowls of food dotted around the house which are constantly topped up yet they get very upset if I'm not awake by 5. What they need is me to get up and then sit there watching them sleep on the sofa

Yes she was sleeping soundly when I left fluffycloudland - how did you know?

I got so sick of being woken stupidly early that I got a timed feeder from amazon. Its set for 5am. He also sleeps downstairs now, with plenty of warm places to sleep. We're all much happier!

6am is a lie in. Mine piss me off all night long and it's been this way for 7 years

They aren't hungry, they bother me at all hours. They fight with each other, clang the blind, lift the blind so I'm bathed in streetlight, sit on my head and knead my hair, bite my nose, roam the house howling at nothing, spend 10 minutes digging in their litter... I can't shut them downstairs as the only door in my tiny house is my bedroom door and if I shut that then they shout at it, scratch at it and shove their little cat legs under the door

So in answer to your question, no, not on my experience.

😂

I have only read op posts.

It works like thus:

Whistle train cat. Every time you feed cat you whistle. They soon learn to come running.

At night time you whistle and give them a treat - bit of wet food/dreamies etc. in the kitchen or some other downstairs room. Have a litter tray in said room. Shut them in that room.

Ignore completely until reasonable getting up time following day.

After a few months said cat demands to be put to bed and gets cross up you stay up late...

@madcatladyforever well she’d had a rough night of it. Must’ve been shattered after all that.

Ours are shut downstairs at night - always have been. We have three, though, so they have company. They have free access to biscuits and water and fleece blankets to snuggle up under. They also have their litter trays.

We've never been woken up once. I never understood all these threads where people tolerate their cats waking them up at 4am - fuck that, I need my sleep

my boy is a legend. i live in a studio flat so there’s nowhere to corral him, but luckily he’s so laid back he’s horizontal 90% of the time.

he was abused as a kitten during his socialisation phase so he literally doesn’t know how to play. he’s not fussed as long as there’s biscuits in the bowl overnight. he’s such a creature of habit that he has a wee and poops during the evening at which point the litter tray is cleaned. at lights out i say goodnight to him, he comes and makes biscuits on my face for 5 minutes then he sleeps through.

i adore him. he hasn’t got enough smarts to be outside so he’s an indoor cat. we do play (i throw things for him, he looks at me. i get the laser pointer out. he looks at me) and he gets the zoomies a couple of times a day but he’s just so not fussed by anything. he lives for dreamies and the heated throw. i will admit that since i’ve been bloody shielding for most of the year that we would both have separation anxiety if i started leaving the house on the regular.

best cat ever. probably heartily sick of me talking to him all day but he tolerates me admirably.

Our cat used to get into bed with us as soon as the house cooled down, then last until about six before pulling my hair until I got up with her.

Since March and needing to be up later as WFH we have been shutting her in the kitchen at bedtime. She has food, water, and a litter tray in there, plus a cosy bed which she does sleep in. I felt bad the first few nights, but DP was insistent, and now I can’t understand why we didn’t do it sooner!

Why aren't you locking her downstairs in the furthest room away from you?

It baffles me that people will put up with all this nonsense from a cat. Just stick her where you can't hear her - surely that's common sense? And yes, I'm a cat owner

Somewhere comfortable to sleep, access to her food and water .. what's the problem?

Our cat is shut in the kitchen (which has two cat beds, two sofas, a timed feeder and a catflap) at night. After 7 years of being woken by terrible sleeper DC I’m not risking it from a cat.

I’m a bad cat slave...

Does no one shut their car outside at night?

Cat!