Help! Cat wakes me up at 4am.

[DiscoStusMoonboots]

Good (if early!) morning all,

I have a 12 year old cat who - in the past 6 months - won't let my partner and I sleep past 4 or 5am. She either howls in the hallway or comes into our room, finds plastic to chew, scrambles at our mirror or tries to get into out wardrobe by pushing at the sliding doors. I haven't had a full night's sleep in about 6 months and I don't know what to do!

We recently changed her food, which we've noticed has led to her begging a lot more for it - so that's the first thing we are changing as of today.

Does anyone else have any other tips/deterrents? To make it worse, she's a cat-in-a-flat, so space is very limited.

I love her so much but she's driving me round the bend! Tips and advice welcome.

Thank you!

Yay! :)

Good news. My cat tries this on seasonally. Getting up at 4am in the spring (eating and then going back to bed). There are always biscuits in his bowl but he likes to be ‘shown’ where they are to eat them.
I always put a stop to it by throwing him out at 4am for a week. Puts a stop to it 😂

Ours has a bed that she sleeps in, so when we go to our bed we pick up the bed with her in it, and pop both in the kitchen. She has a litter tray, and water in there, and gets a “supper” of dry food about 10pm. After supper she tends to go out for a bit, then hops into her bed no bother when she comes in.

If one of us forgets to close the kitchen door properly she is in our room at 5, pulling my hair, purring in my face, and being a general pest. She never bothers DP as she knows he will sleep through anything!

We have an elderly female with 3 legs and a stray who we do shut in the kichen with catflap etc. he's fine. SHE is not, she stays downstairs, we have food and fresh water (that's important btw) organised at night for her. The bad weather is worse because she won't go out for exercise. She needs to be kept awake for 4 or 5 hours before bedtime, her bedding needs changing regularly too, being scratched, being played with, going up and down the hall to the dirt trays etc. (oh she HAS to have them cleaned every day otherwise the howling gets awful!) .

We give her a tiny amount of 'calming' supplement in her food and it sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

She was rescued from a pub where she had been howling as a kitten, so we think it's just something she does. Not always thank goodness.

My cat wakes me up more than my baby did! Last night it was 230am scratching at the door so I threw her out until 530am I can't have her upstairs as she will just run around and wake my daughter up. It's an actual nightmare to be honest, I need a mansion so I can't hear her!

Would it be easier if she was shut in downstairs with a catflap food etc. so she could go out on her own?

I know what you mean about babies being easier! dd 1 used to wake for feeds just as my meal was ready . Our cat Millie does the same sometimes!

Just to say that our female makes a groany fuss when the moon is FULL!! I've only just realised! she slept soundly last night when I drew the curtains where she sleeps! So did we!