Cat waking me up early

[TeenMinusTests]

We've had our 10yo DCat for about 4 months. She's an indoor cat, and delightful.
except
This morning she was meowing outside the bedroom door at 5am.
usually it is 6:30 which is just about manageable, but earlier than that isn't appreciated.

2 or 3 weeks back we tried leaving the door open, but all that did was encourage her to come in and demand breakfast.

Any bright ideas? We leave dry food out overnight - would leaving more help? (she's trying to lose weight). DH says shut her in the kitchen, but I think that's mean so won't, she goes to sleep on the sofa in the lounge overnight.

We always shit ours away overnight with their final biscuit meal.

My bladder wakes up our cat ! I lie there desperate for a wee in the knowledge as soon as my feet hits the floor she's up and wanting breakfast even at 5.15am

@RandomMess

Let her in your bedroom so she can sleep in your bed and yell in your ear

Silkycat comes in the early morning, shouts and comes and sleeps under the duvet. It's sweet.

On the other hand Big Boy does random shouting at 2am. We are v practiced at ignoring.

@CherryDocsInYrBalls

My cat sometimes wakes me up at ridiculous o'clock so I can watch him eat his biscuits. If he meows and I don't get up he pulls at my brand new carpet with his claws! The rest of the day he will just eat without an audience

This is basically our cat, she’s a gorgeous and lovable but sulky little shit🤣🤣

We don’t allow her in the bedroom and mostly it’s after 6am when I wake anyway but occasionally slightly before 6 that she meows and scratches the door. It literally is come and be with me downstairs so I can eat and ignore you!

Don’t think I could leave her downstairs alone. She likes to be near us but not too close, if DH and I are out, she will sit outside one of the Dses rooms. Ds1 accidentally shut her in the back room one night and she was very sulky in the morning.

And I am a complete and utter doormat of a cat servant🙄

@RandomMess

We always shit ours away overnight with their final biscuit meal.

Well, that's a bit OTT

I think you need a second cat so it has some company

@CherryDocsInYrBalls that's cute but obviously not for you. I had a cat who would at night scratch the wallpaper in the bedroom with one eye on me. He knew it would wake me up and I would escort him downstairs because he didn't like the dark. I'd lock him in the living room with access to the kitchen and he was pleased with that.

I have three my ash still cuddles me around 5am I'm not sure if it's because I wake up or he wakes up or the boiler wakes us both up but we have a 5am cuddle regardless

We have a timer box with biscuits. Since we’ve done that no more 4am wake ups. They both just sit waiting for it so open!

@Catlove53

I think you need a second cat so it has some company

Of all the suggestions, this is the least likely to happen! famous last words

Thank you everyone, it's given us things to try. Hopefully over Christmas we can get her a bit later with meals.

@Catlove53

I think you need a second cat so it has some company

That is not very likely to work. Cats very rarely get on well, unless they are from the same litter and have been together since birth.

Timer feeder if she’s on a diet. Leave her with some biscuits before you go to bed then timer biscuits go off at 5am. She probably won’t bother you if she’s just eaten!

Our cat wakes us up every morning between 3 and 6am to go outside. We let him out (no cat flap).. Sometimes he goes out at 1am when DP comes to bed and that's him out all night..

Last night he went out at 9pm, back in at 11pm, then woke himself up falling out of bed at 5am and went out..

Cats are cats, I don't think there is any thought behind what they do other than catness.. But I feel your pain OP! Good luck!

You need an automatic cat feeder. Ours used to come to us earlier and earlier as he knew we would feed him (even with a strict no food until 7am rule, he seemed to want to just bother us for breakfast).

We got the automatic cat feeder and have not had a problem since. He knows his wet food is in the feeder, set for 7am and bothers that and not us… only time I have been woken up is when he bothered it so much he flipped it over and needed us to help him get it out 😂. He now eats at 7am and comes back up to jump on the bed for sleepy morning cuddles! We only hear about it if we set the time on it wrong!

@icedcoffees

You can’t shut an indoor cat in one room! Fair enough if you have a cat flap in the kitchen and the cat can go outdoors and just have the kitchen to sleep in, but not an indoor cat. The poor thing will go stir crazy.

Of course you can - they won't explode if they're confined to one part of the house for eight hours, lol.

My indoor cats have the run of our open-plan kitchen/living room overnight. That's it. They're perfectly fine and don't go "stir crazy". They play, sleep, chase each other, eat and sleep some more.

They have the run of the house during the day but I'm not being woken up at 3am every night because a cat has jumped on my head, lol. They're cats, not small children - they can cope just fine on their own downstairs overnight.

Fair enough but a large open plan living area isn’t quite what I meant! Trust me, if one of mine was locked in my tiny kitchen overnight, there would be no kitchen left by the morning.