4.30am cat alarm!

[easyday]

My cats are now a year old and the male has decided 4.30am is a good time to get up. He's got a very loud meow and if you ignore him will eventually climb in you (he's a Maine Coon so very heavy).
I know it's getting light out then but not that light. My other cat doesn't get up that early.
I've tried ignoring it for an hour but he doesn't stop. Keeping door shut doesn't help. So eventually I go down and feed him and open the back door - he does have kibble out so it's not like he's starving and he has a litter tray too (though rarely used).
Any tips on getting him to sleep later? We don't go up to bed til almost midnight and he is still up and moving around til then (I mean it's not like he's been napping all day he's very active).

I have no ideas to help but a lot of sympathy. Im in a similar situation with my British shorthair. She gets bored anytime between 4.30 and 5.30 and starts prancing around my pillow purring, screeching and nuzzling my head. It used to happen rarely when she had run out of food (she's a grazer) but for the past year it's pure boredom. She has food, an open cat flap and a Maine coon to hassle but nope, she just wants me to be awake.

Cats are crepuscular so they're most active time of day is dawn and dusk. You will struggle to out-train nature - especially at this time of year with the early mornings.

Can you get a timed feeder and set it to open when it starts to get light so he gets his breakfast while you're still in bed? I know you say he has kibble down but mine always act like they're starving for their wet food in the mornings 🤣

Mine are all shut downstairs at night and only really start yowling at around 8am for food, but they have each other for company (we have three) and it's been their routine since kitten hood so they've never known any different.

I feel your pain with a one year old hyperactive spynx and a four month old Maine coon. They are just the same now it's got lighter. I've got blackout blinds and curtains but it doesn't stop their inner clock!

I have found that the sooner I give in to her demands the sooner I can go back to bed. 🤷‍♀️

I'd put the cat behind several closed doors and get some silicone or wax earplugs for you.

I feel your very pain. Every single morning. Summer or winter.

last night I Shut every blind in the house, in my room its blackouts and shutters. Me and black beauty slept like a dream. The ginger witch came in at 4am as usual squawking and scratching the furniture. I scooped her up and put her outside where she stayed. The black beauty and I went back to sleep and he’s only just woken me up now.

im Guessing yours is a house cat though?

We locked ours in the kitchen and turned the door handle around so you pulled it up to open the door because bengals will twang a door handle for 45 minutes straight.

No @Cervinia He spends much of his time outside. I even have an outdoor insulated cat house out there and found him sleeping in it while it was raining today even though I had called the other cat in.
He doesn't go down stairs first - he generally sleeps in my room and then starts up. My daughter is convinced it's a matter of just training him as he doesn't bother her when I'm away (she doesn't feed him normally though).
There's two dogs as well as another cat but they'd all still be sleeping if he didn't wake up all up!
I've pretty much resigned myself to that @BlueKaftan

Cheddar does it several times a night. I wouldn't mind if she knee how to sit still but she just can't!