How to beat the 3am wake-up paw?!

[ThanksMateThanksMate]

Meaow...
Meaow?
Me-aaoww

..
Paw on face
Paw on face
Etc

We had to close up the cat flap due to a million reasons.

Do you get up?
Do you successfully ignore?
It's every bloody night .....

Mine just wants a cuddle. And makes biscuits on my face. Fine but she just can't sit still. And now the other one copies her. I can't shut them out due to the design of the house.

I'm up for a cuddle and several head bumps. Lots of loud purring - I'm glad she's so happy but I'm knackered!
Looking to break the habit

A paw on the face is better than a wet nose or a lick. Yuck!

But after doing that to announce their presence, mine do snuggle up for a lovely purr.

We used to lock the Bengal in the kitchen overnight. 4am is not getting up time unless the house is on fire.

We put out an extra bowl of biscuits near our room to distract her.

I leave food down for mine.
Plus my 3am snuggler is the best of cats and doesn't wake me. I just wake up most mornings to find her there. She's great. My previous overlord loudly announced his arrival, patted my face and eyes until I woke up and acknowledged his presence then purred very loudly for the next half hour to keep me awake.

@Beamur that's exactly what Cheddar does!

Ours sleep downstairs otherwise God knows what mischief they would get up to.

Mine has to be locked out of the bedroom. 2am is her time - paw in face, delicately scratching my eyelids, purring and then if ignored, settles in her 'shouty corner' by the wardrobe and shouts until someone goes downstairs with her to play and chat and wonder what is the point of her. We shut her in the kitchen now. We get up at 5.15am during the week so she has to hang on a few more hours.

I’ve got a lovely mental image of your cat weighing out butter and flour in tiny bowls on your cheek 😀

Fortunately our moggie prefers my OH and wakes him up at 4.00 every morning. If it was me, I would just lock the cat downstairs but OH is too soft hearted. He gets up, feeds the cat and lets him out as our big, fat, spoiled cat is too delicate to use the cat flap!

I'm afraid mine are shut downstairs overnight, they have a large lounge and kitchen, litter trays, water, plenty of comfy places to sleep. I always give them biscuits last thing at night to get them indoors and it helps them sleep too because their tummies are full! I love my cats but I need my sleep! Boy cat probably wouldn't bother me but girl cat definitely would!

I'm mean and my cat sleeps in the living room. He knows bedtime is a non-negotiable situation and no amount of carry on will cause me to leave my bed. So he waits nicely for me 😄

Very jealous of the headbutting and purring. My cat likes to practice her drumming, shes not fussy to what she bangs on. Paper bag, box, furniture, window just whatever is laying about! So she's shut downstairs most nights unfortunately!

Weirdly, mine stopped bothering me so much when I shut them inside the bedroom with me at night. The catflap is locked overnight, I think once they were shut in the bedroom with me that there was no way out the cat flap so not to bother trying. So now that's what I do every night.

Think I'm going to have to get tough!
She has biscuits downstairs and at this time of year we can leave the top bit of the window open for her.
We can't close off the bedroom because we also stupidly (but lovingly) spoiled our cuddly dog who sleeps in with us too !!

I might try swapping sides with OH tonight to fox her for a bit ...

(Love all the images here of nighttime party animals!)

I'm lazy and often don't get up till 10.30am on weekends and days off and my two will almost always lie on the bed, eyes shut, till then.
They do occasionally wake me up by walking across me to get food, water use the litter tray, to hiss at each other, or lie on my chest (Matt) or demand I put my arm around her (Socks) but in general they are pretty good.

Is your cat young? Mine did this when he was young. Hes less inclined now. We leave biscuits down for him over night and he used to wake me at 4am so we got an automated feeder for his wet food and had it open at 4am for a few days, then 4.10 for a few days etc etc until he got to 6am. For the past year he just has that which opens for him at 6am. Now though he doesn't always seem bothered enough to eat at that time. Sometimes I get up at 9am and he still hasn't

I'd have much preferred a wake up paw to the 5.00 wake up yakking up a hairball that Basil greeted me with this morning...

One of mine is locked in the dining room over night.

I have to stay very, very still, ideally with my hands under the covers, and he's slowly learned to just head to an empty patch and take a nap until I'm ready to get up.

In hindsight, giving them their wetfood at breakfast rather than dinner was a mistake, and I could probably switch it, but he's not too bad these days so I'll probably not bother.

Mine stays downstairs at night after several incidents involving a 5 am wake-up claw in the big toe.

Mine are also shut downstairs at night because I like my sleep!

I put food down before I go to bed and they have a cat flap. Sometimes they lie on the bed while I'm reading or watching something, but they know that they have to go downstairs when I sleep. Feeding them before bed helps as they are happy to go downstairs for their food. I then run away while they're eating!

My dms cat is shut in the living room overnight as she will paw her face… with claws out if you don’t wake instantly!

Cat has access to kitchen with food and litter tray. Emerges like a bolt on nice the doors are opened at 8 or so…

Once not on nice