Help! Cat is driving us all mad with early morning wake up calls

[Wonderfulcheapfalafel]

Boy cat is about 7 years old, we've had him 3 years, got him from a rescue and don't know an awful lot about his past.

He's a soft and clingy lap cat most of the time but for the rest of the time he is, I'm afraid to say, an annoying arsehole.

Problem is he is so LOUD and greedy. He demands food, roughly when he expects it (I divide food into 3 meals a day ). i try to be consistent as to when mealtimes are but it does inevitably get a bit disrupted sometimes.
It's worse now we WFH as we're always on hand to feed him, as far as he's concerned, so he just meows endlessy until he gets what he wants.

He put on quite a lot of weight when he first arrived with us, i was over feeding him as he always acted so starving. I managed to get his weight back down again a bit although he is definitely still 'chunky'.

I've had to start locking him downstairs at night to sleep (he has everything he needs down there) otherwise he just walks in and out of our bedroom, meowing loudly, from about 4am. Thing is, even downstairs he wakes me up as his meow is so loud. and he's persistent... so he starts meowing at around 4/4.30am and won't let up until he's fed... so no matter if i leave him or not i'm still reinforcing the behaviour eventually.

i got up this morning at around 5.15am to see if me just lying on the sofa with him would help. It shut him up for about 10 minutes but then he starts again.

I held out until 6am before feeding him but even this seems too early! Ideally I'd like breakfast time to be 7am when DS gets up... but no matter what time I hold out until, he'll start his demands when HE thinks he should be fed.

What can I do? I'm so tired as I haven't been sleeping that well at the moment anyway so the early mornings are killing me. Cat is very affectionate towards me but he's making it quite difficult to be loved at the moment by anyone else!

He's fed one can of Untamed in the morning and then has another half a can of animonda carny, spread into two meals (So 1/4 can at around 3.30pm and then 1/4 can in the evening at around 8.30pm - 100g total) This doesn't seem like a lot of food but anymore than this and he puts on weight. I can;'t leave dry food down as he gobbles it all in one go. He would eat all of girl cats food too if he could - they have to be fed in different rooms so he can't.

Considering taking him to the vets but I don't think anything's wrong with him. He's just greedy.

Girlcat who we've had since she was a kitten is not like this at all and I feel sorry for boy cat as everyone prefers her as she is not annoying.

Sorry this is long! My tired brain is all over the place!

I should add we've had quite a lot of change recently - moved house, had cat sitters in when on holiday... he's always done this though so although some of it may be stress related, he is still an annoying arsehole at heart.

I'm also aware the clocks changing has not helped... and it may not be AS bad once he'd adjusted...

Has he been wormed recently? Ours are greedy buggers when they are due a worming.

Yes the clocks changing are a good point.
Is he fed high meat content dry food? My cat likes purizon.

I would be tempted to leave a timed feeder down to open at 4am with dry food in.
Does the cat need worming?

Posting to read the answers as I have a shouty morning cat. Maybe headphones?

We used to have a cat like this. He was a Bengal with a very loud meow. He too was very greedy. I was going to post that we used to house him in the kitchen at night so he couldn’t come upstairs and wake us but I see you are already doing that. I would say stick to the feeding schedule you want if you possibly can.. cats are very very persistent but he should get it eventually if you are firm. Meanwhile have you tried white noise to help block him out? We get noisy cars idling outside our house at night but a white noise track like ‘ocean sounds’ played through Alexa in our bedroom blocks most of it out. 🐱🐱🐱

Here's a picture of the little angel having a lovely post breakfast snooze.

Thanks for all the quick replies. He probably is due a worming actually so maybe I should try that. Headphones don't work for me as I have tinnitus and it makes it worse... white noise though - that's not a bad idea , i'll see what DP thinks!
I did wonder about a timed feeder... I have been avoiding giving him dry food as it caused so much weight gain (even the better quality stuff) but perhaps a little bit in the morning just to give us some respite would work!

Pre children I had a cat that decided to try to wake me for early breakfast. I was NOT a morning person..... After having a few pillows thrown at him for waking me up he learned to sit quietly and watch for me to wake up. Once my eyes opened I was fair game though, and would get tapped on the nose if I dared try to close my eyes again.....

Moral of the story - pillows work!!

Gorgeous cat

awwww he’s adorable 😻😻😻😻!

Automatic feeder. £25 from Amazon six portions, you set the intervals. That might settle your Orange overlord.

My cat is like this. We solved it by buying an automatic feeder for dry food. So the automatic feeder gives her biscuits at 6am and 12pm and then she gets wet food at 6pm.

She does still come upstairs meowing at 4-5am but she's just looking for company and settles on the end of the bed until the biscuit machine delivers at 6am.

Currently we're dealing with the clocks going back and she starts yowling for wet food at 4pm but I can live with that!!

You can put wet food in a timed feeder. They come with cool blocks to keep the food cool.

Has he got enough toys out? We cycle through toys with ours (keep them out for a while then put them away and swap them for something else).

Following with interest as we have a 15 year old female tortoiseshell who does exactly the same thing, and it is so tiring being woken up at 5am as she wants her breakfast. She has gone deaf in her old age so is ridiculously loud as she can't hear herself. We leave dry food down overnight but she is not bothered with that and wants her wet food breakfast. I, on the other hand, want to strangle her at that time especially if she wakes the children up. Sometimes I go and stroke her when she is sleeping just to get some revenge by waking her up

We had the same issues (with our lovely ginger boy too!) … I introduced a 10pm feed which did help, I’m now allowed to sleep until 6:30/7! But agree with the worming suggestions, is he allowed out at night?

He is a beautiful looking boy.
My eldest cat who is 8 is exactly the same, he is white with blue eyes and l put it down to possibility of him being part Siamese, or partly deaf. I have never know a cat so vocal. I have tried everything to stop him disturbing out sleep, including putting him outside, he has a bed and cat flap in the shed, as well as an outdoor cat kennell, but he just meows on repeat, he is wormed regularly. l had my first holiday in years this summer and noticed his meow was a lot quieter when l got back , l think he has worn out his voice box, he is the most loving affectionate, gentle cat, loves being picked up and cuddled. He sleeps in my room and is quieter, but still let's me know without a doubt when he is hungry and to be honest l usually just feed him, as nothing else works and he just keeps everyone awake for ages. He is in good health and a healthy weight. My 3 other cats very rarely meow, it's just him .

Ahh I knew he'd be a ginger boy - he's gorgeous! Timed feeder for him...earplugs for you. Agree with PP that clocks changing can't have helped!

Ha I knew he was ginger before you even posted the photo. Mine too is just the same. Not quite as bad as yours.

He's gorgeous.

No help ideas I'm afraid.

Here's mine.

My boycat does the same - although he's not greedy and so the dry food is out all the time, but he wants his wet breakfast (boy I wish I'd gone with wet dinner!) - so about 4:30 there's meows, and he jumps up on me to knead me.

If I display any indication I'm awake, then he'll keep it up. I have to pretend to be asleep, and then he'll curl up next to me on the bed quietly until I do move to get up - which is a compromise I'm just going to have to live with now I think.

(and yes, our girl cat is much more polite - she just sits by the bowl and trills to remind you that she'd quite like a snack whenever I walk by)

We also have a clingy, chunky ginger boy who used to demand his breakfast earlier and earlier every day…. Timed cat feeder was the answer!

it took him a feed days to work out but he now thinks that the feeder feeds him and doesn’t come and bother us…. We do hear him smacking it before the time it’s set for on occasion though 🙈

I'd second the suggestion of an automatic feeder. Ours goes off at 5 in the summer, 6-7 in the winter and stops the early morning meowing for food.

Dry food in a feeding toy over night?

I also have a vocal cat, it can be so annoying.

I have a really vocal ginger cat, he is noisy most of the time unless asleep. I could have written the post except my cat isn't always that hungry. He has biscuits down all the time and gets wet food when I go to bed. He is shut in the kitchen/utility at night so I don't hear him until I move around, then the yowling starts.

He's also a rescue from Cats Protection, living rough for a few years, he is far too affectionate at times, he's destructive around the house, he's long haired so hair everywhere, muddy paw prints whenever the weather is bad. I could go on ...😁

Do you leave dry food down 24/7? Cats are, by nature, nocturnal, so they're active when we're asleep. Try giving him wet food, make the last meal of that a FULL pouch, but leave dry stuff (and water)down all the time.