Asshole behaviour at night. Help!

[radiatorcurve]

3 cats, locked inside at dusk (so, early in winter). Scratching madly and battering on our bedroom door at about 4am. It's very loud.

We've tried leaving the door open and that was worse because of the jumping on pillows every 15 mins or so, starting at about 3am.

There's a litter box which they will use but tend not to. Should we try a snack before we go to bed, to try to help them sleep longer? They have dry food first thing - literally about 4.30 since mid-December- and then don't get fed again til teatime, when we lock the catflap to keep them in. Two of them are on the heavy side, and I want them to be healthy but also the broken sleep is making both my boyfriend and me really struggle!

Any advice gratefully received, thank you

I don't have cats as I think they're all assholes, but can't you buy timed feeders that will release their food early so you don't have to get up?

We don't restrict ours to a dusk curfew, they would go bonkers being locked in that long. There are in and out during the evening and we usually only get them all in at our bedtime, then the cats sleep through the night. Might be worth trying?
We just feed our cats on demand during the day, but none of ours are overweight so this may not be an option for you. We always put food down at night for them as well.

Mine are all shut downstairs at night with access to food, water and litter trays.

I'd never leave them overnight without access to dry food - it's a long time to expect them to go without, especially when cats are most active at dawn and would naturally be outdoors hunting and eating their prey.

Mine generally sleep from 11pm-5am but they're awake from then and if I go down to the toilet they're up and playing and are definitely pretty active. There's normally at least one having a snack at that time too.

So I would shut them downstairs with no access to your bedroom door and leave out a high quality dry food for them to snack on as/when they fancy. Make sure they have water and litter trays and plenty of places to sit too!

We close the kitchen door so that they can’t get upstairs and wake us up. We don’t lock the cat flap though and they have cat trees and sofas and several litter trays and their food obviously. Would something like that be an option?

We didn’t need to do this with our old cat as she was never a pain, but our “kittens” (now4years old) are crazy at night so had to start this when they moved in!

Thank you all!

We don't let them out after dark because we lost one to a car about 9.15pm in July 21. It was horrible. So they've been locked in overnight ever since but this assholery has only been going on about 6 weeks. 6 weeks of broken sleep has been terrible though, am perimenopausal and I just don't need any more shit!

I will try to give less food at teatime to the fat ones and give them a bit more later on. I can't lock them in the kitchen as they need space from each other (girl cat, ex-feral kitten, is particularly intolerant of the boy cats, who are better at being social cats). The fighting would be awful.

I might look into a timed feeder but have resisted so far as my neighbour had one and it was a massive great thing that took up a ton of space and I'd need 3 in only a medium size kitchen, already crammed with litter box, clothes airers and other necessary family guff.

If their dry food has maize in it it won’t be very filling. Arden grange uses high quality meat with potato. They do a light version too.

Our girl is better on it than the stuff her last owner had her on.

Shut them away somewhere they can't get to you.
Assuming they won't destroy each other or the carpet when you do that.
Some are neurotic at night. Some want to only poo outside. They don't only wake up because hungry.
Their hunting could be unsuccessful & they'd have to wait to eat, they won't suffer for going overnight without food.

They have dry food first thing - literally about 4.30 since mid-December- and then don't get fed again til teatime,

Food at 4.30am and then again at tea time (5/6pm?) -that’s a long time to go. Sorry if I’ve misunderstood

They don't eat it all at 4.30am, they have a tiny bit then go out.

I think the reason we are struggling is because the arrangement was totally fine and all seemed happy for well over a year until a couple of months ago. We will try different feeding times and see how it goes. Thanks for advice

I really can't shut them in a room together. They'll destroy stuff or hurt each other. Downstairs door are all open and we have a fair amount of hall/landing space that they use to chill out in away from each other.

The only thing you can really do is ignore them, or get a door on your staircase?
I really wouldn't feed them at four in the morning!!

Have always kept mine in from dusk. You do need powerful ignoring skills for them to get the message it's sleepy time.

I leave all the doors open as a closed door enrages them and the noise of them digging and wailing at the door is worse.

We don't get a full nights sleep unless our get biscuits when we go to bed but we don't lock them in so they are free to roam. One is very slim and one is a chunky puffball 🤷‍♀️

Unfortunately if you can't shut them downstairs, they're going to continue to try and get in your bedroom - it's what cats do.

Is there no way of blocking off your bedroom so they can't get to you? Solid, tall baby gates or a door somewhere to contain them downstairs?