Why does my cat do this?

[Elektra1]

I have a lovely cat, my first, who's 11 months old now. Got her at 8 weeks. Initially she just had dry food. A few months ago I signed up to one of those wet food subscription boxes and she has a tin of that in the morning when I get up. She LOVES it.

Since this started, she comes into my bedroom at 4am and starts scratching the carpet furiously. If I close the bedroom door she scratches at the carpet outside it, which is now shredded. She does this until I get up and get her breakfast. Then she eats about half of it and repeats the scratching until I get up and give her attention. By 7am she's napping and I'm exhausted and have to get ready for work.

I recently went away and DS was cat sitting. I told him about this and that he'd have to get up or the carpets would be further shredded, but he said she didn't do it at all and he just gave her her breakfast at 9am.

What can I do to stop this? She doesn't do the carpet scratching at any other time of day (has scratching post and block) so I'm sure it's about attention.

Our cats, one in particular, scratches the carpet early in the morning to get us up to feed her. We have scratching mats around the house and put down food before we go to bed to try and stop her. It's an attention thing.

We put our cats downstairs and shut the door so they can’t hound us to get up. They’re really used to this now and settle straight away when we put them in x

I'm no help my girls have trained me to feed them breakfast no 1 at 5:30 and then no 2 at 7:30.

I can feed them at midnight and they'll still wake me up at 5:30.

My cat picks at the sofa to get fed, get doors opened etc. He also used to meow outside my bedroom door in the early hours so he is shut in the kitchen with his food and the cat flap now.

Cats love the early morning.

Mine comes and taps me on the head at around 4am. She's after some breakfast but it's also to say hello.

I'm in the routine where I'll get up and give her some breakfast but will shut her in the kitchen at that time. During the night she has free roam and sleeps on various family members' beds.

I'll let her outside at around 7am when I get up.

If I just fed her at 4am without shutting her in the kitchen, she comes back to say hello every half hour and does the knocking things of my chest of drawers "game."

This is why mine didn't get wet food until the evening. They turn into pests if you give them breakfast.

Ok, I see I'm not alone! So options are:

Stop giving the wet food
Move wet food mealtime to evening
Accept a new routine of rising at 4.30am.

It's a good job she's so sweet the rest of the time.

Cats want to be up and about at dawn, they tend to settle back down when the mornings get darker again. One of mine refuses to eat alone at night and wakes me up so I can 'keep a lookout' whilst he eats. I started to put a small bowl of biscuits in my bedroom and he stopped doing it.

Aww bless 🙌 her cats 😻

I get a 5:30 visit, where in have to give him snacks, a stick, a pet and his biscuits and only then, will he go towards the door to go out.

Welcome to the world of cat ownership ie they own you!
Your cat has clearly identified you as the main Food Keeper in the house therefore you will be the one who is woken up by any means so your furry overlord can have her breakfast.
As others have said, lock her downstairs at night or allow her into the room for early furry attention.

My cat wakes us up by tapping on anything in the bedroom that makes a noise, hanging off the wall mirror, scratching my duvet away Fromm me, parading across our pillows and chewing any cardboard box that may be hanging around.

The fourth option is to choose a room where she sleeps and put her in it at night, with her litter tray, water bowl etc. I can’t understand why people let their animals roam about the house at night if it disturbs them .

Our much beloved and indulged cats came upstairs for a cuddle last thing, then DH took them downstairs and shut the door. They get used to it very quickly, we only had to say ‘ Bedtime now’ and they would get up to go.

(Actually at one stage they elected the airing cupboard as the chosen resting place 😒 but as that was in the bathroom (not the loo) that was fine.

The layout of my house doesn't allow for shutting her downstairs, I could only shut her in either the living room or the kitchen. To be fair, I have actually done this on some particularly early mornings - lured her into the living room and then shut the door quickly and gone back to bed. It was pointless because (1) I couldn't bear the pitiful howling which I could hear from my bedroom and (2) when I tried it the next day, no way was she stupid enough to enter the living room anyway!

Mine gets under the douvet and bites my feet to get me up. I did manage to ignore him and he isn't as bad now. But with your carpets being ruined I don't think that would be an option. Do you have carpet free rooms you could put her in over night?

She has you very well trained!

We keep ours downstairs at night apart from one who has decided she lives upstairs ( I have also been very well trained!). Upstairs Cat has a bowl of dry food down at night so she doesn't hassle me for food - it seems to work and she just snuggles up on the bed.

My dcat comes to say hello at 5.30am, she is very polite and after a bit of snuggling will settle down to purr very loudly in my ear. Eventually I get up and top up her dry food bowl.
I would also suggest switching wet food to the evening - I definitely get a performance from 5.30 pm onwards until the gourmet dinner is produced.

I should add: I leave her dry food down all the time because she's quite small. So it's not hunger, it's just preference for the wet food and/or attention.

Then shut them in the kitchen! Ideal place for their food and litter tray. Our cats have always - up until now - slept in the kitchen at night, to avoid 3am face dancing. Like you, the layout of our house means they can't have access to the rest of downstairs otherwise they'd just come upstairs and yowl at the bedroom doors.

I say 'up until now' because we have just adopted a pair of kittens and I decided their initial home would be our bedroom. They are now totally used to sleeping on the end of the bed, coming up to us for frequent nighttime cuddles, and wake us at 7 (could be worse) for breakfast. We're transitioning to having them come downstairs once DS2 is in bed (he's a tad chaotic) and soooooon they will sleep together in the kitchen. I'll miss them but also looking forward to sleep. It feels analogous to moving a baby out of your bed into its own cot/room!