How to stop the 5am yowling for food in elderly cat?

[ladygin]

Hello. Our lovely 18 year old cat (deaf and probably a little cat dementia) is waking me and my partner up at 5am every morning for food. This is a new behaviour.

The routine is she comes into our room and yowls and meows, tramples over us, has a drink of water (she only drinks from a glass on my bedside table). Meows and leaves - comes back 10-15 mins later and repeats until we get up and feed her. Then it stops.

Mindful of not creating a learned behaviour we have resisted getting up to feed her until 7/8am. But this has not changed anything and we endure 2/3 hours of this behaviour.

Feeding her before bed has not made any difference.

Any ideas welcome. And cat tax picture attached. And of courseI hearby acknowledge my cat butler status xxx

Automatic feeder set to 5/5.30am.

This!

get The automatic feeder with 4 sections. U can time them throughout the night with small portions if she needs more regular feeding.
also check she doesn’t have diabetes (can make them ravenous) by checking ketones in her wee.

Cats don’t really care about learned behaviour. If she’s an elderly cat, she’ll just be thinking ‘meet my needs immediately’.

is she drinking a lot of water? Again, possible sign of diabetes

Get up earlier...

She's 18 years old. You feed her at 5am 🤷

I would just feed her, be it an automatic feeder or by taking a small tub of biscuits up at night so all you have to do it take the lid off and tip into a bowl.

Mine is 19 and exactly the same. so now we just get up earlier which is nice can get so much more done first thing. In the winter he will sleep till 7.

so I have ordered the automatic feeder - do you think it should be in her normal eating location or in our bedroom where the ‘feed me feed me’ behaviour starts?

I will book into the vets as yes she does seem hungrier and thirstier. I put it down to the heat but will get it checked out.

Ah bless her 🥰 she’s lovely!
She’s still batting on at 18 - she’s totally earned the right to be fed at whatever time she decides.

If you really can’t face getting up properly at 5am, I’d suggest either an automatic feeder where she usually eats, or a bowl on a mat in your bedroom so you can just open a pouch half-asleep and keep her quiet for a couple of hours.

I would be taking her to the vet to get her checked for diabetes and hyperthyroidism.

Our cat has just been diagnosed with diabetes and started insulin injections. The vet recommended two meals a day but frequent snacks on request. The cat feeder sounds like a great idea, but do get your cat checked out too.

We've used early morning automatic feeders for our ravenous cats for a long time and they've been great so could be the answer you're looking for. I would leave them wherever her normal food is and see how you get on. She sounds like a sass queen, love her 😻

I think thyroid is likely if she’s otherwise perky. It makes them more noisy! As well as hungrier.