# My cats wakes me up at 4:30 AM for breakfast! Help!



## Krista2882 (Jan 26, 2012)

My cat has always bugged me in the mornings to get up and feed him. In the past he starts at about 6:00 - 6:30 AM. But now he seems to get up with the sun and wants to be fed. The past few nights it's been 4:30 AM that he comes in and bugs the heck out of me. He's changed his tactics, too. He used to lick me, and make noise by knocking things off my night table and/or ripping up paper. But now he's started tapping on my head or face, and sticking his paws under the blankets to push on my arms (sometimes with claws out). So he's starting it earlier and being more aggressive and annoying about it. I've started putting him in the hallway and closing the door when he starts that early, but then he barges into my roommate's room and starts knocking stuff over and waking her up. Then he comes banging on my door again.
Anyway, how do I stop this behavior? I put him out of my room to keep him from keeping me awake at 4:30 AM, but then he goes kind of crazy getting into my roommates room and then scratching at my door again. I'm NOT feeding him at 4:30 AM. I used to wait until 7 but now I've been feeding him earlier at 6.
And it's not like I don't feed him enough. I feed him twice a day, with a bit of a snack before bed hoping that will help. But it usually doesn't. And my roommate accidentally fed him a third time a few nights ago when I wasn't home, and then he was still waking me up at 4:30 AM...
Any suggestions/experience?


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## JJB (Mar 31, 2014)

Just here to commiserate...I get up for work at 4, and I like to sleep until 6 on my days off. I used to feed the cats right away at 4:00 to keep them distracted so they wouldn't follow me into the bathroom (they just meow and annoy me in there!). But then my boy would wake me up at 4:20-4:30 on my days off. So I pushed off their breakfast until about 5:45. Now he wakes me up at 5:15. Didn't even skip a beat with the time change, I swear he can read clocks. They almost always still have food leftover from dinner when I go to bed, so I'm reluctant to give them more. I don't think mine is even hungry necessarily...more bored. Hopefully you get some good advice that I can apply too. =)


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## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

Cats will typically wake up to 'hunt' (aka being really annoying) about an hour before they're accustomed to being fed. So, feed them last thing before you leave for work and they'll start to bug you an hour before that.

In your case, Krista, cold-turkey is the best way to switch. Ignore his fussing and being a brat in the mornings and feed him an hour after you want to get up (or as close to that as possible). He'll switch to the new schedule fairly quick.

A playtime and bed time snack before you go to bed may also help.


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## TabbCatt (Mar 26, 2014)

Hi there Krista,

I'm fortunate that my cats don't wake me as early as yours do, but maybe a rigorous interactive play when you're at home would help to tire him out and allow him to sleep longer at night? I'd suggest trying to put the larger meal at bedtime, rather than evening meals. So the routine would be: come home, give a snack or light meal. Then at bedtime, about an hour before sleep, you put out "da bird" or whatever toy that really gets his heart pumping fast and make him get a good work out for a full 15 minutes or until he's plain exhausted and has to lie on his side. A few minutes after resting, you feed his "big meal". He should end up giving himself a "full bath" after, if he's content and satisfied. My kitties do more grooming when their tummies are full, so I know they've had their fill. Lots of grooming also indicates it's sleep time! :smile: 

Hoping this will help. Keeping fingers crossed for you, but keep us posted if this works or not.


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## Krista2882 (Jan 26, 2012)

Thanks, everyone. Last night I gave him a larger "snack" before bed and when I woke up at 6:30 this morning he was still sleeping on my legs! I moved my feet out from under him because I wanted to roll over, and he woke up. I realized maybe I should feed him before he starts bugging me so that he realizes he doesn't have to bug me in order for me to feed him.
And I do play with him before bed most nights. He loves the laser pointer so I get him running around like crazy after that thing until he's tired out.
But yeah, I'm going to split up his evening meal and give him half of it right before bed to see if that keeps working.


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## Marcia (Dec 26, 2010)

We used to have a couple do that. We'd get up like we were going to the kitchen then when they crossed the BR threshold we'd close the door and go back to bed and ignore their complaining. I don't think it took long for them to figure things out.


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## AutumnRose74 (Oct 10, 2013)

My Shelly does the same thing. And I can't close and lock my door because she does... something, I don't know what, that sounds like someone is kicking it.

Actually, I kinda like it when she wakes me up. She is the BEST darn alarm clock I have ever owned. This is also when she is most receptive to affection, like when I lay on my side, pull her to me and start kissing her head!  Sometimes when I do it other times, she does that "ugh, Mom!" pulling-away routine. 

When she starts meowing "woe is me, I've been forgoooootten" I tell her "it's not 6:00 yet." She gets fed around 6:00 AM and anywhere between 5:00 and 6:00 PM. That';s usually when she will turn to her favorite project, kneading every inch of the bed clothes, interspersed with trying to jam her head up my nose. 

Of course, she figured out a quick way to get me up - jumping on my dresser! I have already acquiesced with the staircase series of bookshelves in the living room, taking the knick-knacks off so she can climb up to the top of the 6' tall bookcase and gaze down on her lowly human minion (me!). But I draw the line with the dresser. She woke me up Sunday morning by knocking my deodorant onto the floor. And she's taking advantage of the fact that getting out of bed has been taking some effort due to my recent back problems, so the best I could do was "Shelly... DOWN!" and hope my upstairs neighbor wasn't home, because his bedroom is right above mine!


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## Krista2882 (Jan 26, 2012)

I think it's hilarious that cats just _know_ that them knocking stuff off of counters, dressers, nightstands, etc will get them attention. Even if they've never done it before they're like, "Ooh. This makes noise. Let's do this until my human wakes up." I especially thought it was smart of my cat to know that ripping up paper is a really annoying sound and will wake me up.


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## AutumnRose74 (Oct 10, 2013)

Krista2882 said:


> I think it's hilarious that cats just _know_ that them knocking stuff off of counters, dressers, nightstands, etc will get them attention. Even if they've never done it before they're like, "Ooh. This makes noise. Let's do this until my human wakes up." I especially thought it was smart of my cat to know that ripping up paper is a really annoying sound and will wake me up.


What did crack me up was that Shelly was pushing at my deodorant with a paw (she had already knocked something else off, and that was actually what woke me up), and then decided "oh, heck, this isn't going to work" and then she started using her nose. 

And then they _know_ that we won't actually _do _anything to them for being naughty, and they look up at us with those eyes, like "aww... I know you love me" ... it's hard to not be amused by the whole scene, even at 5:30 AM.


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