# help ! my cat meows incessantly at night >.<



## idlehouse (Apr 22, 2003)

I have a 5 year old neutered male cat, he's very sweet and affectionate, but the whole night he keeps everyone up by meowing his head off  The new apt that I have just moved to has pretty thin walls, so I am afraid that my neighbor will hear him too ... I tried spray bottle, but he keeps at it. At first he got scared and ran away, but after 2 times, me just sat and cowered in the corner  

I think he's just getting to that lovesick part in his life and calls out for mates ... i don't know what else to do ...


----------



## chuan (Apr 30, 2003)

My cat also meows sometimes at night; but I discover accidentally that if I fix him his harness he would inmediatelly stayed quite and sometime after he was ready to sleep.
My cat is one year old and once a month I take him to the park for that reason I trained him to use the harness. I did so making him wear it a couple of times a week. Now he accepts it quietly. The harness ($4) do not cause disconfort, he wears it very loose.
May be he stays quiet, no meowing at night, because he has something more important to worry about, but as I told before I only use this method occasionally.


----------



## Serendipity (May 3, 2003)

I'm also having this problem. She's always meowed in the morning, wanting us to wake up. But now she does it during the middle of the night and early in the morning. We're not sure why she is doing this NOW, we think she might be bored and want to go outside or something. 

I also wonder if staying in our bedroom during the day is causing this problem. When we work, we leave her in our room, so she probably doesn't want to hang out there at night as well.


----------



## Kellz625 (Jul 5, 2003)

*Has anyone found out how to stop it?*

My kitten does this too. Should we just ignore her, we close the bedroom door, but she meows on the other side of it. We want her to get used to sleeping in her own bed, but she wants constant attention once we are asleep. <<))


----------



## kittygirl04 (Jul 8, 2003)

I read somewhere that cats do this because they want attention. Sophie does this too. The advice was to play with them for awhile before bedtime to wear them out. I have a fishing pole toy that my cats love--they jump all over the place when I get it out--I just let her chase the toy for awhile and she usually is satisfied so she sleeps at the side of the bed until I get up in the morning. It's worth trying!! My other cats are usually in bed before me!! They can't wait for me to get there so they can hog the blankets and snuggle to get warm.


----------



## Yanikin (Jul 7, 2003)

My cat Doodles does this at night too but it's because she wants to go outside. I can't let her though because we'll be sleeping when she wants back in So I just put some fresh food out for her and go back to bed. I don't give her any attention because it just makes her worse. She usually gets distracted by the food straight away or at least within 10 minutes.

Hey! I just remembered about that little invention called a cat flap!


----------



## garfield (Aug 2, 2003)

my cat howls endlessly at night, to the point where I was having to get out of bed at 4:30 am (like clockwork) to lock her in the bathroom. Now, I just put her bed, a few toys, and her litter box in the bathroom and lock her in there (otherwise I can't get any sleep). At first it seemed cruel, but it is a big bathroom and she doesn't meow inside of it.


----------



## Mirri (Aug 18, 2003)

I'm having the same problem with my cat. This seems to happen every fall when it's time to get back to the routine again. My cat is always very slow at adapting to things changing. 
He is 8 years old and in the summer we allow him to leave the house whenever he wants to. Now we have started to keep him in at nights, and he's just going mad about it. He wakes up me and my family every single night by screaming like mad, dropping things or sharpening his nails to our carpets. Usually he stops in a week or so, but this year it seems to be very hard. We just simply give him some food to comfort him, and lock him in the bathroom. That is the only way to tell him when it's really time to shut up.

Good luck, I know this wasn't any help, but I just wanted to share my experience


----------



## DizzyJon (Aug 12, 2003)

Having two daily play sessions works wonders for some of these cats. Just 10-15 mins in the morning and again in the evening to help release some energy. I'm guessing that most of these cats spend the day at home by themself resting up for these long nights. So, trying to interact with them a couple times a day could help. 
Cats also do things repeatedly that are reinforced. For instance, if they start meowing in them middle of the night and you give them eye contact, touch them, move them, yell at them, etc. this could be the attention they are looking for and so they continue to do it because it works.


----------

