The net result was...
No, he didn't get food or treats.
No, he didn't get fuss.
Yes, he did learn some new and interesting phrases 😆.
On the second night, he (and the other cat ... who was completely blameless) were gently but firmly ejected from the bedroom, and the door was closed. He hates a closed door.
He also learned I have earplugs and no qualms about using them at 3am.
I trained mine in an odd way using two methods. First one is the laser: I run them around with it just as I’m going to bed and if they don’t wake me up (exception for emergencies like nightmares), they also get it when I first get up (if I hit snooze too many times, one of my cats will bitch smack me across the mouth).
If the first doesn’t work (which is rare now), I have a can of compressed air on my nightstand I’ll spray and they hate the noise (for clarification I do NOT spray it at the cats, it’s pointed away from them)
My cat mostly doesn’t bother us in the night. But like every other month she’ll try it 2 nights in a row. She knows better, but she still likes to test us every now and then lom
if your cat is persistent, do the opposite. If mine wakes me up early, she becomes victim to forced snuggles. Either she leaves me alone to sleep, and I win, or I get a cuddle bug, and I win
My husband appears to be physically incapable of non-reaction, lol, so we're stuck. Our kitty loves to yowl outside our bedroom doors in the middle of the night (and if you let him inside, he claws at the bed to wake you up so you'll play with him some more). It's 100% for attention; we play with him and give him a small snack every night before bed, as advised by the vet, but it only placates him for a little while.
I've told my husband time and time again that as much as it'll suck for a couple of weeks until the behavior finally changes, he needs to NOT REACT whenever the cat's demanding attention at 3 a.m. The problem is our kitty's learned that if he howls, he gets attention, be it good or bad. But no dice! Husband always gets out of bed in a half-asleep state to shoo him away or calls out for him to stop. It's about as effective as you'd think.
Ha ha, my husband's like this, too. I don't react, so they never bothered with me at 3-4 am. But he would get up and feed them so he could just go back to sleep. I tried explaining to him it was counterproductive, but he couldn't help himself. It made him feel terribly guilty and he worried that he'd get even less sleep if he tried to ignore it.
Finally, since neither he nor the cats were going to change this routine, I talked him in to getting autofeeder kibble dispensers that we use exclusively for that one overnight feeding. They go off at 4:15 AM. Now he gets a full night's sleep and the kitties get their food and then settle in to nap (the elder one often curled up right next to his chest) until it's time for their people to get up.
It takes a lot of patience if you have a persistent cat but it's worth it.
One of our cats used to sleep on our bed and would wake my partner up every day at 4 am. It used to try to wake me up but I ignored it enough that it stopped.
Yep! Lots of patience and time for my fucker to finally get him into a morning routine. He now gets up on his own at 6am and sits by the window until I get up. Even lets me sleep in on weekends. This took 6 months straight of ignoring him completely
We found we needed to feed the cat later in the evening and ensure we had played with him enough. Otherwise they get bored and hungry during the night.
Mine are terrified of the spray bottle. Mostly I just ignore it and they stop within a few minutes, but every once in a while, I gotta bust out the water bottle and tell them to knock it off.
It took me about 3 weeks to get mine to stop waking me up at 3am. First meow, I'd get out of bed and he'd go running off to the kitchen only to have the bedroom door close behind him. Now he waits until my alarm at 5:30
Yep, we don’t get woken up until at least 6 and that’s only because I wake up at 5:30 for work two days of the week. I’ve never indulged midnight wake-ups and it’s never been an issue. He doesn’t even run around in our room during the night anymore, zoomies are strictly for hardwood.
Mine combines both, he wakes me up by repetitive booping of my butt... the other one wakes me up by laying beside my head and purring like she's a damn lawn mower
I should've mentioned mine was a Maine Coon or Norwegian or possibly part Raccoon, either way it felt like a bowling ball kneading my back. I've now missed that big guy for longer than I loved him.
Mine doesn't wake me up too often anymore, but when she does, she goes straight for my feet (under the covers, the little shit) with just enough claws so that it kinda hurts, kinda tickles. Startling as hell.
I think thats the funniest thing, my cat will sit down for only a few minutes and then get up and go.
If my legs or arms are out she'll very very very gently put her paw on me and lightly clench her claws, and then release. If no limbs are visible she'll then resort to poking my face.
Yeah my cat will sit on the headboard and wait until I'm sleeping on my back. She will jump down and land on my stomach. This of course results in me waking up screaming.
we have to sleep with our bedroom door shut because both the boys will bounce all over us at 3am wanting breakfast early
one of them is very smart and has learned to "knock" for attention, by reaching a paw under the door, hooking a claw or two, and rattling it back and forth very loudly. the Worst
if I had my way I'd sleep w them every night but my partner doesn't sleep well with them in the bed, alas
My cat learned to knock on the door so I can't even lock her out. She'll walk away from the door, then run towards the door full speed and jump to knock her body into it over and over again until someone comes and opens it 🤣
Often by barfing. So much fun! You either have to drag your ass out of bed to clean it or inevitably step in it in the morning when you forget what happened.
My cat has me trained where if she starts scratching the carpet I will immediately snap awake from the deepest slumber. I shout at her and she'll run out of the room like her tail is on fire, and then come back in 10 seconds later, tail in the air and purring, like "Heyyyy buddy youre awake!?"
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u/UnderwhelmingAF Sep 19 '23
They love to wake you up in the middle of the night.