Help with cat waking up early

[Lu Lu]

I think our cat is trying to slowly kill us by ensuring we don't get enough sleep! He is almost 10 months old now and going out regularly during the day (he is usually out in the mornings and in from 3pm because of darkness.) He stays in at night.

Anyway, every morning at 5am he wakes up. He is great at coming to bed with us, grooming and then sleeping solidly until then but when he's up we always have to get up with him to put him in the kitchen because if we don't he just scratches the carpets.

He's not hungry or looking to play (at least not with us) he just scratches carpets and we need to save them so put him downstairs.

He probably needs a bit more play just before bed so have started to do that and he always gets fed later in the evening so I am sure he's not hungry.

We are so tired and need a full night's sleep and the only option now is to start leaving him downstairs, which I feel bad about because he's used to coming to bed and it's cold down there!

He hasn't got the message that scratching the carpet gets him banished as this has been going on for months.

Anyone else ever had this and been able to stop it? We've tried the citrus carpet sprays and spraying his toys with catnip but there's no stopping him!

[Loulou127]

Originally Posted by Lu Lu

I think our cat is trying to slowly kill us by ensuring we don't get enough sleep! He is almost 10 months old now and going out regularly during the day (he is usually out in the mornings and in from 3pm because of darkness.) He stays in at night.

Anyway, every morning at 5am he wakes up. He is great at coming to bed with us, grooming and then sleeping solidly until then but when he's up we always have to get up with him to put him in the kitchen because if we don't he just scratches the carpets.

He's not hungry or looking to play (at least not with us) he just scratches carpets and we need to save them so put him downstairs.

He probably needs a bit more play just before bed so have started to do that and he always gets fed later in the evening so I am sure he's not hungry.

We are so tired and need a full night's sleep and the only option now is to start leaving him downstairs, which I feel bad about because he's used to coming to bed and it's cold down there!

He hasn't got the message that scratching the carpet gets him banished as this has been going on for months.

Anyone else ever had this and been able to stop it? We've tried the citrus carpet sprays and spraying his toys with catnip but there's no stopping him!

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The trouble with cats is they will do what they want to do, they’re very difficult to train, in fact he’s actually trained you now to get up when he wants you to!

[Claudette]

Does he have a scratching post? Or is he just doing it to wake you up. I once had a cat that would wake us up very early for his breakfast.

I have never managed to train a cat unfortunately so no other tips.

[Guest]

Have had cats all my life and we have never let any of our cats have free roam of the house during the night.
We have always put them to bed in the kitchen so have never had issues with them waking us up early, unlike my dad who is woken at 4:30am every morning which is madness to me 😆
Can you try putting your cat to bed just before you go up? That way you don’t need to worry unless you have carpet in the kitchen !

[Princess Alison]

Our cats are inside all night and one of them starts making a lot of noise from 5-6am onwards - we get up normally now at 7am.

Knocking over bottles, jumping on us, tapping, pushing things over.

We don't let him in the bedroom now but if we have the bathroom open, he will do a poo in there as a protest! With the door closed we usually try and ignore his miaows and noise until we are ready to get up.

He is basically after food.

I wonder what your cat is seeking? Could you perhaps try and tire him out more during the daytime so that his Sleep pattern shifts a bit?

Ours scratched the carpets too until we put a flat scratching thing down and now they use that

[mandco]

get a rug

Like said cats will do what they want - ours has lots of scratch pads/posts/mats and still insists on scratching the carpet/my fabric storage boxes if she can get away with it though she does stop if you tell her off now.
Her favourite thing at the moment is waking you up in the middle of the night by stamping all over you and meowing in your face - I'll be like what do you want? she looks at you then promptly jump off the bed finds somewhere to curl up and goes to sleep

Have you tried a scratching pad- one of the flat ones rather than a post?

If he's scratching in one area you could try covering it with a rug to protect the carpet but it does sound like scratching on waking is a behaviour trait and not something that will be changed easily so its either try and divert his need onto something else that can be scratched or keep getting up and putting him downstairs

[Lu Lu]

Thanks all. I suspect there is only one way out of this - putting him in the kitchen (there's no carpet there) and he'll have to live with it!

He has scratching posts and scratching pads and everything but likes the carpet. Getting something to cover it won't help as he will choose somewhere else - he just moves on if he can't get to what he wants!

I am sure he just wants to get up at that time and it's not that he wants anything in particular.

We are going to try to wear him out more in the day but it's hard in the week as we're all working all the time too!

[maidmarian]

Our spoilt furbaby has her own room at night, she loves it and we never hear a peep from her anymore 😂😻😻

[lizzie145]

cats love that time of night, a lot of mine will go out at that time.
as long as there is somewhere they can lie on that is warm and dry they will be fine in a cold room - use a blanket or cat bed. you can get self heating pads so body warmth reflects back to the cat.

mine love digging the carpet if i shut a door

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Lu Lu

Thanks all. I suspect there is only one way out of this - putting him in the kitchen (there's no carpet there) and he'll have to live with it!

He has scratching posts and scratching pads and everything but likes the carpet. Getting something to cover it won't help as he will choose somewhere else - he just moves on if he can't get to what he wants!

I am sure he just wants to get up at that time and it's not that he wants anything in particular.

We are going to try to wear him out more in the day but it's hard in the week as we're all working all the time too!

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Sometimes cats are just pains in the bum because they can , not because of any particular reason!
I find that cats actually like a little routine and our cats always know when it’s nearly their bed time as they go into the kitchen themselves .
Their cat flap is open till 10pm and after that it locks once they come in. They used to be allowed out whenever but one of them had a nasty accident and ended up on cage rest during the summer so I don’t let them out then , much less likely to get into a scrap in the day time .
Good luck