Cat Owners...

My DH gets up for work at 5:30 in the morning and usually feeds our cat. On the weekends we usually do it when we get up 7-8. Well for the past few months our cat (who sleeps in our room) gets up at 4AM to be fed and will swipe at our feet, scratch the bed and jump on our end tables. It usually ends with me or DH kicking him outside in the hall until we are ready to get up. On the weekends it starts at 4AM also...

Now i know cats are use to being on a schedule, but why does he think if he gets up an hour and a half earlier he will get fed earlier? ANd with us always throwing him out why does this not prove to him that this will happen he if he does it.

I don't want to not let him sleep in our room because he likes to be in the room that one of us is in.

Also, DH and I have seen that when only one of us comes home after work (DH goes out after work or i do) he will sit on the others lap until the other one comes home. Sometimes to the point of meowing at the door if its past 9. Does anyone elses cat do that? I think its like a protective thing becuase if one does not come home they have the other one...just wonering..

Re: Cat Owners...

Awwwwwwwww, how cute. He just wants attention and affection! How about leaving some dry food out overnight for him to nibble on in case he gets hungry? I leave dry out during the day and night and give a little wet for my guys when I wake up and after work as a treat.

Re: Cat Owners...

the lap thing is cute.. if my cat hears me upstairs (talking with landlord) she'll sit and cry at the door till i come downstairs.. in which case she'll ignore me the whole time i'm home.

do you give her dry food or wet food? i feed my cat mainly dry food and i just leave it out all the time, that way she never has to wait and can eat whenever she wants to.

the wet food i save for special occasions or when shes being really sweet.. or if i feel guilty for going on vacation lol

Re: Cat Owners...

Mine does the same thing. She gets fed M-F at 7am...so she wakes up around 6-7 on the weekends and licks my face and sits on my head until I get up. Once I feed her and she eats.... she comes back.

Taking her out of the room in the AM is the only thing that works if I want to sleep. I also like to let her sleep with us, she is alone all day....I feel like she deserves that time.

Be careful about leaving food out though...make sure its measured or you can end up with a weight problem.

Good luck!

Re: Cat Owners...

You need to break the habit. Your kitty knows that when you get up .. he gets fed. If feeding kitty is the first thing you do after getting out of bed .. change the routine. After you get out of bed .. go about your business .. then at some point get around to feeding kitty.

We've had the same problems with our guy. First thing hubby would do when he got out of bed .. was put out fresh food and water .. well .. that led to the cycle you described .. only DH was suffering .. because kitty knew to go after him and get him up .. he knows I will feed him when I get around to it.

Now .. when I say .. 'get around to it' .. I mean .. I'll start my own morning routine .. shower, hair, makeup, getting dressed .. and somewhere in the process of getting done, he'll get fed. I just don't make it the very first thing I do .. and when hubby has followed in that fashion .. kitty is much better behaved in the mornings.

And I agree about leaving food out .. because of the weight issues it could lead to. What we did do .. was instead of giving him all his food in the morning .. we split that amount of food between a morning feeding, and an evening feeding .. that also seemed to help with his nagging in the morning to be fed.

Re: Cat Owners...

Thanks for all the ideas. Actually our cat has Feline UTI Syndrome and we have to get prescribed food for him so he can only eat a small amount twice a day. We can only afford to give him treats very rarely or he will get another UTI.

I am going to try and have DH feed him after taking a shower and getting ready...that might make it stop.

He really is a great cat so if this is the worst i'll take it!!

Re: Cat Owners...

The cat I had growing up .. he also was on special food .. Prescription CD I believe it was called .. and I've always been very cautious about what we feed .. even with our boy now .. he has asthma .. so we are very suspicious of lots of things .. and even stopped giving him wet food .. because there were times we felt strongly that it aggrivated his condition.

Good Luck!!

Hopefully the shaking up of the routine will break his bad habit of disturbing those sleeping!!

Just be prepared that your kitty may not take too kindly at first to not being first on the 'to do' list in the morning .. meaning he may find other ways to try to get attention .. so maybe start gradually .. where you don't make him wait too long .. but long enough to know feeding time is not immediately after someone wakes up .. then gradually increase the time between wake up and feeding .. to anywhere between maybe 30-60 minutes .. whatever works comfortably with your routine.

Re: Cat Owners...

We had the same problem in the beginning. We decided to gradually move our cats feeding time to night time and haven't had a problem since.