[bassmanxvi]

Hi -- Behavioral Issues on my hands (2 Cats)

My wife and I are at our wits end. We love our cats, but we also love getting more than 5 hours of sleep.

We have two grown cats aged about 5 years and 8 years and since our daughter was born they haven't been letting us sleep in the morning.

Over the past three weeks I've managed to sequester the cats overnight, but we just got back from a week long trip and it is getting harder to get the cats into the room, equipped with plenty of food and litter, for the night (11PM - 6AM).

Our younger cat Luna is motivated by food and it has been relatively easy to coax her into the room, however our older and smarter cat Keira.

Currently they are being fed twice a day once between (5 and 7AM) and next at about 5PM and 7PM with a snack to coax them into the room at 11PM.

Any tips on how we can change our behavior to get some sleep?

 

[bassmanxvi]

Further details on my family and my cats...

My daughter is two and a half and gets along well with the cats. My wife likes the cats, but their disturbances early in the morning are pushing her to the breaking point. When I married my wife we had one cat Kiera and a couple years later we adopted Luna.

Kiera is a gray Tabby she enjoys sitting on the arm of a couch and people watching. In our old apartment her penchant for opening doors had us purchase a child-safety lock to keep her from opening the laundry room. She soaks up territory like a sponge. She also hates being closed in. Typically she behaves herself well except in the mornings when she wakes us up about an hour or two too early. Although Kiera is an excellent lap cat she hates being picked up.

Luna is basically a Tuxedo who likes to cuddle and is generally energetic. She likes talking and is more often meowing for attention. She is typically the cat waking us up in the morning.

 

[Paws On Your Heart]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately the early morning tends to be when cats are most active and when they decide to search the house for food. Although it can sometimes be difficult to get a cat to sleep in, there are a few steps you can take so that your kitty doesn't bother you so much at night, and so that you can get more sleep.

The first thing I would suggest is to stop responding to your cats bothering you so early in the morning. I'm not saying to stop feeding them in the morning, but simply to ignore their requests for an hour or two so that they realize that bothering you early in the morning is not going to get them what they want. If you wake up and feed them or play with them when they want you to, they will think that it will be okay to continue to wake you up at 5:00am in the future.

If it is a viable option, I would also suggest having a dish of food available in your room at night. You don't want to overfeed your cats, but a small dish to hold them over until morning might be a good option, especially if the reason they are waking you up is for food.

Another option is to monitor their awake time during the day. Cats tend to sleep the most during the day, which causes them to stay awake at night. If you can somehow make sure that they are not sleeping the day away they might sleep for a longer period of time at night. In addition to this, you might want to schedule a playtime during the evening so that they are tired out and will go to sleep when you go to bed. You could also have toys available in the room so that they have something to entertain them while they wait for you to wake up in the morning.

Hopefully one of these options works for you. Good luck with finding a solution to get more sleep at night.