Some furry owners complain that their beloved pet has a habit of waking everyone up early in the morning. All this to beg for food or get a dose of affection. As a result, every day in the morning you can hear stomping, creaking doors, and the scratching of claws on door frames in the house. There are also other signs of activity. Early in the morning the animal begins to beg for food, meow almost in the ear, and climb on the bed. The owner has to get up to feed his animal. But this is wrong - the cat should wait until everyone wakes up, pays attention to it and feeds it. How to wean a cat from this behavior?
Night is a time of activity
A cat's instincts tell them that the best time to hunt is at night.
Accordingly, the animal’s biological clock is adjusted in such a way that a significant proportion of the total activity occurs during the dark time of day. Zoologists have found that a domestic cat sleeps from 12 to 16 hours a day. Moreover, these indicators are strictly individual and depend not so much on the age and breed, but on the characteristics of the pet’s character and lifestyle. Some cats are quite capable of spending only about 4 hours a day in wakefulness.
If you subtract from this time the periods of eating, visiting the toilet and communicating with the owner, there is not much left. And cats spend this “little bit” very actively - they run, play, pester people and other pets, and try to climb somewhere. In general, they waste a lot of energy in a short period of time, causing legitimate resentment if this activity occurs while you are sleeping.
Wants to eat or drink
Why do dogs tilt their heads when they listen to their owner?
Another cause of nighttime restlessness is the feeling of hunger. Even animals that are not used to eating late at night may want a snack or drink. In this case, it is necessary to leave a small supply of food at night, which will allow the cat to refresh itself at any time convenient for it.
In practice, this is not enough for some pets. They wake up the owner even when there is not enough food. The thing is that they are bored of eating alone and desperately need company. This happens when the owner trains the cat to eat at the same time as him. It turns into a kind of habit. The pet believes that it can only take food with its owner, or in his presence.
Ways to wean your cat from the habit of waking up in the morning
If changes in an animal's behavior are not due to psychological or physiological reasons, its owners will have to be persistent in order to come to an understanding with the animal. It is very important to be persistent and act decisively. A pet can not only meow, this is just the “tip of the iceberg”. Damaged furniture and wallpaper, unpleasant surprises in shoes - there may be such consequences ahead.
Cats are very stubborn, so their owners will need unlimited patience and perseverance. One of the main tools for influencing an animal’s behavior is maintaining a constant feeding and sleeping schedule. It will take time, but it will give results.
If the animal has an excess of energy in the morning, you will have to make it tired in the evenings. Play with the cat, keep her attention, don't let her sleep, use laser pointers and balls tied to ropes. This will allow the pet to release the accumulated energy in a matter of minutes.
There is a solution to the problem of constant hunger. You can feed your cat heavily in the evening before bed or purchase a special device that will dispense food to the animal in doses.
We also recommend reading:
Pet habits: what signals should you pay attention to? Top 7 Dogs That Are Great for Children Stubborn Personality: Dogs That Are Difficult to Train Ways to Correct Malocclusion in Puppies
What to do if your cat wakes you up at night?
As you know, cats are mostly nocturnal animals. But a person does not want to be active at night; he would like to get a good night’s sleep. But only your pet doesn’t allow you to do this. But during the day, cats sleep without their hind legs.
Do not forget that cats by nature hunt at night, for this they have excellent vision, which makes it possible to see objects in pitch darkness, and hearing, capable of catching the slightest rustle in complete silence.
And cats are just small domesticated tigers, lions and panthers. So they can’t sleep in the dark. Moreover, during the day they usually get a good sleep, because the owners are at work, and no one plays with the mustaches.
At night, cats wake up their owners because they are trying to attract attention. It's not about hunger or a dirty pot. It’s just time for night games, or your pet just got enough sleep during the day, and he’s just bored from idleness.
Any response from a person, even if it is a raised voice, a flying slipper, or an attempt to drive an animal into another room, is regarded by the cat as a game. What is important is “communication” with a person.
Cat lovers with extensive experience advise not to react to nightly “flirts.” Of course, if you hear completely unusual sounds made by a cat, then it would be better to check if everything is okay with it.
But if it’s just meowing, purring or running around, then it’s better to hide and not react. Otherwise, if you get up and run after the animal every time, wanting to drive it away or punish it, it will think that its way of waking up the owner works, and will do this all the time.
A person is exhausted during the day and therefore wants to sleep at night. This also works with cats. If someone is at home all day, then simply do not let the pet sleep all the time - play with it, involve it in some kind of activity.
If you cannot stay at home all day, then you need to provide your mustachioed pet with all the necessary entertainment - there are now a huge variety of different kinds of toys in pet stores. But you can also do it yourself.
Buy a few toy mice, a couple of jingling balls, some kind of ball. Tie a feather or piece of paper to a string and hang it somewhere within reach of the cat.
Take a ball of thread and secure the end of the thread so that it does not unwind. Set up a claw pad and leave a couple of cardboard boxes in the room (cats just love them).
From time to time, toys need to be changed, as well as their location. You can hide part of it, take it out again after a while, and hide the other part. Then vice versa. As they say, the new is the well forgotten old.
How else to keep your pet busy during the day? Get him a companion. When there are two cats, they play with each other with pleasure. Often one cat wakes the other to play, and vice versa. Such activity during the day will be the key to sound sleep at night.
A person often feels sleepy after eating. This is true for cats too. After a hearty meal, they wash themselves thoroughly and go to sleep. Try to feed your pet well before bed, but do not overdo it so that the animal does not gain excess weight. In any case, the cat should always have clean water.
There are cats on whom the above methods do not have the desired effect. In this case, all that remains is to protect yourself from the presence of a cat nearby.
You can close the door to your room or lock the cat in the far part of the apartment, only in this case the animal should have access to a toilet, fresh water and, if you allow it, to “standby” food.
Be prepared for the fact that a closed door may arouse curiosity in the cat, and he will demand to open it. To distract the animal from this idea, you need to switch its attention to something else - for example, to special illuminated night toys.
Having determined the reason for your pet's nightly fun and activity, you can competently organize his leisure time without compromising his needs and your own interests.
By
Is it possible and how to train a cat not to disturb sleep?
There is no simple and clear way to solve the problem of early rises. The training procedure is complex and lengthy. But if you are pretty tired of cat songs in the morning, then you should try.
Action plan for teaching an animal to silence:
- First, you should mentally prepare yourself and your family for the long journey. After all, the procedure can take at least a month.
- Prepare a spray bottle of water next to the bed.
- When in the morning a cat tries to attract attention to itself and starts jumping on the bed and meowing, you need to lightly spray its curious face with water. Temporary effect is guaranteed.
- It is advisable to close the doors to all rooms except yours. Or provide all apartment residents with sprayers.
- Under no circumstances should you show signs of attention to the animal. Even if it pretends to be suffering terribly and howls heart-rendingly somewhere next to the bowl. Scratching behind the ear, stroking, talking should be done at any other time, but not during the morning “hysterics”. It is only acceptable to splash water when trying to “scream” over the ear.
- Develop and establish a clear meal schedule, taking into account weekends. Food should only be provided at specific times.
- Strictly monitor the implementation of all points of this plan. And do this until the cat stops waking you up in the early morning.
- If at least once one of the family members gives up, the training will have to start from the very beginning. Please note that doing this again will be much more difficult.
Over time, the cat will remember that she will definitely be given enough attention and fed her favorite food, but not under the pressure of her heart-rending cries, but when the time comes.
What to do and how to wean a cat?
Violence and punishment will not help solve the problem, but will only nullify all efforts and aggravate the situation.
To eliminate the problem, you must first find out what worries kittens and adults in the morning, and, if possible, eliminate the influence of this factor. Experts categorically do not recommend putting your pet down forcibly or locking him in another room, since such actions will not correct the situation, but will only worsen its course. An ineffective method of weaning a cat from waking up in the morning is the use of physical or any other punishment. If your pet wants to eat, then you should review the feeding schedule and feed it late in the evening. The problem may be associated with insufficient communication between the cat and the owner. Representatives of the feline family love care and attention, so before going to bed it is recommended to lie down with the cat for a while, pet it and chat.
If, after regular contact with the animal, satisfying hunger and other needs, the cat continues to wake up the owner in the morning, then it is worth taking a closer look at his behavior during the daytime. If your pet behaves restlessly during the day, meows and moves little, then perhaps the problem lies in the disease. In this case, it is necessary to contact a veterinarian, who will identify the pathological process and select the necessary treatment.
Why do they do this?
First of all, it is worth remembering that cats are predators, which are characterized by night and twilight activity, they use it for hunting and obtaining food. These instincts force the cat to form its own mode of life, completely different from the human one.
In our homes, a person becomes the source of food for a cat, and, like every living creature, a pet fights for access to this resource. The only question is what methods. If a cat is used to always getting what he wants, then he will not take into account your sleep and wakefulness patterns - he simply has no need to do this.
And if the cat receives food only when the person wants it, she will not behave impudently, and in most cases she will patiently wait for him to wake up.
There are, of course, exceptions to the rules, but this means that something truly extraordinary happened. For example, if a cat who has never woken you up early begins to insistently demand attention, it is better to listen to him; after all, cases where cats woke up their owners during a gas leak or when a fire started are not so rare.
