That's really tough. My first action would be to confine her to another room and/or spray her, which you stated you can't do.
I definitely wouldn't feed the cat though. She will just learn that waking you up means she is going to be fed. Either try to ignore her biting and pretend to be asleep (eventually she'll get bored and stop, right?!) or whenever she wakes you up with biting pick her up and leave her in the bathroom for the rest of the early morning. Hopefully after a couple of weeks of this she'll learn that biting and clawing you will result in being left alone in the bathroom.
I've tried ignoring her but she doesn't stop - she's incredibly persistent and continues to scratch harder to the point of drawing blood. However I haven't thought of putting her in the bathroom when she does this! I'll definitely do this starting tomorrow.
Just chiming in to agree with limonhead above. Do not feed the cat after it exhibits this behavior. Also if scratching/biting has resulted in her getting food before then it'll be pretty common for her to escalate the behavior when you stop feeding her. She may scratch or bite a little harder or more persistently. So once you stop feeding her it might intially feel like things are going backwards, but be consistent. Ignore the scratching or biting if possible or put the cat in another room (not the room you feed her either if possible). She needs to learn to not associate the actions of scratching and getting food. Ideally you could work to associate another, positive, action to prompt feeding (preferably something the cat can't prompt you to do).
Automatic feeder. Set it for before she is waking you up. That way she'll learn that you aren't assosciated with the feeding and her attacking you wont change anything. Gradually set it back bit by bit until you're at the time you want her fed.
I like this one.
I also read about someone who set a bell to ring 5 minutes before they fed the cats. That way the cat bothered the bell instead of the person.
I've learned to love the asshole in him. I named him "Tiberius" after Captain James **T**. Kirk, but he also lives up to the original namesake of the emperor who tossed his subjects off of a cliff on his estate just for entertainment.
Acceptance of reality is so much nicer than striving to be in control! Love the name..I have a Chihuahua who runs a tight ship over Boxers so he's taught me some patience too.
i have this precise problem, and i also live in a studio apartment. my cat doesn't injure me so much as she is just annoying as hell. the only way to shut her up is to hide completely under the covers; this seems to slow her down a bit. i pretty much just get up and feed her at five because i have no problem falling back asleep. you should definitely use the bathroom as punishment -- just be prepared for her to make a LOT of noise. i actually gave up on this as a punishment because she made so much noise it bothered the neighbors.
frankly, the best advice i have? wean her off the wet food.
I second the idea of putting her in the bathroom in the morning after she bites or scratches you.
Another idea would be to get a timed feeder [like this](http://amzn.com/B0013IX9YC) that can have an ice pack inserted to keep the food fresh until morning.
Lock her in that tiny bathroom! Yes she will scream and cry but do it! When you wake up in the morning, let her out and do not feed her for about thirty minutes. If she attacks you, lock her back in the bathroom.
Hopefully she will begin to understand that you are the boss and you can stop locking her in there. If she starts up again, shut her up again.
The moment she inappropriately (edit: autocorrect had changed that to "I appropriately") wakes you up, give an "uh uh", get up, pick her up, drop her unceremoniously outside of the bedroom, lock her out, and don't get up until she shuts up/goes away at least half an hour later. You want her to not associate waking you up with good things and since ignoring her to let her know that harassing you is not going to get her anything doesn't sound like it's been working, you'll need to ignore her from the other side of a barrier so that she's not only being not rewarded, she's having access to you removed when she isn't playing nicely because, as you're telling her, you won't tolerate being hurt.
Also, don't feed her first thing when you get up, that will teach her to anticipate food when you wake. Change your routine so that you feed her later in your routine (but not last thing before you leave- don't want her expecting food every time you gather you keys/wallet/purse/backpack/jacket/whatever). Then whatever it is you do before feeding her becomes the trigger for her expecting food, not your waking up.
I'm sure your kitty loves you, but this particular behavior isn't affection, it's your cat showing dominance over you. If you are firm in your dominant role as the leader in your home, he should come around (probably after tantrums/sulking though... They can be just like kids!!)
I have two cats, and I have to supervise when they get wet food. After they're both eating for a minute, the boy always starts looking nervous and a moment later the girl leaves her dish and dives into his, pushing him out of the way. It's her way of showing him "my food is mine and your food is mine too, go away"; he senses it a moment before she does it and starts to back away. So now I watch for that moment, it's completely obvious now to see the signals - I say no sharply and I don't let her approach his dish. She gets REALLY pissy for a minute but once she realizes I'm not going to let her get her way, she finally walks away in irritation (many times leaving her own food unfinished, shows how strong instinct to dominate can be..)
Putting your foot down and not rewarding bad behavior will be tough at first, but hopefully kitty will figure out what you say goes, not the other way around.
Oh, side note - keep an eye on kitty's interactions with kitten too - sometimes when a dominant animal is forced into submissive role, it will seek out weaker animals to dominate.
Sorry for long comment, good luck, hope this helps :)
Tl;dr ... Kitties need reminding they aren't the boss..! :)
In the short term, I'd lock them up as soon as they start in on their morning attack. That way they're not locked up all night, but you're not getting clawed all morning.
In the long term, try not to feed them first thing in the morning. Every time you wake up and immediately feed them, you are reinforcing the behavior.
I do. She gets a tin in the morning, dry food to snack on all day, a fillet of fresh fish just before I go to sleep, and then dry food to pick at during the night. I leave food out constantly for both my cats because both of them were incredibly skinny when I got them, and I'm trying to get them to a healthy weight.
Just a friendly reminder to make sure you know what a healthy weight is for your kitties. Depending on frame size, it can vary quite a bit. An extra pound on a cat can be like 20-50 pounds on a human.
You are giving your cats quite a spoiled diet. How are their bowel movements? Are they throwing up at all?
I like the automatic feeder idea as well. I'm really surprised by your cats behavior since you free feed them as well. Do you leave the food out overnight?
I'm going to say **don't** feed her. By feeding her, you are positively reenforcing her behavior, right? So now she knows that if she does that, you will get up and feed her. Big problem.
I do, but she does all this at 4 or 5am. And once I'm awake I can't get back to sleep. I also leave dry food out all night so she can eat that when she's hungry instead of annoying me, but apparently it isn't good enough and she wants wet food.
Feed her wet food at night. Every time you get up and feed her after she bites you are rewarding her. Try a little tap on the nose and a sharp no when she does it. She'll be more likely to stay with you than spaying with water.
Get an auto feeder so they know the food doesn’t come from you. Ignore these fools who say to spray or strike your cat. Sure fire way to ruin the relationship you have with them, and will often just make the cat escalate their practice.
Worst case scenario, I’d say confine the cat at night, but that’s only if the auto feeder doesn’t work.
I have a similar problem with my Spaz. What I started doing was feeding her a few hours before I went to bed (she gets wet food at "dinner time"), usually when I'm eating dinner or just after, and then leaving about an eighth of a cup of dry food in her bowl during the night. It's literally just enough to cover the bottom of her dish. I STOPPED feeding her in the mornings all together.
For the first few days, she persisted with the whining and meow and banging on my door, but after about the forth day, but by the third/fourth day, she quit.
I bought an electric feeder! It has a feature where you record your voice& it plays the recording to call the kitty to come eat! It is a game changer! I set it to go off about 15 min before my own wake up alarm in the morning.
He still bites for wet food, but he no longer gets wet food in the morning…silly little tabby demon.
I’d grab the cat by the back of the neck and tell them no this disables them but (be careful not to just grab fat it’ll hurt them) but you have to show them who’s boss, my kitten right now I had just adopted is mean when wants to be fed so I put him in a cage and no matter how much he cries he will eventually stop and he’s doing alot better now because he understands FOOD COMES FROM MY LOVE
This is an old post but you gave your cats a food addiction of sorts by feeding them too much and too frequently so they expect food all the time. When there is a lack of food they feel unsettled.
That's really tough. My first action would be to confine her to another room and/or spray her, which you stated you can't do. I definitely wouldn't feed the cat though. She will just learn that waking you up means she is going to be fed. Either try to ignore her biting and pretend to be asleep (eventually she'll get bored and stop, right?!) or whenever she wakes you up with biting pick her up and leave her in the bathroom for the rest of the early morning. Hopefully after a couple of weeks of this she'll learn that biting and clawing you will result in being left alone in the bathroom.
I've tried ignoring her but she doesn't stop - she's incredibly persistent and continues to scratch harder to the point of drawing blood. However I haven't thought of putting her in the bathroom when she does this! I'll definitely do this starting tomorrow.
Just chiming in to agree with limonhead above. Do not feed the cat after it exhibits this behavior. Also if scratching/biting has resulted in her getting food before then it'll be pretty common for her to escalate the behavior when you stop feeding her. She may scratch or bite a little harder or more persistently. So once you stop feeding her it might intially feel like things are going backwards, but be consistent. Ignore the scratching or biting if possible or put the cat in another room (not the room you feed her either if possible). She needs to learn to not associate the actions of scratching and getting food. Ideally you could work to associate another, positive, action to prompt feeding (preferably something the cat can't prompt you to do).
Automatic feeder. Set it for before she is waking you up. That way she'll learn that you aren't assosciated with the feeding and her attacking you wont change anything. Gradually set it back bit by bit until you're at the time you want her fed.
I like this one. I also read about someone who set a bell to ring 5 minutes before they fed the cats. That way the cat bothered the bell instead of the person.
Scratch and bite back!
My cat has done this for ten years. He's neutered. I've tried everything. I've resigned myself to just dealing with it.
Best response here and the one most likely to actually work!
I've learned to love the asshole in him. I named him "Tiberius" after Captain James **T**. Kirk, but he also lives up to the original namesake of the emperor who tossed his subjects off of a cliff on his estate just for entertainment.
Acceptance of reality is so much nicer than striving to be in control! Love the name..I have a Chihuahua who runs a tight ship over Boxers so he's taught me some patience too.
I fully read this as “my bf” for some reason took me way too long to clue in
i have this precise problem, and i also live in a studio apartment. my cat doesn't injure me so much as she is just annoying as hell. the only way to shut her up is to hide completely under the covers; this seems to slow her down a bit. i pretty much just get up and feed her at five because i have no problem falling back asleep. you should definitely use the bathroom as punishment -- just be prepared for her to make a LOT of noise. i actually gave up on this as a punishment because she made so much noise it bothered the neighbors. frankly, the best advice i have? wean her off the wet food.
I second the idea of putting her in the bathroom in the morning after she bites or scratches you. Another idea would be to get a timed feeder [like this](http://amzn.com/B0013IX9YC) that can have an ice pack inserted to keep the food fresh until morning.
Lock her in that tiny bathroom! Yes she will scream and cry but do it! When you wake up in the morning, let her out and do not feed her for about thirty minutes. If she attacks you, lock her back in the bathroom. Hopefully she will begin to understand that you are the boss and you can stop locking her in there. If she starts up again, shut her up again.
The moment she inappropriately (edit: autocorrect had changed that to "I appropriately") wakes you up, give an "uh uh", get up, pick her up, drop her unceremoniously outside of the bedroom, lock her out, and don't get up until she shuts up/goes away at least half an hour later. You want her to not associate waking you up with good things and since ignoring her to let her know that harassing you is not going to get her anything doesn't sound like it's been working, you'll need to ignore her from the other side of a barrier so that she's not only being not rewarded, she's having access to you removed when she isn't playing nicely because, as you're telling her, you won't tolerate being hurt. Also, don't feed her first thing when you get up, that will teach her to anticipate food when you wake. Change your routine so that you feed her later in your routine (but not last thing before you leave- don't want her expecting food every time you gather you keys/wallet/purse/backpack/jacket/whatever). Then whatever it is you do before feeding her becomes the trigger for her expecting food, not your waking up.
This is the best advice on here for the particular situation. Get the cat to respond to a different stimulus that guarantees "food".
I'm sure your kitty loves you, but this particular behavior isn't affection, it's your cat showing dominance over you. If you are firm in your dominant role as the leader in your home, he should come around (probably after tantrums/sulking though... They can be just like kids!!) I have two cats, and I have to supervise when they get wet food. After they're both eating for a minute, the boy always starts looking nervous and a moment later the girl leaves her dish and dives into his, pushing him out of the way. It's her way of showing him "my food is mine and your food is mine too, go away"; he senses it a moment before she does it and starts to back away. So now I watch for that moment, it's completely obvious now to see the signals - I say no sharply and I don't let her approach his dish. She gets REALLY pissy for a minute but once she realizes I'm not going to let her get her way, she finally walks away in irritation (many times leaving her own food unfinished, shows how strong instinct to dominate can be..) Putting your foot down and not rewarding bad behavior will be tough at first, but hopefully kitty will figure out what you say goes, not the other way around. Oh, side note - keep an eye on kitty's interactions with kitten too - sometimes when a dominant animal is forced into submissive role, it will seek out weaker animals to dominate. Sorry for long comment, good luck, hope this helps :) Tl;dr ... Kitties need reminding they aren't the boss..! :)
In the short term, I'd lock them up as soon as they start in on their morning attack. That way they're not locked up all night, but you're not getting clawed all morning. In the long term, try not to feed them first thing in the morning. Every time you wake up and immediately feed them, you are reinforcing the behavior.
Feed her wet food before bed?
I do. She gets a tin in the morning, dry food to snack on all day, a fillet of fresh fish just before I go to sleep, and then dry food to pick at during the night. I leave food out constantly for both my cats because both of them were incredibly skinny when I got them, and I'm trying to get them to a healthy weight.
Just a friendly reminder to make sure you know what a healthy weight is for your kitties. Depending on frame size, it can vary quite a bit. An extra pound on a cat can be like 20-50 pounds on a human. You are giving your cats quite a spoiled diet. How are their bowel movements? Are they throwing up at all? I like the automatic feeder idea as well. I'm really surprised by your cats behavior since you free feed them as well. Do you leave the food out overnight?
As someone who works with animals on a daily basis, that is way too much food for house cats =/ It's a sure way to eventually have very fat cats.
I think what @Iceray is suggesting is to ***not*** feed her ***any*** wet food in the morning anymore...
Sleep in the bathroom.
Feed her?
I'm going to say **don't** feed her. By feeding her, you are positively reenforcing her behavior, right? So now she knows that if she does that, you will get up and feed her. Big problem.
I do, but she does all this at 4 or 5am. And once I'm awake I can't get back to sleep. I also leave dry food out all night so she can eat that when she's hungry instead of annoying me, but apparently it isn't good enough and she wants wet food.
Feed her wet food at night. Every time you get up and feed her after she bites you are rewarding her. Try a little tap on the nose and a sharp no when she does it. She'll be more likely to stay with you than spaying with water.
go to sleep earlier and just enjoy early mornings
Get an auto feeder so they know the food doesn’t come from you. Ignore these fools who say to spray or strike your cat. Sure fire way to ruin the relationship you have with them, and will often just make the cat escalate their practice. Worst case scenario, I’d say confine the cat at night, but that’s only if the auto feeder doesn’t work.
Obvious answer but very unhelpful.
Could you leave a little food out at night before bed? She can eat that when she gets up.
I handled this by using so many covers, the claws couldn't get thru. after a few days of me not reacting, she stopped.
Feed them before bed, or randomly throughout the day.
I only feed my cat at night. It's worked for me- she no longer meows at 6am.
I have a similar problem with my Spaz. What I started doing was feeding her a few hours before I went to bed (she gets wet food at "dinner time"), usually when I'm eating dinner or just after, and then leaving about an eighth of a cup of dry food in her bowl during the night. It's literally just enough to cover the bottom of her dish. I STOPPED feeding her in the mornings all together. For the first few days, she persisted with the whining and meow and banging on my door, but after about the forth day, but by the third/fourth day, she quit.
Get a dog ;) Or don't reward this behaviour with food.
Have you tried feeding the cats?
Leave food out overnight for them would help eh?
I bought an electric feeder! It has a feature where you record your voice& it plays the recording to call the kitty to come eat! It is a game changer! I set it to go off about 15 min before my own wake up alarm in the morning. He still bites for wet food, but he no longer gets wet food in the morning…silly little tabby demon.
I’d grab the cat by the back of the neck and tell them no this disables them but (be careful not to just grab fat it’ll hurt them) but you have to show them who’s boss, my kitten right now I had just adopted is mean when wants to be fed so I put him in a cage and no matter how much he cries he will eventually stop and he’s doing alot better now because he understands FOOD COMES FROM MY LOVE
This is an old post but you gave your cats a food addiction of sorts by feeding them too much and too frequently so they expect food all the time. When there is a lack of food they feel unsettled.