I hate you more than any other cat at night

March 9, 2015 10:54 AM

My previously well behaved cat has begun scratching at our bedroom door in the wee hours of the morning loudly enough to wake us up and keep us awake. The door is open, and he is fed and watered. What the hell is going on and please can you help make it stop?

Other data:

1) This happens regardless of the state of the litter and the food is the preferred brand
2) In what may be related, my daughter has begun keeping her bedroom door closed - he did scratch on hers to try to get her to open it but now is definitely scratching on our clearly open door
3) My husband has begun getting up to run early in the morning, but the scratching happens before and after that.

Any ideas or advice desperately welcome.

posted by corb to Pets & Animals (32 answers total)

Maybe he wants to play? I usually wake up in the morning to a pile of cat toys my cat left on the bed overnight.
posted by Fister Roboto at 11:02 AM on March 9, 2015

My terrible cat wakes up at about 4:30 and howls so I usually get up and put some dry food in her bowl, and then I menacingly spray water at the door where she can see it, close the door, and leave the spray bottle in front of it. This has been keeping her from standing and howling outside the door for a few hours at least. We also sleep with a fan on, and I try to spend a half hour or so before bed playing with her vigorously to try to induce sleep. She is definitely the worst, I sympathize.
posted by ChuraChura at 11:17 AM on March 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

This is a constant problem with Moxie Parker (aka Pooper), our youngest. For her, it has to do with being fed. With yours, it could be boredom and a need for attention (he is a kitty, after all). Our only solution is keeping a spray bottle on a nearby night stand (three parts water to one part white vinegar) and spritzing her with it when she starts making a fuss. It works pretty well in deterring her if you can manage to fumble sleepily for the stupid spray bottle.

Best of luck! It totally sucks.
posted by Kitteh at 11:20 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have a similar tactic to ChuraChura: we place the dreaded vacuum in front of the door to keep our cat from scratching at it. It works fairly effectively.
posted by damayanti at 11:22 AM on March 9, 2015 [8 favorites]

Ugh. One of my cats does this too. Our solution: I keep a pile of rolled up socks (individual socks, not pairs) on my bedside table and if she wakes me up, I throw one at her. Not playfully. Like, to bean her. It's light enough that it doesn't hurt her. And usually I miss, anyway, because it's dark and I'm asleep. But it keeps her from scratching and eventually she just settles down and falls back asleep.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:23 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Has it happened since the time change? My cats were waking us early prior to the time change, but seem to have stopped (at least I hope they have).

We tried the spray bottle, but 1) while half awake, I sprayed myself in the face more than once, and 2) it never seemed to help. Maybe we weren't consistent enough about it. From what I've read though, the only thing that will help is just ignore them completely, every single time they do it. And then eventually, there's an extinction burst, and if you can make it through that, the behavior will stop for good. We've never made it that far.
posted by amarynth at 11:24 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

My solution to my rotten cat who stands outside all night singing the song of his People: white noise machine. My kitties were banned from the bedroom because I'm allergic to their cat litter and if they jump on the bed and walk around on it during the night I wake up with pretty bad hives. They weren't happy about the banning, believe me, but the machine really worked wonders (not by keeping them from carrying on, of course, but keeping the carrying on from waking me up).
posted by holborne at 11:26 AM on March 9, 2015 [5 favorites]

If the cat's been making a racket, and your husband gets up to run, does the cat follow your husband around the house looking pathetic (looking for attention, food-treats, playing, etc) or hang out by the door as if the goal is in the bedroom (you, the bed, cat is insane, etc)?

Is there anything your husband can do while he's up that affects whether the cat continues to bother you after he leaves? Experiment with him messing with the food (my cat sometimes doesn't believe the kibble in her bowl is food until I've gone and stirred it up for her) or petting the cat a lot, or playing with the cat a lot, and see whether any of those affect whether the cat will let you rest afterward.
posted by aimedwander at 11:32 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

What if you were to stick some thick fabric or possibly even fake fur on the part of the door the cat likes scratching?

Even if the cat kept scratching at least you wouldn't hear it. (Disclaimer: Not a Cat owner)
posted by ebear at 11:40 AM on March 9, 2015

How old is the cat? Restlessness at night can be a symptom of dementia.
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:43 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have a cat that does this, too. Midnight door scratching (regardless of whether the door is open, closed, or what is behind it) and yowling. Things I have tried:
-beaning him with rolled up socks
-changing the state of the doors (there are multiple)
-applying peppermint extract to the door at cat face height (This may or may not have worked. He hates that smell, but it wore off and reapplying was annoying and time consuming and led to the other cat licking the doors.)
-yelling
-pleading

Things that have worked:
-wearing ear plugs to sleep

I haven't figured out how to get him to stop, but I sleep ok now. I would love to know if you find a solution.
posted by faethverity at 11:47 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: This has happened since the time change, and the cat is 3.
posted by corb at 11:47 AM on March 9, 2015

Please don't spray diluted acid (vinegar) in your cat's face, or throwing things at it, as suggested above. Borderline abuse.

You can try redirecting it with toys, but this will probably teach the cat that if it makes noise, it gets playtime! Literally no downside!

Try using a cat deterrent on the area of the door where the cat scratches; tinfoil or double-sided tape. I would suggest something like a SCAT mat or one of the motion-detecting air poofers (not sure what the actual name for this is... it detects motion and expels air, scaring the cat).

I assume you can't close the door because kids?

Try playing with the cat for at least fifteen minutes before bedtime to exhaust some of the night-time energy. If you have an autofeeder, set it to go off around that time so the cat's routine changes from scratch-door to eat-food.

Be aware that the behaviour may undergo an extinction burst before stopping.
posted by Nyx at 12:04 PM on March 9, 2015

Have you made any thermostat changes recently? My cat meows more when the temperature is low. I think he doesn't sleep as well and is therefore grumpier and more apt to complain. Does yours have access to a nice, warm, sunny spot in the morning? A place to stay warm in the morning may distract him.

If not the temperature, it's probably loneliness. If he was able to get into your daughter's room before but not now, he is probably either craving attention or perhaps concerned that your daughter is trapped in her room.
posted by tempestuoso at 12:05 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I had to housesit for somebody who had allowed her cat to train her to feed it every morning at four. "Best thing to do is feed Squeaky right away the second she asks [by standing on your chest and yowling into your face]. That way she won't keep bugging you. She'll entertain herself quietly until 6 a.m. when it's time for her second breakfast." So the first time it happened, I began making the same noise the cat was making, which startled her, and then when she hopped down off the bed, I did, too, and crawled across the floor after her as fast as I could, yowling and shrieking and roaring. Basically, I tried to imitate monster behavior from horror movies I'd seen that had terminally terrified me. You know, like the girl in The Ring speedy-creeping out of her well. Though come to think of it, that movie didn't come out 'til decades later. Anyway, it worked pretty well. Squeaky left the area with a quickness and did not repeat her morning performance for the rest of the time I spent in that hellhouse (they didn't have CABLE, even). I still fed the cat. Just not at a stupidass hour of the day chosen by an SOB with a brain like a cashew and no day job who napped all night and day. (My own cat, Avocado, used to wake me up in the wee hours all the time by jumping into the pit of my stomach from the windowsill above the futon. I never tried to scare Avocado out of that behavior. But that was because he was Avocado. That's a whole different thing, obviously. Are there cat-specific strains of toxoplasmosis, it occurs to me to wonder?)
posted by Don Pepino at 12:06 PM on March 9, 2015 [8 favorites]

A second vote for Nyx suggestion of playtime before bed.

We have cats that are outdoor during the summer on a walled off patio (catio), but indoor during the winter. We found that late night howling/scratching on the door went away when we started playing with them before bed. Generally we have found that when they don't get play time, they wake us up.

Make it a solid block of play time (at least 10 minutes) and make sure you are getting them to run around. View it as exercise for the cats, with the goal of exhausting them so they sleep through the night. It might be tough to get the cats interested, but once you establish a routine the cats will begin to look forward to it (and remind you when you forget).
posted by AfterAlbuquerque at 12:14 PM on March 9, 2015

I know dogs aren't cats but here's what worked with my cats and dogs. Being bothersome at sleep times was a big no-no whether it a squeaky toy, just pawing at my face to say hi, or asking me to look at the food bowl again.

For my dog it was just immediate banishment from my room (that works incredible) but
for a cat (and since she not IN your room) scratching at a door would mean immediate confinement to a room . (I think that it is important to be able to confine an animal with out constant scratching or whining is important in case of visitors with allergies/fears.)
The cat probably enjoys his freedom and I think SWIFT response to it with zero interaction would help him figure out what is going on. Do X and Y happens.

I've had cats I unknowingly trained to be pains in the asses at night and it just gets worse and worse.
posted by beccaj at 12:19 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I always put a child-gate or piece of wood across the bottom of the door when I go to sleep. I also sleep with earplugs so I don't hear him meowing. My cat doesn't need anything when I am sleeping... he's just being needy. Don't encourage it - just ignore it.
posted by eq21 at 12:21 PM on March 9, 2015

For our cats and the two cats my mom has had, a microwaveable heating pad underneath a cat bed at night keeps them more-or-less glued to the cat bed until morning.
posted by telophase at 12:39 PM on March 9, 2015 [4 favorites]

My cat seems to like to sharpen her claws in the middle of the night. They are semi-nocturnal animals, after all.

Does yours have a scratching post? Is it worn and in need of replacement? Maybe get an additional scratching post and place it near the doorway?
posted by Jacqueline at 1:23 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is a longshot, but is your cat on any kind of medication that he doesn't particularly like? Our yowly-at-5am cat recently got put on an eye medication that he HATES, and now our go-to reaction to his waking us up is to hold him down and apply it. We'd have to do it anyway, but now at least we're showing that waking us up leads to negative consequences.
posted by littlegreen at 1:46 PM on March 9, 2015

Is kitty's box clean? When was the last time you emptied and cleaned it?
Did kitty throw-up somewhere you haven't discovered yet? When my guy does his "pounding on walls" thing, it's usually because he's done something messy.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:24 PM on March 9, 2015

Not sure what is going on but our cat will come into our bedroom and scratch the walls or the windows. I think it's to get our attention or to play. We put a baby gate up (he's not much of a jumper) to keep him away from the bedroom. It's the only thing that has worked for us...maybe (depending on the set-up of your house) that could be an option for you?
posted by Shadow Boxer at 2:46 PM on March 9, 2015

You can try a scratching post – though be aware it may just mean the cat wakes you up by scratching it instead of the door.

My cats went through a period of this after we moved, and tend to do it whenever there's a large-ish (more than half an hour) disruption in schedule, so it's not surprising it started with daylight savings time.

I've had the best success by just accepting it, sighing at the cats, patting their heads, going to the bathroom, then returning to bed. Eventually they get back into the swing of things. (Make sure you're not turning on unnecessary lights; it really helps to have nightlights in this case.)

It does also help if you allow yourself at least 8 hours of sleep a night; we humans can wake up in the middle of the night and go back to sleep without much, if any, ill effect so long as we're getting our total hours.

I realize that's kind of a workaround solution, but I've had cats all my life and have found it keeps everyone and everycat happier. 4am grumpy-scratchies! Yay! *back to sleep*
posted by fraula at 2:58 PM on March 9, 2015

Tape aluminum foil along the bottom 1/3 of your door. Your cat will hate the way it feels on his paws and quickly stop this annoying behavior.
posted by srrh at 5:01 PM on March 9, 2015

Whatever you do, if the cat wakes you up, DO NOT give him food or attention immediately. That's what he wants, and if you do, he'll learn that scratching = food/attention.

One of my cats occasionally scratches at our bedroom door if it's closed (and if it's closed, it's closed because someone was pouncing on us and had to be kicked out of the bedroom). I keep this type of mister bottle on my nightstand, and if our cat wakes me up, I open the door, spray her in the face, and close the door/go back to bed without making eye contact. The bottle just has water in it and it's a mist, not even a spray, so it doesn't harm her at all, but she still hates it.
posted by insectosaurus at 6:11 PM on March 9, 2015

Set one of these motion-triggered air cans outside your door. You may wake up a few times to the sound of "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS" followed by your cat scrambling away, but I have yet to meet a cat who's willing to brave one of these contraptions more than a couple times.

Just make sure it detects your kitty coming from a few feet away--ideally, you want the hissing sound to scare him off before he gets close enough to feel the compressed air, to reduce the (small) risk of cold injury from getting too close to the can while it sprays.
posted by Owlcat at 8:31 PM on March 9, 2015

The early morning is probably when the house is coldest (assuming you turn the thermostat down at night or have it on a timer). So it could be that the cat gets cold, gets up, and wants either company or to play or generally just wants company in misery. I'd try the heating pad thing for a while before doing anything in the way of negative stimulation to the cat.

Also cats don't really do time changes very well. Is it getting up at what's basically the same time (as defined by the sun) as it used to? If that's the case it will probably get better as the cat finally gets used to the time change. Just another reason that DST changes suck.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:54 PM on March 9, 2015

Response by poster: Okay, day one after Ask: I have tried the playing (it has not worked).

For those who asked what the cat does after: if I get up, he scampers like hell away - usually to the living room or kitchen. Actually one night I thought he was legitimately hungry, but his bowl was full. It is full of the food that he has previously liked. I suppose it is possible kibble loses its flavor overnight or something?

Tonight barring any other suggestions I will try tinfoil.
posted by corb at 11:31 AM on March 10, 2015

Actually one night I thought he was legitimately hungry, but his bowl was full.

Our cats like the ritual of feeding. It seems to be reassuring. We feed them twice a day, and when it starts getting near feeding time they get antsy and vocal, even if all they do is supervise the food placement and walk away without eating.
posted by telophase at 8:44 AM on March 11, 2015

Response by poster: Update! So this morning my husband did not go running and I was the one to get up, so I witnessed some cat behavior that maybe someone can make sense of. Around 5AM, while I was sitting quietly in the dark-ish nearby, he went directly to the front door (which was and is and must stay naturally closed) and meowed at it for about 30 seconds. It was only after that that he started scratching at the door to the bedroom.

Can anyone make sense of this? He is not and has never been an outdoor or indoor/outdoor cat.
posted by corb at 2:10 PM on March 12, 2015

I think the cat hears something! Something freaky!
posted by Don Pepino at 3:53 PM on March 12, 2015