My 4-year-old neutered male, Gunther, is driving me a little crazy. We have raised him with another male kitten since they were ten weeks old and he is usually really easygoing and relaxed about everything.
My wife and I moved from a northern state to Texas and brought our three cats with us. Right up until two weeks ago, there were no issues. He loves cuddling in bed with us, we feed him, play with him, keep clean litter, et... Out of the blue, he started meowing randomly during the day while I sleep (I work 3rd shift, I sleep during the day). He will scratch at the closet door, try to pick at the carpet and meow.
We took him to the vet for a checkup and he's physically healthy. No medical issues, he eats fine, no illnesses, parasites, etc... She suggested that we should try to tire him out before bed. We try to wake him up and play with him a couple of hours before bed, but it doesn't help and he still meows.
If we lock him out of the room, he will meow at the door and pick at it, so that doesn't help. We tried giving him pets/attention, but he will continue to wake me up throughout the day regardless.
We are getting stressed and a little baffled, he has never acted like this before. While we are awake, you would never know anything is different. He uses the litter just fine, eats, cuddles, and has no behavior issues at all during the night. Our other two cats sleep quietly while we do as Gunther did previously.
I am now trying negative reinforcement by squirting him with a spray bottle when he meows during bedtime. This will make him scurry away, but it inevitably repeats. Sometimes I will take a damp washcloth and gently wet his body so he will go somewhere quiet and bathe himself. If I am lucky, he will fall asleep after that and give me some peace.
We have tried pretty much any humane way we know of dealing with his meowing and picking, but we are getting restless. I am tired at work and end up sleeping in late on the weekends now just so I can catch up. The only recent change is that the weather outside has gotten a lot cooler. Maybe the change in weather has made him restless?
We're not sure what to do. Obviously, we never yell at him or do anything cruel/mean, but I have really been wishing I had a basement I could lock him in during the night with litter, food, a place to sleep, etc... But there is no room I could realistically close him in.
Does anyone have any advice?
tl;dr: cat's meowing is causing me to lose sleep and be tired at work. Started happening out of the blue, cat is healthy and usually well behaved. Have tried everything within reason we could try to stop it. Advice plz?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/do7jca/cats_meowing_is_wakingkeeping_me_up_for_last_two/
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