Sorry for the long post: I adopted my cat Dani about two months ago. She is 7 years old, smallish and a very soft and sweet, gentle tabby.
She seems to have settled in well, eats her food, uses her litter tray with no issues, plays with her toys and loves sleeping in her bed(s) by the radiators or on the back of the sofa or on my knee.
One thing that is slightly driving me loopy though is a behavioural issue which may or may not just be because ‘she is a cat’.
When I go to bed, I keep her out of the bedroom and she will cry outside the door for a while before going off to do whatever she does at night (play, sleep etc.) In the morning, every morning anywhere between 2 and 6am she will begin miaowing endlessly until I at some point get up to feed her which is the only thing that seems to satisfy her. I must point out that she gets wet food before I go to bed (I aim for around the same time every evening) and she *always* has dry food and water available 24/7, and access to her litter tray, toys and cosy places to sleep. I have also tried just letting her sleep in the bedroom with me or on the bed but she just begins the dawn chorus beside my head instead.
I have searched for advice on this and it says to ignore her until it’s a sensible time to get up but it’s at the point where my neighbours must be wondering what’s going on, plus I can’t sleep!
I work shifts so while sometimes it's fine for me to be up at 4am most of the time it's really not ideal and I'm exhausted. I do try to keep her to as much of a routine as I can around my varied working hours though it is a challenge sometimes.
During the day if I am home and in the evenings, she often will sit in front of me and just miaow constantly, as if wanting me to do something. If I ignore her (which I’ve tried just to see what happens, I try not to ignore her generally though!) she will keep this up for hours. If I get up she will trot off and just sit under the bed or in another room. She is not scared or running away from me, just seems restless? She has toys and I play with her every day/evening and give her a lot of attention and cuddles, as I know she must be unfortunately bored sometimes when I am away at work. I’m trying not to ‘reward’ this behaviour with treats because while it seems to settle her for a period it just keeps the cycle going - but does anyone have any advice for keeping her amused/happy and not yelling at me all of the time?
I hope none of the above makes me sound like a bad owner, I adore her and don’t want her to be unhappy or whatever it is that’s causing her to vocalise so often and in such a way that makes me think she’s not just ‘chatting’ but wanting something I can’t figure out. If it's just that she's a chatty cat then that's fine, but any tips would be appreciated (even on how I can better handle her talkative nature personally) :)
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/drg56i/my_very_vocal_cat_keeps_me_awake_any_advice/
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