Ever since we moved to a new ground-level apartment, one of our three cats (Gunther) has gotten super desperate to go outside. He will meow and meow to go outside literally all day and it's driving us up the wall. Now some points.
- He has had recent vet visits, he is healthy and there is nothing wrong with him.
- There are cat toys and many tools for cat enrichment. We play with him constantly and he also plays happily with his brother and sister.
- We have been trying very hard to curb these issues. When he's not meowing, we give him love cuddles, play, and positive reinforcement. When he does meow, we completely ignore him and do not give him any positive or negative reinforcement.
- We set up our spare room as a cat sanctuary. It has water, food, litter, toys, multiple types of cat bed to lay on, a cat condo and more. As soon as he starts meowing, we stand up, walk to the spare room without a sound, and Gunther always follows us right in. We'll quietly close him into the cat room and not let him out until he has stopped meowing for 30 minutes + in a row.
If it matters, he is a healthy five-year-old boy. Outside of this incessant meowing, he is the perfect cat. He doesn't bite or scratch, he loves people and other animals, he loves cuddles and tummy rubs and rubbing his face against everyone else's if they let him.
I love this cat to death, but I don't know how to stop this meowing. We have been doing this routine for two weeks straight now. He meows, he gets zero acknowledgment of any kind and gets a timeout. When he's being good, he gets playtime, positive reinforcement, treats, etc.
Everyone says to just "give it time" but it's been a month of ignoring him and two weeks since we started the timeout room. He literally hasn't stopped at all. He'll meow at least 50% of the time he is not sleeping.
Our other two have zero interest. He really loves to eat grass and poke around our herb and vegetable garden. Should we get some cat-friendly houseplants and a plot of grass we can keep inside for him?
We would never get rid of our lovely boy, but we are also at our wit's end with his meowing.
Thanks!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/hgixw9/cant_get_my_cat_to_stop_meowing_to_go_outside/
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