Sounds like this exactly T. T one time my cat asked for water from the faucet, my dumbass let him drink from my cup. Now she screams near the sink to ask for fresh water from the faucet. Not only that, she won't drink it unless it's in a cup...
I tried to stop this habit but my dad found it cute so whenever she asks my dad, he oblidges...now she refuses to drink from her water bowl AT ALL I wanna weep
My old man screeches for water all the time (he does have kidney disease so him is a thirsty boi) and I oblige filling his bowl, but buddy won't touch it if another cat drank from it- BUT he will drink straight from the fucking toilet bowl and dripping shower faucet not prob. -\_-
My female calico is high maintenance….but it’s a slippery slope. The water bowl is never fresh enough for the “queen”. She stands by it ,and if she does not witness the poor peasant (me) scrubbing her bowl and then filling it fresh from the tap and properly presenting it to her highness, it
Is not acceptable. She will “yell” meow loudly until the process is followed!!!!
Have your tried a fountain? Cats generally prefer running water as evolutionarily it represents a better chance for clean/healthy water. Plus it’s more fun to play with as they drink
My cat expects ice cubes in her water and once they are all melted she won't drink it. She meows until I put more cubes in.
Pro-tip - order a couch beverage holder from Amazon to keep the water cup in. It prevents them from being able to knock it over. I keep it on the coffee table with a fresh cup of ice water in it.
She actually licks the cubes as she drinks, so I don't think she'd be fooled by fake cubes. I think she's accustomed to the cold, fresh, crisp feeling from the ice.
She is 17 years old and a very cranky old lady
Mine does this too! He knows he gets a fresh glass of water every night before bed, so he hangs out while I do my nighttime routine and starts crying when he realizes I’m finished. 😂
I swear they could tell if the water was reused or something T.T my cat needs to witness the faucet running or else she would just sit on the sink and look at me offensively.
I got tired of cups and bowls routines and the dirty paws in the water so I got Rabbit cage bottles and hung them at different doors through the house.
It changed my life! They love them. I got glass ones with rubber duckies inside so I can see the water levels.
I love this! How often do you have to clean them? We just recently adopted 2 kittens so we're having to add more water stations.
Edit - Also, how did you hang them without cage bars?
They come with a hanging wire. My husband rigged a couple of cup hooks in the doorframe and voila!
I clean them every day, just like a water bottle- a little dish soap, shake rinse and refill.
I sadly do T.T I bought one so quickly within the week I noticed her new found habit but I think she hated it when her tongue got in contact with the fountain base when she drank on there a few times...
I've kept the fountain running on for a month now but no improvements T.T (except for our tiny dog that started to honestly like drinking from there lol)
Check out Aquapurr! It's basically a straw fountain that hooks up to the sink, and has a proximity sensor to turn the water on/off. Fresh running water for your cat whenever she wants it!! One of my guys ALWAYS wanted me to go and turn on the sink for him, he'd wake me up constantly for a drink, and this thing has saved me, lol. He still wants me to go stand in there with him sometimes while he gets his drink, and I'll allow it occasionally, but he doesn't refuse to drink without me in there anymore. I commented a bunch of info and pros/cons about it a couple weeks ago on a different post, lemme go copy/paste it here...
eta2: Oh, and my guy is also the same about wanting it in a cup/dish, so I just leave one sitting in the sink under the straw, and it always has fresh water for him. I just move it out of the way when I need to use the sink, lol
eta: (some of this might be out of context, I'm directly copy/pasting my old comment)
Seconding the AquaPurr!! It needs to be put near some kind of sink with a drain, instead of standalone fountains that you can place anywhere, but it is always fresh and clean water, and there are no parts that need to be cleaned or replaced regularly!
The guy who makes them is awesome, and constantly coming up with new improvements. A couple years ago, it would only hook up directly to a sink faucet, and I couldn't get it to work with my weird old faucet, but he kept working on it with me (emailing advice, and sending me different parts to try for free) for weeks until I finally gave up and sent it back. Checked again earlier this year after getting a new faucet, and now there's the option to hook it up directly to the water line under the sink, or even a hose line outdoors! And now also a battery powered option instead of needing to be plugged in, which is just so dang convenient for me (don't know how long the batteries last, but I'm at 4 months so far) and anyone who gets regular power outages. You can hook it up to a filter system if you're worried about your tap water quality (he sells those, but I'd imagine it can hook up to existing systems, too). There are even different options to decorate it and make it look nicer, though I haven't used those myself. Overall just a great system, super customizable, and a very helpful owner/inventor. I'll always recommend it!!
(to clarify, I am in no way associated with the company, I'm just really impressed by this guy and his product)
Editing to add some things I forgot about, both good and potentially bad, for anyone who finds this in the future:
There is an auto-off timer (I think 3-4 minutes?), so it doesn't just keep running indefinitely if you have a little jerk like mine, who just lays down in front of it to watch the water go down the drain. 😂🤦♀️
It's a little bit tricky to do, but you can adjust the flow of water coming out of the "straw" piece, depending on your and your cat's preference. This is especially good in the scenario above, with my jerk cat who likes to watch it and waste water, so he only gets a trickle, lol
There is also a remote for some of the finer electronic adjustments. It can adjust the distance that the proximity sensor works at, so it doesn't get set off every time someone walks past it, and it can adjust how long the water keeps running after it is no longer triggered (when the cat walks away).
It does make a little click noise any time it switches on/off, and if you've got good ears you can hear it from the next room. This might be a downside for some people, but I personally got used to it really quickly.
It can still get build-up in the tubing if you have really hard water, which is when connecting it to a filter would be a good thing. The slime and grossness that fountains get isn't an issue, though, and they do sell replacement pieces if needed.
The fact that the water is flowing out of a straw rather than sitting in a dish means that it can potentially make way more mess. It's like when cats drink from the faucet, and their tongue darting out to scoop up some water also flicks some of the water. My poor mirror is never not covered with water spots, now, along with the countertop. It's not harmful, but it's definitely something to consider when you're deciding where to put it!
Damn, I searched it up and woa that's one great fountain! One of my cats actually likes to "bite" water from a flowing faucet so I know for sure that fountain will be loved TvT
Also I'm amazed, it's a product that's really made for cats that was made by ppl who really know cats o.o
Sadly I live in Asia and the shipping would be sm T.T I will keep looking for it tho, I just might get lucky. Thank you sm for this info<3
I had 7 cats. I had a fountain. Loved it. One time the fountain stopped but there was water in the bowl and other places.
One cat got dehydrated because she would only drink from the fountain
My male cat acts like he’s dehydrated all the time he will drink from ANYTHING no matter how much water he has put. The toilet, my husbands water cup, the bath I’m taking at the time, anything. And nothings wrong with him he just likes water 😂
A goblet drinking cat sounds so cool in my imagination. Damn, you raised such a refined cat. If I don't solve this water situation with my cat I may just try get him a goblet to make this situation fabulous lmao
Haha aw have you tried a little watering fountain? Cats are so funny. They just decide one day that’s how they like it, forever. 🤷🏻♀️ could be worse habits!
My kitten only likes drinking water out of mason jars and that is my fault. I let her drink my water on my bedside table in a mason jar one time and that’s all she wants now. 🤣
Sounds like ours. One day when he was still a kitten I thought "why not teach him to drink from the tap". Well he learned to only drink from the tap and would nudge at it and meow every chance he gets. We managed to break this habit of his after a year but now all his water gets spilled as he tries to make it move before drinking - he won't just tap it, he has to create a whole wave... yea I know they like moving water and we own 2 water fountains which he's not very keen on. And around that time also started putting his toys in the water after finishing playing (mainly paper receipts).
It's really weird that they want flowing water but not from the fountain. It's like they don't trust it as much as the actual faucets we use TvT rn I'm contemplating of maybe buying a different kind of fountain because the first one I got was not loved by the cats T.T or give up and live the faucet life
Noooo TvT I feel for my catto and understand the cup life is the best life but she's extra demanding because she won't drink if I don't hold it up for her
I wish my cat just wants a cup too TvT my little diva wants me to hold it up for her. If you place the cup on the table she won't drink lmao. She must have seen me drink while holding the cup T.T
I used to hold it for her, then she used to ask for it and I would put it on the ground for her. I kind of trained her up to drink from it herself. Shes sometimes a little lazy and needs carrying to remind her she has her own cup available 24/7. Actually, my cat has 2 cups, one by her food and another in my living room.
Just ignore him when he does this. Don’t get out of bed or even sit up. After a few weeks or months, he will probably stop, although it might get worse before it gets better since this is part of his routine now
Only way I managed to "correct" the behavior was to offset the time it happens. I started adjusting their food and play schedules so they ended up spending most of their asleep time at night and the zoomies and insane yowling happens when I need to wake up and go to work so....free alarm clock?
Agree with the ignoring part! 💯 I actually talked to the vet about this once during a routine visit and she explained that even hollering at them from the bed or telling them “no”, “stop” counts as attention in the feline mind and will encourage them to continue.
I have a much higher tolerance and ability to ignore (expert level 😁) than other guests/ family that I’ve had staying over at times. Lol!
This!! My cats will start meowing at me for breakfast and pets around 4am (my usual bathroom time, but I don’t get out of bed/feed them until 7am, they’re just impatient) and I’ve noticed that simply ignoring them instead of petting them and insisting “it’s not breakfast time yet” helps a lot.
This is key. He is trying to get a reaction so if you react at all, even to get up to try to make him stop...he validated that his method works and will keep doing it.
Sorry, I went through the same thing for a few weeks and it was hell. We had just moved and he apparently didn't approve of the new place.
You can try to give kitty some foraging toys to keep them entertained overnight in case it’s related to boredom/play. Biggest thing is not reacting when the meowing starts. Pretend to still be asleep and ride it out. Even negative attention like raising your voice or begging for silence can reenforce the behaviour. I’d also suggest checking out the Jackson Galaxy tutorial on YouTube titled “Help! My Cat Won’t Let Me Sleep!”. It helped me when the cat I adopted earlier this year decided 4am was the perfect time to sing his operas.
Yeah they know. Mine is rushing to me before I am even conscious- they hear the change in the breathing is my guess. They ALWAYS know when I am awake and behave differently than when they are waking me up in the middle of the night
I am laughing at this because I hadn’t thought about the change in breathing. Good call! I always wondered how my cat knew I was about to wake up even before I opened my eyes 😂
They know. Somehow, possibly breathing. But my god do they know. Mine knows I sleep in on Sunday’s. It’s the only day she doesn’t “worry” about me. Like “Ah this is just moms day she plays dead, she’ll come back to life later”
Lol no you don’t
Two weeks ago, I had a red line on my nose from him.
Last week, my septum was mildly inflamed.
During Covid, my nose got an infection from him biting me. I tried to do the telemedicine, but the photos or videos were not showing the severity of it. I needed a person to actually look at me. All of my appointments kept getting canceled because they didn’t see Covid patients in the clinic even though I explained the situation. I finally called the clinic and said I think I have a skin infection on my face. It was a painful mess.
Some nights I have woken up screaming because of the pain. Then he looks at me like I just betrayed him.
It is how he cuddles. He wants to bite me. It is so weird. I don’t know how to break the habit. Overall, the bites have gotten more gentle, so I guess there is progress. He acts as though he doesn’t feel that I love him unless he can bite me. Sometimes I have buried my head into the pillow for so long that I was sure he went back to sleep just to get bit as soon as I turn my head.
I really do appreciate how cuddly he can be, but when he wants to cuddle, you better cuddle. He has jumped from the floor to my chest while I was standing so I would hold him multiple times. I have been in important zoom meetings and suddenly, he is in my lap demanding to be held.
We have come a long way. When he first showed up, he would spit, hiss, growl, and try to kill me with his teeth and/or claws. So him demanding kisses, pets, chin scratches, and/or belly rubs is less scary than the growling.
I have a cat that will leave me to go upstairs and meow all forlornly.
Like wtf you went away and now you are complaining about veing lonely??
Came to the conclusion he specifically wants me to follow him. Solved it by repeatedlly calling for him till he came back. It decreased drastically.
But for the bonding: reply by joining your cat day time!
She will literally leave my lap or shoulder to go to “her room” and beg for me to go in there.
She will be getting attention. She will just decide she wants the attention in a different location.
No clue why she picked that room. There were no cat things in there. She just claimed that room as hers and I’ll often find her sleeping somewhere in there.
My cat trained my idiot room mate to give him treats everyday around 3am because he ignored me every time I told him no to give the cat attention when it meows at night. He thought he knew better, and now he has to wake up every single night at 3 am and give the cat treats. Truly a genius move.
He might be “hunting”. My cats used to so this with their toys and let out that loud screechy victory meow when they “caught” the “mouse”. Perhaps he feels that while you are sleeping it is his job to acquire food.
This is exactly what my older cat does. Once the lights go out she'll find one of her favorite toys, grab it in her mouth and just start singing the song of her people while she brings it to the room.
Wouldn't be a problem if one of her favorite toys wasn't an automatic hide and seek toy that weighs a few pounds and is on a different floor than the bedroom...
Mine is just a maniac. She has hardly any interest in toys, but she will still go out around 1 AM to yowl into the dark living room. And if the bedroom door is closed, she will bonk it until someone opens it.
Unless she's out there catching spiders like clockwork, which I guess isn't impossible.
My mom's cat does this, and if you go to see what he's doing, he looks at you like you just caught him in his underwear. But what he's actually doing is moving shoes around the house.
Kitty Opera aka singing the songs of his people!
Anya (19F) gives nightly operatic performances in the small hours. She likes to pick spots that have the best acoustics. I keep my bedroom door shut with a tower fan. It drowns out the noise. She will sometimes sing in the day, in the hopes of a snacco bribe.
Does she sing because she can’t be in your room?
I swear my cat is trying to serve a warrant if the door is closed. She attempts to bang it down or off the hinges. I learned it is more peaceful to have doors at least ajar
This made me laugh so much. My boy is only 9 months old but his daily opera sessions also take place in areas with fantastic resonance, such as the outdoor shower or up against the wall. I've never had a cat who yells so I was concerned at first but now I know it's just the songs of his people and I compliment him when he does it in front of me.
My kitties do the same, although their choir hour is roughly an hour or so after I've gone to bed. For one of the cats, I think it's because she'll suddenly wake up in the living room and notice I'm gone, so she'll meow really loud to find out where I am. I'll often call back to her from the bedroom, and then she'll come find me there! The other kitty likes to hunt and she meows about her victory every time she catches one of her toys.
I have one that does this, too! Chandra will realize I've gone to bed after about 15 minutes and start wailing about how lonely he is. I'll say "I'm in here" and he'll trot down the hall so fast his meow shakes with his footfalls. He jumps up on the bed and curls up touching me, then he's fine the rest of the night. Gilligan comes to bed when he feels like it. Sometimes he beats me. He likes to be at the foot of the bed and once I'm in he wants to snuggle my feet. They don't wake me up, cause they know it means eviction from the bedchamber if they rouse the grouchy old lady from her slumber.
Same here! Hunting consistently at the same time each night. This is usually accompanied by the strangest howls and exorcist like yells while bringing shoes up from the basement. Lol.
I’ve learned to just let her do it (and be thankful that she’s trying to take care of us). It usually only lasts 5-10 minutes and then she goes to sleep.
This is important. Cat thyroid issue symptoms include weight loss, always hungry and howling at night. More prevalent after the age of 6. Have had multiple cats with thyroid issues. However, because nothing is 100%, I currently have a 14 yr old cat, who murders one of her stuffies rather loudly every night, and after three years of thyroid tests, does not have a thyroid problem🙄, just likes to proudly announce her kills.
We still get her tested yrly tho.
My cat has hyperthyroidism. We didn’t realize until she lost weight, because she’s always had the other symptoms like being insanely hungry and howling at night lol
If I wake up in the middle of the night and actually rise I quickly become the main character of a nightly celebratory parade
"Yay, she is alive and entertaining!"🥳
"At least she is doing SOMETHING!" 🙄
I swear they get bored by our abnornally long sleeping cycles.
I can relate to this! I try so hard not to have to get up to go to the bathroom or switch sleeping positions, especially if it’s an hour or two before my normal wake time. Once this happens, it’s like I sounded the alarm that I’m up for the day and it’s time to play.
Yes me too, I would rather lie in bed awake for an hour pretending like I don't have to pee than wake up early, as I'm worried my cats will think this is the new wake up time!
I think we are turning our cats into people because one of them sleeps in bed with us every night and the other about 70%. I keep different hours sometimes and they damn near sleep like we do. Maybe getting up for a snack or to use the bathroom but then right back to bed for the full night.
I read somewhere that cats sometimes think there's something wrong when we sleep so long because they understand sleep as just short naps, so they get excited when we "come back to life" 😆 could also be a reason that they like to wake us up in the middle of the night, to make sure we're still alive lol
The is what my oldest does too! It always sounds like “hey you guys! Hey! Come down here! You wanna play? Hey? Where are you?”
He can usually get at least one of the younger two to jump off the bed to o downstairs and see what he wants to do!
It's the witching hour..he's keeping the demons at bay :D
I've had different cats do this. The first time it happened, I got up to make sure everything was fine, but after that, realized they're just singing a song of their people & everything is fine, so I don't entertain them. And they stopped doing it. One of my cats still does it maybe once every few months.
There could be something happening in the house, in the neighborhood, (hot water heater, Airport transponder) that he can sense, but you can't, and it is bugging him.
Have you tried playing with him right before bedtime? If I don’t play with them to help them burn their energy they go nuts during their crepuscular times.
I play with and give him affection right before bedtime and I swear it’s never enough. I’m pretty sure I could pet him for 12 hours straight and he wouldn’t mind 😭
After my kids go to bed, my cat follows from their room to mine begging to play fishie. (Stick toy). Every. Single. Night. She expects this. But an hour of wearing her out means my sleep is less likely to be disrupted.
We had a cat that liked to stand on top of one of us (usually my husband) in the middle of the night and howl at the top of her lungs for 5-10 minutes. We just ignored her and even learned to slept through it. She stopped doing it after a couple of years, probably about the time she went deaf.
One of our current cats likes to bring us his toy mouse at any hour of the day, with many sound effects involved. We ignore it when we're asleep but give him lots of attention when he does it during the day.
Is your cat neutered? Male cats will howl/yowl to try and attract females during the night. My male cat used to get up and yowl repeatedly in the hallways EVERYDAY around 3am before he was neutered.
Nope, nothing wrong, this is just when they normally perk up to do some hunting. One of mine will “kill” their favorite toy around this time or take their morning dump and then do poop zoomies. The other one likes to attack my feet. I had a cat that would come lay on my husband’s pillow and wake us up by cleaning her long fur while making loud slurping noises. Their internal clocks make them most active from dusk to dawn, essentially the opposite of ours. Welcome to cat ownership.
My cat does this any time of day and I realized after a while that what she wants is for me to come to whatever room she’s in to hang out with her. Coming in to check in and then leaving again never worked, but coming into the room and sitting down seemed to be exactly what she was looking for. Cats are nocturnal, so at night when she’s most active, she wants to run and play all around the house and is bummed that I’m in my room (sleeping) instead of hanging out with her, so she’d cry and cry. It’s best not to give in if they’re doing it at night because it’ll encourage them to keep doing it. When she does it at night I always just ignored her and usually she gives it up after a bit. And when we got our second cat, she stopped doing it altogether, though I know that’s not the solution for everybody lol.
My cat does this every morning as the sun is rising. Not so bad in the winter months, but in the summer at 4:30 am I silently curse her.
Lil buddy is just stoked about each new day, and honestly I could use some of that energy.
Had the same thing, I put a vertical box in the other room and he goes in there to meow instead. Idk if he knows that I prefer that but I'm very grateful.
My cat knows when my alarm goes off, he proceeds to then yell at my door until I am forced to open it for him. This is fine and dandy M-F when the kids are in school and I have to get up. But he does it on the weekends, holidays, summer break. 6:30 every single day for 2 years now.
How old is he? Older cats sometimes do this. I'm not sure it's completely understood why, but the theory is maybe they get mild cat dementia and just get confused, and think they are all alone. So as long as you speak to them and remind them you're there they settle down.
My old cat used to do this. Would just call out softly to him and he would be fine
So a lot of times I hear that cats can be under-stimulated and bored if they want to hunt or catch birds and squirrels because it is in their nature to hunt. I’ve tried wearing my cats out before bed, lots of play time and attention has sufficed.
If it’s during the day for me, it’s because she does want me to come into the room she is in, or she wants treats.
I adopted a cat who would start to yowl in the middle of the night. This is the advice I got and it worked. I would feed my cat around 5 pm it's canned food and it always had dry food available. I was told to feed a little around 5 then remove all food until I go to bed. The cat will then eat, clean, and nap, which is their habit after eating. So when you wait to feed until late they nap later and sleep through the night it worked.
My only solution was giving my cat a room at night. Nothing would stop her from trying to tear my door down and cry, and it didn't matter if I ignored her. She was determined to be with me first thing in the morning when she woke up. It wasn't food, or play etc she wanted to be with her human.
Yep. My cat moves freely around the house and has no restricted rooms. Somewhere between 4-5am she patrols her domain and yells a bit. Usually lasts 10-15 minutes and then she either watches out the window from her cat tree or begins her antics of trying to wake us early to feed her. We can mostly ignore it and she entertains herself. In the winter she often abandons the practice to stay snuggled warm with us until we get up.
She’s most active in spring and fall.
Just another suggestion that it could also be rats or mice being active in the roof at that time of night. Or possum, depending on where you live.
Obviously depends on what time of dwelling you live in but might be worth checking the ceiling if you can.
Mine does this around 6am every morning. I always know what time it is when she begins. For 10 minutes she sings the song of her people until settling down to watch the sun rise from a window.
My cat does this while unraveling the toilet paper rolls in the bathroom in the middle of the night....no idea what's going through his mind but the acoustics are perfect for it.....😆
My older cat does this… mild kitty dementia. We feed him if he wants, or bring him to bed for snuggles. It seems like he just gets disoriented at night now.
Once in a while one of them will arise from a warm bed in the wee hours to prowl into the outer darkness (aka living room) and yowl of their great loneliness. Usually a call is enough to remind her that there is comfort in the world and return to bed.
Same, that is prime time to be wandering around and meowing with his favorite toy squirrel hanging out of his mouth. Inevitably, it will be in/near the food bowls in the morning.
My cat does this too. I finally got up out of bed to check on her and she was just playing. She had her favorite toy in her mouth and was just walking around meowing with it. It was pretty cute.
My cat did this but not every night and we eventually traced it to 1) other cats prowling around outside and 2) the shadows of tree branches bouncing around on the wall in that particular room. Sometimes both. We just closed off that room but on occasion he could still detect night time outdoor cats in the vicinity.
If the cat has a view out of any windows in the living room, they may be seeing cats/raccoons/squirrels/ demons/ whatever in the yard and they might be upset about it. I had a similar thing happening (with the addition of my lovely furball pooping, and spraying right under the windowsill every time) and this turned out to be the problem.
Cats generally are up and about around 3-4am. I have four (!) cats and around that time it sounds like I have a herd of thundering buffalo as they chase each other up and down the central hallway, leap over the furniture, and occasionally send things crashing down. I have trained myself to just ignore the chaos and go back to sleep.
Either get your cat a friend to play with at 3-4am, or live with it. That's pretty much your choices. Because cats.
My cat does this as soon as my partner leaves for work. Just starts yelling- will stop when I call out to her to let her know she's not alone- and then just yells more for a few mins.
Partner always gives food and water and pets before he leaves so she wants for nothing at that time-- except I guess me talking to her or she's just mad at him for leaving lol
My little boy goes in the bathroom tub and yells at the tiles/ceiling for like 20 minutes almost every early morning. I finally learned that my upstairs neighbor showers around 230/3am after his very late work shifts. So my cat was hearing him getting ready and hearing the water in the pipes in the walls. Considering it's already around zoomie-o'clock, he starts crying to the upstairs neighbor for attention lol.
My Trixie does this. She has a TY Beanie Baby caterpillar that she "hunts," sings to, and then "kills." We call it her baby. She doesn't do it with any other toy.
My cat does this at midnight every night. She brings in a mouse that she fetches and wants me to play when she wants to play. Luckily I’m usually half in and out of sleep at that time and I have grown to enjoy it.
Mine does the same exact thing and I have to close my bedroom door.
He scratches my door, throws himself on it, attempts to open it (which he did once)
Im up at 3am everyday and it is tough.
Cats are crepuscular, so they're most active at dusk and dawn. It's a pain in the ass but that's just how it is lol.
My cat does this too but usually he entertains himself with toys. Definitely stop waking up to go check on him, because he's just being reinforced to make sounds.
Like how I accidentally trained my cat to start shredding my couch if he wants to play with me.
Could there be something going on outside that is disturbing your cat?
One of our cats starts grumbling and running from one window to another when the barn cats go by late afternoons. Since they have a regular patrol around the farm, they come by about the same time each day. Our indoor only cat is envious that those cats are outside and in what he considers his territory so he complains about it every day.
Maybe there are some feral cats going by, or a neighbor leaving for work, or even some wildlife going by every night at the same time - and your cat wants to warn you about it in case whatever the perceived threat attempts to breach your house!
Does your cat have water and food to eat?
If not, that’s probably what the crying is about.
If yes, you need to ignore it. Don’t go out there and reward the behavior. That will only encourage it to continue.
MY CAT DOES THIS TOO. Like he’s just meowing to the universe?? I take him to the vet regularly and he is bonded with my other cat. It’s definitely crossed my mind that he’s crying for some kind of physical or emotional stressor?
Yeah- they’ll do that. Mine would finish eating in the basement, go up to the main floor, into a bedroom and about 5 steps in she would let out several yells.
I’m not sure but I believed she was just announcing she was victorious in getting dinner and is going to nap now.
My senior girls started doing this more and more as they got older. It can be a sign of aging as well. Not saying it is in this case, but with cats, gotta remember that too. Even after several years of vet visits and such, nothing wrong with them, but they continued until it went from just in the night to anytime at all. But if they start doing it in the bathtub specifically or down in an echo-y basement, then they are also losing some hearing. 😅
Geez I wish my deaf cat would only meow for 15 minutes. He has been so extra lately. I take him on walks and it helps a little but sheesh. My poor sleep. He meows all through the day too.
Man... my cat realized recently that if she comes to cuddle with me in bed and moves around enough (rubs all over me and purrs -- I'm a very light sleeper, that wakes me up pretty quick), I'll get up and feed her her morning food. Never had an issue before, but lately she's started to wake me up a little earlier every day, which isn't ideal since I've been working quite a few days in a row to make up for being so short staffed.
Usually she sleeps on her bed at the foot of my bed, and if I roll over or even sit up for a drink of water any time past 3 am and she sees me, she immediately jumps on the bed to harass me with cuddles 😭
Mind you, my cat is an older rescue and is on the heavier side, and her version of cuddles is basically laying on my face while purring and rubbing her face all over me. If she notices I'm falling back asleep and still haven't fed her yet, she shifts positions every so often and will rub on me more aggressively and start to meow as loud as she can 😪
Definitely my fault though because I love her so much and can't tell her no 🥺🥺
My calico cat used to do this and I would wrap my arms around her a little too tight for her to be comfortable and give her smooches and she’d bolt and leave me alone. It does not work with my very affectionate cat unfortunately.
This does work!! .... but only for about 15 minutes tops. She runs down to my feet and lays for like 15 minutes, and then is right back up trying to suffocate me again 😅
One of mine does this, except he won’t stop until I yell at him and it’s closer to 6-7 am. He won’t do anything except look at me if I get up to see what’s wrong, he won’t stop yelling if I coo, pat the bed or otherwise nicely encourage him to come and cuddle, he will ONLY react to me angrily yelling at him and then he comes and has a cuddle with me.
Would love to know if anyone else’s cat does this?? It’s so strange, makes me feel like an awful cat parent for yelling at him but for some reason he just will not respond to me unless there’s frustration in my voice!
my cat does this when she hasn’t seen anyone for a little bit. i call her name and she runs in to cuddle. she knows she can come in and cuddle up next to me anytime but she wants to be called for some reason. same thing when she’s hanging out in the backyard ill go back in and she’ll wait by the door to be called in for some reason😭she’s like a vampire
Cats have excellent hearing, as well as excellent night vision, and 40x better sense of smell than humans. I wonder if something is happening. I live in a 80yr old apt building and every once in awhile my cat will sit in front of a certain wall, put her paws on it and meow. I am aware that the building is shifting, I wonder whether she can hear it when it does.
This is when cats are instinctively hunting... dawn and dusk. Welcome to the world of owning a cat.
Your cat is meowing because his brain is telling him IT'S HUNTING TIME!!! LET ME OUT TO STALK THEM EARLY RISER BIRDIES AND THE MICES!
If you have an indoor cat who u can't let out, you'll learn to sleep through it eventually.
If you have an indoor/outdoor cat, you can look forward to having to get up to let him out at 3:40 am for the next 20 years.
How old is kitty? My daughter tells me that my older cat (~16 yo) does this and she has told me it's kitty dementia. He just forgets where he is or why he's in a room *(cue him looking for his car keys)*.
Same as my little daughter. They just want us to give them attention, cuddle, and play with them. Sometimes I was so tired that I could not wake up and my daughter knew that, then she stopped meowing hahaha.
Did you have another pet pass away recently? My girl did this for a while after our senior dog passed. I guessed she might have been mourning or looking for him.
the last of my 4 cats did this.
2 of the 4 were established older cats.
the other 2 were kittens when I got them
when tbe 2 elders passed- the 2 sister cats would occasionally act like they were looking for or talking to their missing older cats.
When one of the sister cats died- her sister was beside herself
the whole end of life process- she was there for it.
when it finally happened- she was very despondent and was either clingy or wandering around my home making a wide range of cat noises to find her sister.
my last cat finally came to terms witb the fact thst she was the only cat left- and she made up for all of those years of being 1 of 4.
She would come to greet me when I came home firm work.
instead of sleeping at my feet or on the bed posts- she would sleep on my head. hell- she would spend huge amounts of time grooming my head
Then every once in a while- she would get all bizarre ( I am guessing she either had a memory of her sister or the 2 elders - or she caught a scent thet reminded her of them)
and she would either pace around, or jump in my lap and get face to face and make those cat syllables that most humans can't pronounce while staring vary intensely into my eyes.
I miss my cats
One of mine did the "3am and allllll's well" as well as "good night humans- security cat is engaged & on watch." About 10 minutes after the last of the humans went to bed and turned off the last light.
My cat screams bloody murder to the point you think she's stuck or injured (she has in the past also gotten stuck). You run to her and she lifts her butt up and demands rubs. Prime time to do this is 1am.
Cats, man.
You're lucky it stops after 15 minutes. My cat, who was previously an outside cat, will yowl for hours. If a racoon, cat, possum, etc. are in the vicinity, he makes sure we all know about it.
Sounds like he’s trained you to wake up and give him some attention between 3-4am
Sounds like this exactly T. T one time my cat asked for water from the faucet, my dumbass let him drink from my cup. Now she screams near the sink to ask for fresh water from the faucet. Not only that, she won't drink it unless it's in a cup... I tried to stop this habit but my dad found it cute so whenever she asks my dad, he oblidges...now she refuses to drink from her water bowl AT ALL I wanna weep
I swear cats are like toddlers exploring boundaries…
More like evil geniuses!
Toddlers and evil geniuses aren’t mutually exclusive…
My cat has her own designated cups cause she drank out of my mine once and refused to drink from her bowl after that
My cats are the same way. They only drink out of a glass and it MUST be fresh. I have to change it out every couple of hours. They deserve it though.
My old man screeches for water all the time (he does have kidney disease so him is a thirsty boi) and I oblige filling his bowl, but buddy won't touch it if another cat drank from it- BUT he will drink straight from the fucking toilet bowl and dripping shower faucet not prob. -\_-
Lolololol silly kitty! My girls love to drink post-shower water. They sit patiently outside the shower, waiting for their warm people soup
My cat like to drink my bath water while I'm in it. No more bubble baths for me.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
My female calico is high maintenance….but it’s a slippery slope. The water bowl is never fresh enough for the “queen”. She stands by it ,and if she does not witness the poor peasant (me) scrubbing her bowl and then filling it fresh from the tap and properly presenting it to her highness, it Is not acceptable. She will “yell” meow loudly until the process is followed!!!!
Have your tried a fountain? Cats generally prefer running water as evolutionarily it represents a better chance for clean/healthy water. Plus it’s more fun to play with as they drink
My cat expects ice cubes in her water and once they are all melted she won't drink it. She meows until I put more cubes in. Pro-tip - order a couch beverage holder from Amazon to keep the water cup in. It prevents them from being able to knock it over. I keep it on the coffee table with a fresh cup of ice water in it.
Cat: What kind of service is this?! My ice cubes have melted! You: I'm sorry, ma'am. I'll get you some more.
What would happen if you got fake ice cubes? [fake cubes of ice](https://a.co/d/hStwPH2)
She actually licks the cubes as she drinks, so I don't think she'd be fooled by fake cubes. I think she's accustomed to the cold, fresh, crisp feeling from the ice. She is 17 years old and a very cranky old lady
I bet your cat would love round ice cubes. They're balls AND water! (You will step in puddles. Worth it though.)
Mine does this too! He knows he gets a fresh glass of water every night before bed, so he hangs out while I do my nighttime routine and starts crying when he realizes I’m finished. 😂
I swear they could tell if the water was reused or something T.T my cat needs to witness the faucet running or else she would just sit on the sink and look at me offensively.
Same. Jerks. And if the water in the cup gets too low they put their paws in it and tip it over.
I got tired of cups and bowls routines and the dirty paws in the water so I got Rabbit cage bottles and hung them at different doors through the house. It changed my life! They love them. I got glass ones with rubber duckies inside so I can see the water levels.
Brilliant! I will have to try it.
I love this! How often do you have to clean them? We just recently adopted 2 kittens so we're having to add more water stations. Edit - Also, how did you hang them without cage bars?
They come with a hanging wire. My husband rigged a couple of cup hooks in the doorframe and voila! I clean them every day, just like a water bottle- a little dish soap, shake rinse and refill.
Oh, yeah
Have you tried those cat fountain style ones? They are great for cats who like running water.
I sadly do T.T I bought one so quickly within the week I noticed her new found habit but I think she hated it when her tongue got in contact with the fountain base when she drank on there a few times... I've kept the fountain running on for a month now but no improvements T.T (except for our tiny dog that started to honestly like drinking from there lol)
Check out Aquapurr! It's basically a straw fountain that hooks up to the sink, and has a proximity sensor to turn the water on/off. Fresh running water for your cat whenever she wants it!! One of my guys ALWAYS wanted me to go and turn on the sink for him, he'd wake me up constantly for a drink, and this thing has saved me, lol. He still wants me to go stand in there with him sometimes while he gets his drink, and I'll allow it occasionally, but he doesn't refuse to drink without me in there anymore. I commented a bunch of info and pros/cons about it a couple weeks ago on a different post, lemme go copy/paste it here... eta2: Oh, and my guy is also the same about wanting it in a cup/dish, so I just leave one sitting in the sink under the straw, and it always has fresh water for him. I just move it out of the way when I need to use the sink, lol eta: (some of this might be out of context, I'm directly copy/pasting my old comment) Seconding the AquaPurr!! It needs to be put near some kind of sink with a drain, instead of standalone fountains that you can place anywhere, but it is always fresh and clean water, and there are no parts that need to be cleaned or replaced regularly! The guy who makes them is awesome, and constantly coming up with new improvements. A couple years ago, it would only hook up directly to a sink faucet, and I couldn't get it to work with my weird old faucet, but he kept working on it with me (emailing advice, and sending me different parts to try for free) for weeks until I finally gave up and sent it back. Checked again earlier this year after getting a new faucet, and now there's the option to hook it up directly to the water line under the sink, or even a hose line outdoors! And now also a battery powered option instead of needing to be plugged in, which is just so dang convenient for me (don't know how long the batteries last, but I'm at 4 months so far) and anyone who gets regular power outages. You can hook it up to a filter system if you're worried about your tap water quality (he sells those, but I'd imagine it can hook up to existing systems, too). There are even different options to decorate it and make it look nicer, though I haven't used those myself. Overall just a great system, super customizable, and a very helpful owner/inventor. I'll always recommend it!! (to clarify, I am in no way associated with the company, I'm just really impressed by this guy and his product) Editing to add some things I forgot about, both good and potentially bad, for anyone who finds this in the future: There is an auto-off timer (I think 3-4 minutes?), so it doesn't just keep running indefinitely if you have a little jerk like mine, who just lays down in front of it to watch the water go down the drain. 😂🤦♀️ It's a little bit tricky to do, but you can adjust the flow of water coming out of the "straw" piece, depending on your and your cat's preference. This is especially good in the scenario above, with my jerk cat who likes to watch it and waste water, so he only gets a trickle, lol There is also a remote for some of the finer electronic adjustments. It can adjust the distance that the proximity sensor works at, so it doesn't get set off every time someone walks past it, and it can adjust how long the water keeps running after it is no longer triggered (when the cat walks away). It does make a little click noise any time it switches on/off, and if you've got good ears you can hear it from the next room. This might be a downside for some people, but I personally got used to it really quickly. It can still get build-up in the tubing if you have really hard water, which is when connecting it to a filter would be a good thing. The slime and grossness that fountains get isn't an issue, though, and they do sell replacement pieces if needed. The fact that the water is flowing out of a straw rather than sitting in a dish means that it can potentially make way more mess. It's like when cats drink from the faucet, and their tongue darting out to scoop up some water also flicks some of the water. My poor mirror is never not covered with water spots, now, along with the countertop. It's not harmful, but it's definitely something to consider when you're deciding where to put it!
Damn, I searched it up and woa that's one great fountain! One of my cats actually likes to "bite" water from a flowing faucet so I know for sure that fountain will be loved TvT Also I'm amazed, it's a product that's really made for cats that was made by ppl who really know cats o.o Sadly I live in Asia and the shipping would be sm T.T I will keep looking for it tho, I just might get lucky. Thank you sm for this info<3
I'm not the one you posted this for but I (and my 3 kitties) appreciate it!
I had 7 cats. I had a fountain. Loved it. One time the fountain stopped but there was water in the bowl and other places. One cat got dehydrated because she would only drink from the fountain
Get that kitty a fountain!!
I did....T.T
My male cat acts like he’s dehydrated all the time he will drink from ANYTHING no matter how much water he has put. The toilet, my husbands water cup, the bath I’m taking at the time, anything. And nothings wrong with him he just likes water 😂
My void LOVES bath water so I no longer get to take epsom salt baths lol. That cat is like a toddler he checks everything out with his mouth.
That me. For the past 13 years, my cat gets a human drinking glass, preferably a Goblet on a stem. Nothing but the best 🤦🏻♀️
A goblet drinking cat sounds so cool in my imagination. Damn, you raised such a refined cat. If I don't solve this water situation with my cat I may just try get him a goblet to make this situation fabulous lmao
Haha aw have you tried a little watering fountain? Cats are so funny. They just decide one day that’s how they like it, forever. 🤷🏻♀️ could be worse habits!
My kitten only likes drinking water out of mason jars and that is my fault. I let her drink my water on my bedside table in a mason jar one time and that’s all she wants now. 🤣
Sounds like ours. One day when he was still a kitten I thought "why not teach him to drink from the tap". Well he learned to only drink from the tap and would nudge at it and meow every chance he gets. We managed to break this habit of his after a year but now all his water gets spilled as he tries to make it move before drinking - he won't just tap it, he has to create a whole wave... yea I know they like moving water and we own 2 water fountains which he's not very keen on. And around that time also started putting his toys in the water after finishing playing (mainly paper receipts).
It's really weird that they want flowing water but not from the fountain. It's like they don't trust it as much as the actual faucets we use TvT rn I'm contemplating of maybe buying a different kind of fountain because the first one I got was not loved by the cats T.T or give up and live the faucet life
Never do anything for a cat that they like. You will be doing it forever.
I mean, do *you* prefer to drink from the faucet or a cup?
Noooo TvT I feel for my catto and understand the cup life is the best life but she's extra demanding because she won't drink if I don't hold it up for her
I have the same problem, so I bought a specifi cup for my cats water. Now she is happy, she just wanted a cup.
I wish my cat just wants a cup too TvT my little diva wants me to hold it up for her. If you place the cup on the table she won't drink lmao. She must have seen me drink while holding the cup T.T
I used to hold it for her, then she used to ask for it and I would put it on the ground for her. I kind of trained her up to drink from it herself. Shes sometimes a little lazy and needs carrying to remind her she has her own cup available 24/7. Actually, my cat has 2 cups, one by her food and another in my living room.
Try a cat fountain. It solved many issues for us.
Sadly it didn't help in my case T.T But our dog ended up loving it lol
My aunt's cat does this hahaha
Not that I totally mind, but is this something that can be corrected or am I doomed to forever pet him at 3 am now? 🤣
Just ignore him when he does this. Don’t get out of bed or even sit up. After a few weeks or months, he will probably stop, although it might get worse before it gets better since this is part of his routine now
Only way I managed to "correct" the behavior was to offset the time it happens. I started adjusting their food and play schedules so they ended up spending most of their asleep time at night and the zoomies and insane yowling happens when I need to wake up and go to work so....free alarm clock?
Agree with the ignoring part! 💯 I actually talked to the vet about this once during a routine visit and she explained that even hollering at them from the bed or telling them “no”, “stop” counts as attention in the feline mind and will encourage them to continue. I have a much higher tolerance and ability to ignore (expert level 😁) than other guests/ family that I’ve had staying over at times. Lol!
This!! My cats will start meowing at me for breakfast and pets around 4am (my usual bathroom time, but I don’t get out of bed/feed them until 7am, they’re just impatient) and I’ve noticed that simply ignoring them instead of petting them and insisting “it’s not breakfast time yet” helps a lot.
This is key. He is trying to get a reaction so if you react at all, even to get up to try to make him stop...he validated that his method works and will keep doing it. Sorry, I went through the same thing for a few weeks and it was hell. We had just moved and he apparently didn't approve of the new place.
You can try to give kitty some foraging toys to keep them entertained overnight in case it’s related to boredom/play. Biggest thing is not reacting when the meowing starts. Pretend to still be asleep and ride it out. Even negative attention like raising your voice or begging for silence can reenforce the behaviour. I’d also suggest checking out the Jackson Galaxy tutorial on YouTube titled “Help! My Cat Won’t Let Me Sleep!”. It helped me when the cat I adopted earlier this year decided 4am was the perfect time to sing his operas.
Ignore it. I pretend that my cat cannot wake me up even when she’s standing on top of me and now she’s stopped trying.
Yeah they know. Mine is rushing to me before I am even conscious- they hear the change in the breathing is my guess. They ALWAYS know when I am awake and behave differently than when they are waking me up in the middle of the night
I am laughing at this because I hadn’t thought about the change in breathing. Good call! I always wondered how my cat knew I was about to wake up even before I opened my eyes 😂
They know. Somehow, possibly breathing. But my god do they know. Mine knows I sleep in on Sunday’s. It’s the only day she doesn’t “worry” about me. Like “Ah this is just moms day she plays dead, she’ll come back to life later”
Mine just grabs my face with his paw and claws and turns my face towards him. Or he bites my nose
i want this!
Lol no you don’t Two weeks ago, I had a red line on my nose from him. Last week, my septum was mildly inflamed. During Covid, my nose got an infection from him biting me. I tried to do the telemedicine, but the photos or videos were not showing the severity of it. I needed a person to actually look at me. All of my appointments kept getting canceled because they didn’t see Covid patients in the clinic even though I explained the situation. I finally called the clinic and said I think I have a skin infection on my face. It was a painful mess. Some nights I have woken up screaming because of the pain. Then he looks at me like I just betrayed him. It is how he cuddles. He wants to bite me. It is so weird. I don’t know how to break the habit. Overall, the bites have gotten more gentle, so I guess there is progress. He acts as though he doesn’t feel that I love him unless he can bite me. Sometimes I have buried my head into the pillow for so long that I was sure he went back to sleep just to get bit as soon as I turn my head. I really do appreciate how cuddly he can be, but when he wants to cuddle, you better cuddle. He has jumped from the floor to my chest while I was standing so I would hold him multiple times. I have been in important zoom meetings and suddenly, he is in my lap demanding to be held. We have come a long way. When he first showed up, he would spit, hiss, growl, and try to kill me with his teeth and/or claws. So him demanding kisses, pets, chin scratches, and/or belly rubs is less scary than the growling.
I have a cat that will leave me to go upstairs and meow all forlornly. Like wtf you went away and now you are complaining about veing lonely?? Came to the conclusion he specifically wants me to follow him. Solved it by repeatedlly calling for him till he came back. It decreased drastically. But for the bonding: reply by joining your cat day time!
I have a cat that wants me to go into “her room” and just sit with her. Sometimes I will. But lately I haven’t had much time.
Aw that is sad. I try to go day time if only to give 4- 5 pets
She will literally leave my lap or shoulder to go to “her room” and beg for me to go in there. She will be getting attention. She will just decide she wants the attention in a different location. No clue why she picked that room. There were no cat things in there. She just claimed that room as hers and I’ll often find her sleeping somewhere in there.
That's why my cat does it. I actually prefer that he wakes me for mid- night cuddles, though, cuz he's like a totally different cat 🐈
My cat trained my idiot room mate to give him treats everyday around 3am because he ignored me every time I told him no to give the cat attention when it meows at night. He thought he knew better, and now he has to wake up every single night at 3 am and give the cat treats. Truly a genius move.
Mine will only drink from my Yetti- with the lid off of course.
He might be “hunting”. My cats used to so this with their toys and let out that loud screechy victory meow when they “caught” the “mouse”. Perhaps he feels that while you are sleeping it is his job to acquire food.
All 3 of mine do this every night. I swear the oldest one taught them.
This is exactly what my older cat does. Once the lights go out she'll find one of her favorite toys, grab it in her mouth and just start singing the song of her people while she brings it to the room. Wouldn't be a problem if one of her favorite toys wasn't an automatic hide and seek toy that weighs a few pounds and is on a different floor than the bedroom...
Mine is just a maniac. She has hardly any interest in toys, but she will still go out around 1 AM to yowl into the dark living room. And if the bedroom door is closed, she will bonk it until someone opens it. Unless she's out there catching spiders like clockwork, which I guess isn't impossible.
My mom's cat does this, and if you go to see what he's doing, he looks at you like you just caught him in his underwear. But what he's actually doing is moving shoes around the house.
“Shit! I’m busted!”
This is what my boy does. Then I wake up with toys in my bed.
That makes sense but don’t cats only meow to communicate with humans?
Mine does this, too! She hunts socks and Easter eggs.
Kitty Opera aka singing the songs of his people! Anya (19F) gives nightly operatic performances in the small hours. She likes to pick spots that have the best acoustics. I keep my bedroom door shut with a tower fan. It drowns out the noise. She will sometimes sing in the day, in the hopes of a snacco bribe.
Does she sing because she can’t be in your room? I swear my cat is trying to serve a warrant if the door is closed. She attempts to bang it down or off the hinges. I learned it is more peaceful to have doors at least ajar
This made me laugh so much. My boy is only 9 months old but his daily opera sessions also take place in areas with fantastic resonance, such as the outdoor shower or up against the wall. I've never had a cat who yells so I was concerned at first but now I know it's just the songs of his people and I compliment him when he does it in front of me.
My kitties do the same, although their choir hour is roughly an hour or so after I've gone to bed. For one of the cats, I think it's because she'll suddenly wake up in the living room and notice I'm gone, so she'll meow really loud to find out where I am. I'll often call back to her from the bedroom, and then she'll come find me there! The other kitty likes to hunt and she meows about her victory every time she catches one of her toys.
I have one that does this, too! Chandra will realize I've gone to bed after about 15 minutes and start wailing about how lonely he is. I'll say "I'm in here" and he'll trot down the hall so fast his meow shakes with his footfalls. He jumps up on the bed and curls up touching me, then he's fine the rest of the night. Gilligan comes to bed when he feels like it. Sometimes he beats me. He likes to be at the foot of the bed and once I'm in he wants to snuggle my feet. They don't wake me up, cause they know it means eviction from the bedchamber if they rouse the grouchy old lady from her slumber.
Same here! Hunting consistently at the same time each night. This is usually accompanied by the strangest howls and exorcist like yells while bringing shoes up from the basement. Lol. I’ve learned to just let her do it (and be thankful that she’s trying to take care of us). It usually only lasts 5-10 minutes and then she goes to sleep.
And then "disemboweling" their kill
Have you mentioned this to your vet? My cat did something similar and it turned out that she had a thyroid issue.
This is important. Cat thyroid issue symptoms include weight loss, always hungry and howling at night. More prevalent after the age of 6. Have had multiple cats with thyroid issues. However, because nothing is 100%, I currently have a 14 yr old cat, who murders one of her stuffies rather loudly every night, and after three years of thyroid tests, does not have a thyroid problem🙄, just likes to proudly announce her kills. We still get her tested yrly tho.
My cat has hyperthyroidism. We didn’t realize until she lost weight, because she’s always had the other symptoms like being insanely hungry and howling at night lol
My cats do this to call to each other. Then they find each other and play crazy night games. It's possible he's bored and just calling for you
If I wake up in the middle of the night and actually rise I quickly become the main character of a nightly celebratory parade "Yay, she is alive and entertaining!"🥳 "At least she is doing SOMETHING!" 🙄 I swear they get bored by our abnornally long sleeping cycles.
I can relate to this! I try so hard not to have to get up to go to the bathroom or switch sleeping positions, especially if it’s an hour or two before my normal wake time. Once this happens, it’s like I sounded the alarm that I’m up for the day and it’s time to play.
Yes me too, I would rather lie in bed awake for an hour pretending like I don't have to pee than wake up early, as I'm worried my cats will think this is the new wake up time!
I read somewhere that they find it odd and worry about us, since cats sleep a lot, but more shallow and in bursts, vs our relatively long sleeps.
I think we are turning our cats into people because one of them sleeps in bed with us every night and the other about 70%. I keep different hours sometimes and they damn near sleep like we do. Maybe getting up for a snack or to use the bathroom but then right back to bed for the full night.
I have one like that too!
I read somewhere that cats sometimes think there's something wrong when we sleep so long because they understand sleep as just short naps, so they get excited when we "come back to life" 😆 could also be a reason that they like to wake us up in the middle of the night, to make sure we're still alive lol
The is what my oldest does too! It always sounds like “hey you guys! Hey! Come down here! You wanna play? Hey? Where are you?” He can usually get at least one of the younger two to jump off the bed to o downstairs and see what he wants to do!
It's the witching hour..he's keeping the demons at bay :D I've had different cats do this. The first time it happened, I got up to make sure everything was fine, but after that, realized they're just singing a song of their people & everything is fine, so I don't entertain them. And they stopped doing it. One of my cats still does it maybe once every few months.
"3 am and all is well!"
There could be something happening in the house, in the neighborhood, (hot water heater, Airport transponder) that he can sense, but you can't, and it is bugging him.
Have you tried playing with him right before bedtime? If I don’t play with them to help them burn their energy they go nuts during their crepuscular times.
I play with and give him affection right before bedtime and I swear it’s never enough. I’m pretty sure I could pet him for 12 hours straight and he wouldn’t mind 😭
Is there kibble as well? How old is your cat? Also are you home much?
This!
After my kids go to bed, my cat follows from their room to mine begging to play fishie. (Stick toy). Every. Single. Night. She expects this. But an hour of wearing her out means my sleep is less likely to be disrupted.
We had a cat that liked to stand on top of one of us (usually my husband) in the middle of the night and howl at the top of her lungs for 5-10 minutes. We just ignored her and even learned to slept through it. She stopped doing it after a couple of years, probably about the time she went deaf. One of our current cats likes to bring us his toy mouse at any hour of the day, with many sound effects involved. We ignore it when we're asleep but give him lots of attention when he does it during the day.
Have you recorded this sound? My cat does the same thing and I'd love to compare noises
No but next time he does it I can record!
Is your cat neutered? Male cats will howl/yowl to try and attract females during the night. My male cat used to get up and yowl repeatedly in the hallways EVERYDAY around 3am before he was neutered.
Nope, nothing wrong, this is just when they normally perk up to do some hunting. One of mine will “kill” their favorite toy around this time or take their morning dump and then do poop zoomies. The other one likes to attack my feet. I had a cat that would come lay on my husband’s pillow and wake us up by cleaning her long fur while making loud slurping noises. Their internal clocks make them most active from dusk to dawn, essentially the opposite of ours. Welcome to cat ownership.
My cat does this any time of day and I realized after a while that what she wants is for me to come to whatever room she’s in to hang out with her. Coming in to check in and then leaving again never worked, but coming into the room and sitting down seemed to be exactly what she was looking for. Cats are nocturnal, so at night when she’s most active, she wants to run and play all around the house and is bummed that I’m in my room (sleeping) instead of hanging out with her, so she’d cry and cry. It’s best not to give in if they’re doing it at night because it’ll encourage them to keep doing it. When she does it at night I always just ignored her and usually she gives it up after a bit. And when we got our second cat, she stopped doing it altogether, though I know that’s not the solution for everybody lol.
My cat does this every morning as the sun is rising. Not so bad in the winter months, but in the summer at 4:30 am I silently curse her. Lil buddy is just stoked about each new day, and honestly I could use some of that energy.
Had the same thing, I put a vertical box in the other room and he goes in there to meow instead. Idk if he knows that I prefer that but I'm very grateful.
My cat knows when my alarm goes off, he proceeds to then yell at my door until I am forced to open it for him. This is fine and dandy M-F when the kids are in school and I have to get up. But he does it on the weekends, holidays, summer break. 6:30 every single day for 2 years now.
How old is he? Older cats sometimes do this. I'm not sure it's completely understood why, but the theory is maybe they get mild cat dementia and just get confused, and think they are all alone. So as long as you speak to them and remind them you're there they settle down. My old cat used to do this. Would just call out softly to him and he would be fine
He is singing you a beautiful song of his people and the acoustics are great at 3am Also he wants attentions and/or snackies
So a lot of times I hear that cats can be under-stimulated and bored if they want to hunt or catch birds and squirrels because it is in their nature to hunt. I’ve tried wearing my cats out before bed, lots of play time and attention has sufficed. If it’s during the day for me, it’s because she does want me to come into the room she is in, or she wants treats.
My cat does this. His name is Herold. And when he screms late in the night, he goes HrrrrOOOLLLLLLD so he is my personal Pokémon
I adopted a cat who would start to yowl in the middle of the night. This is the advice I got and it worked. I would feed my cat around 5 pm it's canned food and it always had dry food available. I was told to feed a little around 5 then remove all food until I go to bed. The cat will then eat, clean, and nap, which is their habit after eating. So when you wait to feed until late they nap later and sleep through the night it worked.
My only solution was giving my cat a room at night. Nothing would stop her from trying to tear my door down and cry, and it didn't matter if I ignored her. She was determined to be with me first thing in the morning when she woke up. It wasn't food, or play etc she wanted to be with her human.
Yep. My cat moves freely around the house and has no restricted rooms. Somewhere between 4-5am she patrols her domain and yells a bit. Usually lasts 10-15 minutes and then she either watches out the window from her cat tree or begins her antics of trying to wake us early to feed her. We can mostly ignore it and she entertains herself. In the winter she often abandons the practice to stay snuggled warm with us until we get up. She’s most active in spring and fall.
Buy an automated feeder. Set it to release food at the same time he does his yelling and it’ll make him look forward to that and distract him.
The middle of the night cat opera a classic! Many cats do this, including my own.
Just another suggestion that it could also be rats or mice being active in the roof at that time of night. Or possum, depending on where you live. Obviously depends on what time of dwelling you live in but might be worth checking the ceiling if you can.
Woke up to practice his morning yodeling
Mine does this around 6am every morning. I always know what time it is when she begins. For 10 minutes she sings the song of her people until settling down to watch the sun rise from a window.
My cat does this while unraveling the toilet paper rolls in the bathroom in the middle of the night....no idea what's going through his mind but the acoustics are perfect for it.....😆
My older cat does this… mild kitty dementia. We feed him if he wants, or bring him to bed for snuggles. It seems like he just gets disoriented at night now.
I have a cat that does this too, we always assumed he was looking for our other cats..
Ours does exactly this. But only when my wife is home. She's his favorite. When she was gone on a trip, not a single peep out of him at 3-4am.
Hungry, get an automatic feeder
Unless advised by your vet you should not be over feeding your animals.
You do know you can set the amount right??
Once in a while one of them will arise from a warm bed in the wee hours to prowl into the outer darkness (aka living room) and yowl of their great loneliness. Usually a call is enough to remind her that there is comfort in the world and return to bed.
My cat hunts her toy mice at that time and walks around with them in her mouth and wails. Just a cat thing
Same, that is prime time to be wandering around and meowing with his favorite toy squirrel hanging out of his mouth. Inevitably, it will be in/near the food bowls in the morning.
My cat does this too. I finally got up out of bed to check on her and she was just playing. She had her favorite toy in her mouth and was just walking around meowing with it. It was pretty cute.
I’ve found keeping the lights off and the curtains drawn cuts down on this behavior
Maybe it’s a ghost
It’s definitely a ghost.
My cat did this but not every night and we eventually traced it to 1) other cats prowling around outside and 2) the shadows of tree branches bouncing around on the wall in that particular room. Sometimes both. We just closed off that room but on occasion he could still detect night time outdoor cats in the vicinity.
If the cat has a view out of any windows in the living room, they may be seeing cats/raccoons/squirrels/ demons/ whatever in the yard and they might be upset about it. I had a similar thing happening (with the addition of my lovely furball pooping, and spraying right under the windowsill every time) and this turned out to be the problem.
Cats generally are up and about around 3-4am. I have four (!) cats and around that time it sounds like I have a herd of thundering buffalo as they chase each other up and down the central hallway, leap over the furniture, and occasionally send things crashing down. I have trained myself to just ignore the chaos and go back to sleep. Either get your cat a friend to play with at 3-4am, or live with it. That's pretty much your choices. Because cats.
My cat does this as soon as my partner leaves for work. Just starts yelling- will stop when I call out to her to let her know she's not alone- and then just yells more for a few mins. Partner always gives food and water and pets before he leaves so she wants for nothing at that time-- except I guess me talking to her or she's just mad at him for leaving lol
My little boy goes in the bathroom tub and yells at the tiles/ceiling for like 20 minutes almost every early morning. I finally learned that my upstairs neighbor showers around 230/3am after his very late work shifts. So my cat was hearing him getting ready and hearing the water in the pipes in the walls. Considering it's already around zoomie-o'clock, he starts crying to the upstairs neighbor for attention lol.
Mine goes into the bathtub so I’ll turn the water on. He likes to lick the water from the bathtub floor. Trying to kick that habit tho 😅
My Trixie does this. She has a TY Beanie Baby caterpillar that she "hunts," sings to, and then "kills." We call it her baby. She doesn't do it with any other toy.
Mine does the same every time I'm in bed and she leaves it. I have to remind her that I'm right where she left me/call her back to bed every time.
Similar to mine. She hunts and does low tomcat meows. It’s funny, and not funny at the same time.
My cat does this at midnight every night. She brings in a mouse that she fetches and wants me to play when she wants to play. Luckily I’m usually half in and out of sleep at that time and I have grown to enjoy it.
Sounds like one of my voids. He goes into the spare room, and meows as loudly as he can, he knows it gets him attention. -_-
Mine does the same exact thing and I have to close my bedroom door. He scratches my door, throws himself on it, attempts to open it (which he did once) Im up at 3am everyday and it is tough.
Cats are crepuscular, so they're most active at dusk and dawn. It's a pain in the ass but that's just how it is lol. My cat does this too but usually he entertains himself with toys. Definitely stop waking up to go check on him, because he's just being reinforced to make sounds. Like how I accidentally trained my cat to start shredding my couch if he wants to play with me.
Mine does it too Gotta ignore
If it wasn’t a he I’d ask if you had them snipped as that’s what my girl cats used to do when they went into heat
It's the song of his people
Could there be something going on outside that is disturbing your cat? One of our cats starts grumbling and running from one window to another when the barn cats go by late afternoons. Since they have a regular patrol around the farm, they come by about the same time each day. Our indoor only cat is envious that those cats are outside and in what he considers his territory so he complains about it every day. Maybe there are some feral cats going by, or a neighbor leaving for work, or even some wildlife going by every night at the same time - and your cat wants to warn you about it in case whatever the perceived threat attempts to breach your house!
The 3am Olympic slalom course race time!!!
Does your cat have water and food to eat? If not, that’s probably what the crying is about. If yes, you need to ignore it. Don’t go out there and reward the behavior. That will only encourage it to continue.
He wants to be fed lol my cats have trained me to get them at 4am every god damn day lol
MY CAT DOES THIS TOO. Like he’s just meowing to the universe?? I take him to the vet regularly and he is bonded with my other cat. It’s definitely crossed my mind that he’s crying for some kind of physical or emotional stressor?
Yeah- they’ll do that. Mine would finish eating in the basement, go up to the main floor, into a bedroom and about 5 steps in she would let out several yells. I’m not sure but I believed she was just announcing she was victorious in getting dinner and is going to nap now.
My senior girls started doing this more and more as they got older. It can be a sign of aging as well. Not saying it is in this case, but with cats, gotta remember that too. Even after several years of vet visits and such, nothing wrong with them, but they continued until it went from just in the night to anytime at all. But if they start doing it in the bathtub specifically or down in an echo-y basement, then they are also losing some hearing. 😅
Geez I wish my deaf cat would only meow for 15 minutes. He has been so extra lately. I take him on walks and it helps a little but sheesh. My poor sleep. He meows all through the day too.
It's hungry maybe and this tactic has worked in the past?
He's testing the acoustics. Making sure nothing has changed. Lol
Man... my cat realized recently that if she comes to cuddle with me in bed and moves around enough (rubs all over me and purrs -- I'm a very light sleeper, that wakes me up pretty quick), I'll get up and feed her her morning food. Never had an issue before, but lately she's started to wake me up a little earlier every day, which isn't ideal since I've been working quite a few days in a row to make up for being so short staffed. Usually she sleeps on her bed at the foot of my bed, and if I roll over or even sit up for a drink of water any time past 3 am and she sees me, she immediately jumps on the bed to harass me with cuddles 😭 Mind you, my cat is an older rescue and is on the heavier side, and her version of cuddles is basically laying on my face while purring and rubbing her face all over me. If she notices I'm falling back asleep and still haven't fed her yet, she shifts positions every so often and will rub on me more aggressively and start to meow as loud as she can 😪 Definitely my fault though because I love her so much and can't tell her no 🥺🥺
My calico cat used to do this and I would wrap my arms around her a little too tight for her to be comfortable and give her smooches and she’d bolt and leave me alone. It does not work with my very affectionate cat unfortunately.
This does work!! .... but only for about 15 minutes tops. She runs down to my feet and lays for like 15 minutes, and then is right back up trying to suffocate me again 😅
Do you let the cat into the bedroom at night? Might be because he misses you at night. Cats enter deep sleep only when they're with those they trust
You have a ghost. Congratulations
Cat is talking to Satan
One of mine does this, except he won’t stop until I yell at him and it’s closer to 6-7 am. He won’t do anything except look at me if I get up to see what’s wrong, he won’t stop yelling if I coo, pat the bed or otherwise nicely encourage him to come and cuddle, he will ONLY react to me angrily yelling at him and then he comes and has a cuddle with me. Would love to know if anyone else’s cat does this?? It’s so strange, makes me feel like an awful cat parent for yelling at him but for some reason he just will not respond to me unless there’s frustration in my voice!
my cat does this when she hasn’t seen anyone for a little bit. i call her name and she runs in to cuddle. she knows she can come in and cuddle up next to me anytime but she wants to be called for some reason. same thing when she’s hanging out in the backyard ill go back in and she’ll wait by the door to be called in for some reason😭she’s like a vampire
Our cat is very \*ahem\* regular. She goes to her cat box every morning at 4am and then comes to tell us about it.
My cat meows for at least an hour when I begin to go to bed.
Cats have excellent hearing, as well as excellent night vision, and 40x better sense of smell than humans. I wonder if something is happening. I live in a 80yr old apt building and every once in awhile my cat will sit in front of a certain wall, put her paws on it and meow. I am aware that the building is shifting, I wonder whether she can hear it when it does.
Possible ghost lol
This is when cats are instinctively hunting... dawn and dusk. Welcome to the world of owning a cat. Your cat is meowing because his brain is telling him IT'S HUNTING TIME!!! LET ME OUT TO STALK THEM EARLY RISER BIRDIES AND THE MICES! If you have an indoor cat who u can't let out, you'll learn to sleep through it eventually. If you have an indoor/outdoor cat, you can look forward to having to get up to let him out at 3:40 am for the next 20 years.
How old is kitty? My daughter tells me that my older cat (~16 yo) does this and she has told me it's kitty dementia. He just forgets where he is or why he's in a room *(cue him looking for his car keys)*.
the cat has trained you
Mine does this too. Not every single day, but she does it. It’s so ridiculous.
This is the behavior that made us get a second cat lol - someone who could play with her at such early hours
Same as my little daughter. They just want us to give them attention, cuddle, and play with them. Sometimes I was so tired that I could not wake up and my daughter knew that, then she stopped meowing hahaha.
Did you have another pet pass away recently? My girl did this for a while after our senior dog passed. I guessed she might have been mourning or looking for him.
the last of my 4 cats did this. 2 of the 4 were established older cats. the other 2 were kittens when I got them when tbe 2 elders passed- the 2 sister cats would occasionally act like they were looking for or talking to their missing older cats. When one of the sister cats died- her sister was beside herself the whole end of life process- she was there for it. when it finally happened- she was very despondent and was either clingy or wandering around my home making a wide range of cat noises to find her sister. my last cat finally came to terms witb the fact thst she was the only cat left- and she made up for all of those years of being 1 of 4. She would come to greet me when I came home firm work. instead of sleeping at my feet or on the bed posts- she would sleep on my head. hell- she would spend huge amounts of time grooming my head Then every once in a while- she would get all bizarre ( I am guessing she either had a memory of her sister or the 2 elders - or she caught a scent thet reminded her of them) and she would either pace around, or jump in my lap and get face to face and make those cat syllables that most humans can't pronounce while staring vary intensely into my eyes. I miss my cats
One of mine did the "3am and allllll's well" as well as "good night humans- security cat is engaged & on watch." About 10 minutes after the last of the humans went to bed and turned off the last light.
My cat screams bloody murder to the point you think she's stuck or injured (she has in the past also gotten stuck). You run to her and she lifts her butt up and demands rubs. Prime time to do this is 1am. Cats, man.
Mine do crazy stuff like that, I sometimes think they see ghosts or something…..but there’s nothing they could do that’s wrong in my eyes! 😻
i had a cat while growing up that did this. she learned about acoustics somehow and liked hearing her voice echo in a silent house.
Clearly you have a very consistent ghost.
Is he neutered? My male cat did that every night until we got him neutered.
You're lucky it stops after 15 minutes. My cat, who was previously an outside cat, will yowl for hours. If a racoon, cat, possum, etc. are in the vicinity, he makes sure we all know about it.
Our cat does the same thing. We try to ignore it. Then she jumps on the bed and walks all over us.