Kitty behaviour - this one has my head

Nody

Meet Lizzy; she's a rescue cat in our foster care currently and she's about 7 months old. Lizzy has not had an easy start in life; someone thought it would be fun to set their dog on her when she was only a few months old and this has caused nerve damage that's never going to heal.

Due to this she only has sight on one eye (which can be seen by how she don't turn her head when a finger is on the right side but she'll instantly turn if it is on her left) and no depth perception (she love chasing people but usually misjudge where they will be if it's more than a meter away and got problem going down things) and epilepsi. However she also lives her life to the full and love chasing and being chased, climbs around and go exploring where she should not like all our other kittens so her life is quite good.

Here's where I, her obedient slave, has a problem however. Lizzy don't mjau, ever. The only time she'll mjau is if you step on her by mistake (she's a very much a person's type of cat always wanting to be around your legs if you walk etc.); instead she paws or bites (not drawing blood). She also wants to sleep in bed with us every night between us and sometimes even under the duvet (lying on the side). However as she'll sometimes go and grab a snack, have a wee etc. she'll usually come once or twice a night back to the middle of our bed by walking over my face (claws partly out for grip).

Now that's very cute you may say but she's started insisting on being fed when the sun goes up (even if she leaves most of the soft food; always have kibble available). This means every morning around 4am (today 03:50) she'll come to the bed, start pawing my arm/leg/face (depending on where she jumped up) and if that don't get me up she'll bite me until I get up. Putting her down on the floor, closing the door (she'll keep pawing at it) etc. don't work once her mind is set no matter how far you try to hide under your duvet as she'll simply not give up! Once she's been fed I'll go back to bed trying to fall asleep again only to usually be woken again around 5am by her biting me again (because now she's decided she wants her anti hairball paste which we give her daily pills in).

All of this adds up to that I'll be woken multiple times a night (and if through a miracle she can't wake me she'll wake my wife instead which is even worse). Now I've tried:

• Feeding her later (did not help that she was fed 2h before and there were food left on the plate)
• Feeding her less but more often (gone from two or three times a day to 6+ without any success)
• Close the door (she'll keep on pawing it and she wants to be close to us and we got other cats who want to sleep in our bedroom as well so not fair to any of them)
• Move her to a separate room once she's woken me up (waste of time as I've already been up multiple times by then)
• Exhaust her (she was panting when we went to bed but did not work
• Sleep in two rooms (she came and woke me anyway at my new location)

In essence I've run out of ideas of what to do; I've looked at automatic feeders etc. but they all appear to be for kibble and not suitable for wet stuff.

The easy answer of course is to close her away somewhere but I refuse to do that to her; it's not her fault of what happened to her and she's really a people person's cat wanting to be close to humans all the time. So instead I turn to the wider audience here to see if someone got a good idea on how I can get more sleep at night without being woken up by Lizzy

thegreatiam

Nody wrote: »

Here's were I, her obidient slave, has a problem how ever. Lizzy don't mjau, ever. The only time she'll mjau is if you step on her by mistake (she's a very much a person's type of cat always wanting to be around your legs if you walk etc.); instead she paws or bites (not drawing blood).

Don't know why its a problem she doesn't meow, I had a cat as a kid which never meowed, not even if it got stepped on, just made a screech if it was hurt. Took it to the vet, vet said was no problems the cat simply doesn't meow.

Nody wrote: »

She also wants to sleep in bed with us every night between us and sometimes even under the duve (lying on the side)....

All of this is discipline, be strict with her with feeding times and sleeping arrangements. She is also quite young so her habits will change.
Keep up the routine and she will conform to the schedule.

Pumpkinseeds

Ah she is gorgeous. Our former feral rarely meows either but he does like to sit on the bedside locker and paw at me to get up during the night. Now I did create the problem because I was unintentionally rewarding him by feeding him in the early hours of the morning in order to get more sleep.

What I do now is get up and go to the loo and then go back to bed when he does it. That way it breaks the cycle of him pawing at me. He started to go to the kitchen to wait for me but realised I wasn't coming down and eventually stopped doing it as much. Now he's happy to check that I'm in bed where I should be and he'll sleep on the floor or in his basket.

For us it was like having a baby with the amount of times we were woken in the early hours, he just wouldn't quit poking at me and nibbling my hair, knocking things off the locker etc. If we locked them out of the bedroom they'd work as a team and howl and meow and scratch at the door.

I think a lot of the time its a combination of boredom and insecurity. All I can suggest is reassurance and perseverance.

anniehoo

Unfortunately this is a habit that's been encouraged by you,so to break the cycle it really is "perseverance and reassurance" like Pumpkinseeds has mentioned. If she's getting adequate food during the day there is no need for a middle of the night snack either. My cat sleeps on my bed and wanders about during the night, but if he wakes me too early he's put outside the room with no messing. He's now learned not to come near me before 7am or he gets kicked off his warm spot

My cat also hardly ever meiows either, so i wouldn't be concerned about that.

Id encourage extra playtime a few hours before bed, to get rid of some excess energy too.

thegreatiam

when ours was younger he was like this, very annoying at night time. I used to put him locked in the kitchen.

We also got one of these:http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/cat_toys/laser_cat_toys/185593
turn it on downstairs and it keeps him occupied long enough that I can get back to sleep.

candle_wax

I have no problem in theory with my cats sleeping on my bed (they do it all day when I'm not there), but I'm a really light sleeper and anytime I let them stay in there at night I've woken up loads with them either just jumping on my head, chasing each other, or just pottering about (the bells on their collars wake me...). Anyway, that's why they sleep in their own room downstairs, locked in, and they're happy enough. :rolleyes:

I really doubt your car is actually hungry, and would say it's probably a habit more than anything?
But you mentioned automatic feeders, I have this one for if I'm away at weekends, and it works great. There's little ice packs that you freeze and put in under the tray which keeps wet food cool.
http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/cat_bowls_feeders/feeders/151843

lubie76

according the cat diabetes website, you can freeze a bock of wet food- you can take it out of freezer before you go to bed and it should have started to thaw by about 4am? I think this is to accommodate owners with diabetic cats who are working and to ensure their cats are eating steady amounts throughout the day but might be worth a try if it is hunger and boredom that is making her wake you?