Old cats and their ways. Tips wanted.

[TopCat]

My cat Bobby is in his later teenage years, about 18 I think. He has always been a loveable bastard but is driving me nuts now.
He was well trained up until 18 months ago. Then I moved out for a year leaving him with my son and he has picked up bad ways.
Waking me up at four AM for food. Flinging himself at the door repeatedly. ripping up the carpet. Mewling. Four AM! Every day...

Any tips? Electro collar? Taxidermy?

 

[TopCat]

 

[souljacker]

Start waking up at 4 am, remove all your doors and remove the carpet. With cats, you are the one who is in the wrong.

 

[Supine]

Taxidermy would certainly do the trick!

 

[kabbes]

I sympathise. I have been in this situation and there isn’t a massive amount you can do with a hugely stubborn old cat. Mine has me leaping to attention every time he wants to eat another mouthful of food (always just one at a time, the fucker)

When he wakes you at 4am, what do you do? Get up and give attention or ignore him?

 

[bellaozzydog]

Can you not dose him up with cat nip

A man of his age has nothing to lose getting high as fuck everyday

 

[editor]

It's probably too late but I always lock my cat in the kitchen and feed him late at night and he seems happy enough in there. Maybe if you do it enough times he'll get used to it.

I gave up trying to have him sleep on my bed after regular 4/5am deadly toe attacks.

 

[sojourner]

Just leave him some dry food out so he can have a nibble when he fancies. I always used to feed mine brekky and then at teatime, but she needs access to food all the time now, similar age.

Mine's also become incredibly needy as she's got older. He might have a touch of dementia.

 

[Carvaged]

Many do become needy, like any other older person losing their faculties, and I think that can be a shock to cat owners who are used to them being very independent and self-contained. My only recommendations are to give him lots of cuddles and find all that hidden patience you never knew you had, as you're going to need it, and he deserves it. It doesn't sound like yours has gone deaf and starting wailing at the top of his lungs continuously between 2am-6am yet, so that's a plus.

 

[emanymton]

Get a dog instead.

 

[Voley]

It's probably too late but I always lock my cat in the kitchen and feed him late at night and he seems happy enough in there. Maybe if you do it enough times he'll get used to it.

We had to do the same with ours. 2am seemed to be her favoured 'howl at the bedroom door' moment. So we put food down for her, made her a nice comfy spot with a blanket by the radiator and she was cool after a night or two of it.

 

[kabbes]

Just leave him some dry food out so he can have a nibble when he fancies. I always used to feed mine brekky and then at teatime, but she needs access to food all the time now, similar age.

Mine's also become incredibly needy as she's got older. He might have a touch of dementia.

I leave my 17-y/o cat dry food out but he frequently deems that unacceptable and DEMANDS another mouthful of wet food RIGHT NOW otherwise I am going to fucking know about it.

I still love him more than ever, though. At 6pm every night, he suddenly goes super soppy and won’t leave me alone for about 45 minutes.

 

[bellaozzydog]

There’s some real life Stockholm syndrome going down here

Shut in the kitchen or utility room at bed time with a cat flap to the outside nocturnal world is the best deal a cat should get

Fits in with their after dark lifestyles and means they sleep all day

 

[izz]

TopCat, you could try a timed feeder such that it pings open at Mewl Time.

... It doesn't sound like yours has gone deaf and starting wailing at the top of his lungs continuously between 2am-6am yet, so that's a plus.

ahhh yes, the plaintive yowls, howls, ululating and loud "WHERE IS EVERYBODY ? WHERE AM I ? AM I DEAD ? OH WOE, WOE, WOE IS ME !" . We're used to it now of course but the first few times were heartbreaking, we thought she'd lost a leg or something but no, just a bit cloth-eared.

 

[TopCat]

It's probably too late but I always lock my cat in the kitchen and feed him late at night and he seems happy enough in there. Maybe if you do it enough times he'll get used to it.

I gave up trying to have him sleep on my bed after regular 4/5am deadly toe attacks.

I tried that a few years ago. He jumped onto the drainer and pushed crockery and plants onto the floor. oh and bit me.

 

[izz]

I tried that a few years ago. He jumped onto the drainer and pushed crockery and plants onto the floor. oh and bit me.

His will will always be stronger than yours unfortunately, he's got fuck all else to do all day (and night).

 

[felixthecat]

Feline cognitive dysfunction - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

My old girl developed this. She was 22 which is pretty geriatric for a cat but she got really bad towards the end with the night time yowling.

 

[platinumsage]

We have a cat feeding machine set to dispense biscuits at 4:15, 4:50 and 5:20. That seems to keep her satisfied until she wakes me up for wet food at my intended wake-up time of 6am, which she now very reliably keeps to.

 

[TopCat]

It's not just a desire for food that makes my cat want me to get up. He wants me to pander to him. Stroke for half an hour, three sachets of food at 30 min intervals. Turn the heating on and then sit on sofa next to him providing strokes and occasional door openings. I am useless to him when I am in bed and he shows this.

 

[ouirdeaux]

You do seem to have learnt your lessons very well though. He's a good trainer.

 

[weltweit]

When our cat was getting on, she developed this unpleasant habit of pissing and shitting on our futon. Within sight of the cat flap she could have used to get outside.

Annoyingly the mattress cover of the futon wasn't washable.

 

[strung out]

We got an automatic wet food feeder, which I set for 4am when Milo started doing this.

Every two or three days I pushed the feed time forward 10 or 15 minutes until he got used to feeding at a reasonable time again. Especially useful when the clocks changed in October, and he started howling an hour earlier each morning.

I also give him a small snack late at night now too, although we do need to shut him in the front room at night with a cushion wedged against the door to stop him from scratching through the door eventually (he was very persistent).

 

[Geri]

When our cat was getting on, she developed this unpleasant habit of pissing and shitting on our futon. Within sight of the cat flap she could have used to get outside.

Annoyingly the mattress cover of the futon wasn't washable.

Jimmy was ill for most of last year, until he was put to sleep in August, and started pissing and shitting all over the house. He would run past the litter tray and piss against the front door, or go up to the bathroom and piss/shit in there. Never been so thankful to have laminate floors.

He wasn't very old either, only about 11.

 

[mx wcfc]

It's probably too late but I always lock my cat in the kitchen and feed him late at night and he seems happy enough in there. Maybe if you do it enough times he'll get used to it.

I gave up trying to have him sleep on my bed after regular 4/5am deadly toe attacks.

This. Much as I love the cat, I wouldn’t put up with being woken up.

 

[TopCat]

Well its bedtime now. I am going to feed him and leave a heated gilet switched on and spread out in the hope he leaves me alone.

 

[l'Otters]

If you want a cat to leave you alone in the night the best method is to completely ignore them until it's a reasonable time for you to be awake.

 

[l'Otters]

Used to live with a cat who would come and pester me from 5am. Headbutting and loud purring and yowls in my ear while I was trying to remain fast asleep.
I shut him out of the room I slept in for a week. When I relented on that and let him sleep in the same room as me he seemed to get the message and didn't bother me until I'd started moving around. I would feed him as soon as I got up to make a cuppa, and he could be reasonably confident of access to some strokes and attention for ten minutes before I had to go out. I think that helps.
Well. It was like that for a few weeks, then he started hassling me in the early hours again. Shut him out for a few nights more, and then it was ok again, no headbutting and no being woken at evil o'clock.
He was about 12 yo.
They can learn.

 

[Carvaged]

 

[oryx]

Ours are 16 and about 12. We reckon they need 24 hour care. Luckily I go to bed much later than my partner, and he gets up much earlier than me.

Not due to medical issues (apart from one needing a pill for hyperthyroidism, which is a nightly struggle) but due to them having well and truly made us their slaves.

The latest is them sitting, glaring, next to a bowl of bloody expensive biscuits, which have the misfortune not to be Dreamies. Oh, why did I ever get them into Dreamies?

 

[High Voltage]

We have a cat feeding machine set to dispense biscuits at 4:15, 4:50 and 5:20. That seems to keep her satisfied until she wakes me up for wet food at my intended wake-up time of 6am, which she now very reliably keeps to.

What is this machine please?? and how accurate are the time settings?