Help with cat behavior especially at night

[JustMe]

I have a big orange lovable/loving cat. He has always been on a huge eater and the vet insisted he only gets fed twice a day a certain amount. I switched to a metabolism-helpful cat food and this has helped with his weight. He is still always hungry, though, we have dealt with this for years.

We had to put our other cat down this past fall. They did not get along, but they did keep each other company in the evening in the living room. Once the other cat was gone, this cat meowed at our doors all night. Dd felt sorry for him and let him in to her room. This went okay, but then he would walk on her, wake her up in various ways, etc. So, we let him meow a couple of nights and eventually he stopped but started meowing around 5 in the morning. He also pulled the carpet up by the doors on the outside of my room and dd's room. Since I can't let him ruin the carpet any further, I now let him in my room. Problem is he wakes me up several times a night too..he wants in, he wants out. He doesnt walk on me much, but sometimes does. I can't leave my door open due to how the house is heated. There is no place really to put him at night. I can put him in the bathroom around 5am(which is very close to the bedrooms) and he is quiet if put there after that time, but meows before that time.

Any ideas? We love him and he is not going anywhere, but I need sleep and for the house to be okay.

[Meatball Mommie]

I don't know much about cats to be honest but what about some (quiet) treat puzzle toy. I know they make them for dogs to keep them busy and out of trouble. Maybe they have something similar for cats?

[Thatchermom]

Is he pulling at the carpet all night or is that with the 5:00am wake up call? Is he looking to be fed at 5 or just looking for company? Automatic timed feeder that opens at 5:00 might solve it if it's just about food. Our big, orange, LOUD and always hungry cat eventually got moved to the garage with a cozy bed at night. We tried lots of things but that was the last straw answer.


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[mousemom]

If you don't mind having him in your room, but want the door shut, maybe install a doggie door in your door? We saw some of those in closet/basement doors for cats when we were looking at houses. Have you tried offering different types of beds/cat retreats for him to choose a spot? If he's waking you up for food, can you try a cat bowl that opens at a specific time of the night so he doesn't have to come looking for you?

[Cam&Clay]

Maybe he needs a friend?!

[JustMe]

Thanks for the ideas!

Some sort of timed or slow coming food dispenser may help, so I will look ino that. I am so not handy that I wouldnt be able to install a cat door, although that may help as well. We are not getting another cat for a while. LOL! I think he actually likes being an only cat--he attacked the other cat we had all the time and even if he liked it, I don't want to risk that a new cat may not--its really only at night he has a hard time.

[Mali]

When my cat was crazy overweight (15.88lbs) the vet had her on the prescription low cal cat food and the poor thing was STARVING such that even though we were trying to space her food out into 5 meals, she'd wolf it down and then puke it right back up. We bought a nicer pet feeder after the 5 compartment one died (purrfect pet feeder - love it!) so we could feed her smaller amounts up to 10 times a day, but that still didn't help with the starving and the wolfing food and the puking and the incessant begging for more food. Finally I read something online about grain free food helping with weight and figured we had nothing to lose so we switched her to wellness core (high protein, no grain) and even with keeping her at the appropriate amount of food she started dropping weight, stopped eating so fast she'd puke, and stopped begging (helped even more by having the automatic feeder). She maintained at 9.8lbs for several years although now we're having to make adjustments due to kidney disease and general 15 year old cat issues.

All that to say that maybe a food change would help if he's hungry all the time since he might be bugging you now whereas before he'd bug the other cat. And that the automatic pet feeder has been amazing in keeping our cat from begging us since we never actually feed her. Although there are still times when she complains (well, prior to our current adjustments) and I have to go look at the feeder and tell her when her next meal is.

[JustMe]

Thanks, Mali. Sorry to hear your cat has kidney disease as well.

Do you know which feeder you purchased from Amazon?

[123LuckyMom]

Has your cat been tested for thyroid disease? Problems with thyroid can make cats starving, and there's an expensive but effective radiation treatment that can cure thyroid problems.

I would also look into getting a better quality cat food with fewer fillers and higher protein. Also, you can change the timing of meals so that no food is fed before 10am ever! We did this with our cats when they were waking us up in the wee small hours. It took a couple of weeks for them to get the hint, but when we stopped feeding them in the mornings, they stopped waking us for food.


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[JustMe]

Yes, he has been tested for thyroid. He doesn't have it. My cat who died this fall did have thyroid issues, and did have that treatment, so I know about it.

Honestly, sometimes I think I should just let him be happily overweight. He was 18lbs when we first started limiting food, so not sure if it would have stopped or not. We did try several types of food, and use a metabolism based one that works the best of all that we have tried.

His problems are food based, but probably other behavioral type issues as well, as he didn't used to wake us up in the middle of the night (well early in the am, but not in the night) until our bedroom doors stopped working and he was able to get into our rooms(they are fixed now, so that's why he meows at them. I was going to just let him do that, but thats when he ripped up the carpet) and the other cat had to be put down.

I wish I could try not feeding him until 10 am. We are out of the house by 7:30 on weekdays; although maybe with a timed cat feeder?

[Mali]

This is the one we have: http://www.perfectpetfeeder.com/. I thought they spelled perfect the cutesy way, that's what I get for not doublechecking before posting. :) Looks like they're in the middle of updating the design again though, so they won't have any available until late this year. :(

This is the one we used before buying the Perfect Pet Feeder: http://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-5-Meal-Automatic-Pet-Feeder/dp/B000GEWHNS

It worked well enough, but when it died we were still wrestling with the puking issue so wanted to go up to more feedings per day with small portions sizes automatically dispensed (which is suprisingly difficult to find in the automatic feeders).

We've been pretty lucky with our cat so far. She is at the early end of stage 2, so we're still controlling things with diet. Just have to adjust her food this time around since she lost weight over the last year instead of staying stable which tends to be a problem with geriatric kitties. She's certainly not complaining about getting more dry food dispensed as well as more wet food though. :)