Our cats meow at our bedroom door every morning at 6:30. Anything we can do to discourage it?

Question

Hi, my wife and I have 2 cats, about 5-6 months old and every morning they meow at our door starting at 6:30 (give or take) which corresponds to the time that I get up for work in the morning during the week. We would just leave the door open, but they're still too young and rambunctious to allow into the room while we're sleeping. We also have neighbors underneath us (we have an upstairs apartment) and though they haven't said anything I'm concerned that they may be able to hear them through the floor.
I feel bad, it's obvious that they just want to be in the same room as us, but I just don't know what to do. Does anyone have any advice? I really appreciate any advice you can give.

Answer 1

get a small radio or tv and put it on a time so it comes on about 6:20. it will distract the cats and give them something to do until you get up.

Answer 2

WOW! We are going through the EXACT same thing. Every morning our cat meow's at 6:30, which co-insides with our alarm clocks. It's disturbing on Sundays when you want to sleep in! What we have started doing is, every morning Beguira meow's we put him in the closet. Now before I get hate mail for this, it's only for an hour or so, and he has a bed and there is a bowl of water in the closet as well. THIS HAS WORKED as Beguira has stopped meowing at 6:30 in the morning.

Answer 3

I am also going through that right now w/ my kitten. She's about the same age as yours and she will meowl (a cross between howling and meowing) at my BR door at 4:30 in the morning.
Now, I am NEVER up this early, but that is the time she has chosen for me to get up. It has nothing to do w/ her feeding -both of her bowls sit out 24/7 and I make sure they are well-stocked before I go to bed. It also has nothing to do w/ her littler b/c I make sure that's also clean and ready to go.

I hate to admit, I caved. It just got to be too much for me that early in the morning. I have neighbors who live above me and they swear they never hear her, but she's so loud I don't see how they don't. (They're probably just trying to be polite!). So, to keep the peace in my apartment and others', I leave my door cracked at night. When she sees the door pulled up, she knows that it's night time. She can come and go as she pleases, but she's fairly respectful of the fact that it's bed time. She just mainly wants to be able to see me when she wants. My kitten actually prefers to sleep on the floor or stretch out in the window sill - IF she come in my room at all. If you want to try it, give it a shot and see what happens. I'd bet that as soon as the thrill of "the bedroom door is open!" wears off w/ your cats, they'll let you sleep peacefully and just come and go as they please.
Good luck! :-)
~peace, love & light~

Answer 4

Animals have wonderful internal alarm clocks. If I don't get up when my alarm goes off my two wart me until I do get up. They have kept me from over sleeping before. You can train the cats to not run through your bedroom like thundering herds of the Serengeti. When mine were that age they were allowed into the bedroom until they started the thundering herds stuff. They were then ejected from the bedroom and the door closed. It did not take them too long to figure out how they could stay in the room with me. They went to bed with me and then left the room when they wanted to play.

Answer 5

Well they are meowing, becuse a) they are hungry and you are supposed to be up at this time, b) they have woken up and it is time to play or c) they are scared and want to be around you.

Try letting them in the room with you, and if they still do the 6:30 a.m. thing, then maybe in the middle of the night, put more food out. Make sure the litter box is reachable to them at all times.
More than likely, they are just getting up, and want you to enjoy it with them.

Answer 6

I also have 2 cats (little bit older than yours) but do the same thing.....6:30am - like clockwerk. I will get up and let them in - use the 30 or so minutes that I would snooze to actaully pet and give them some attention before work.

If you really want to train them not to wake you up before a certain time, you might have to confine them to just one room and keep that room dark. You'll have to make it someplace they can't hear your alarm go off.

Answer 7

May not be what you want to hear, but the same advice I gave to my daughter - leave the door open. They want to be with you. She tried shutting hers out, but he would caterwaul at the door in the morning. When she left the door open, he would just sleep and not bother them.

They are young and need to be trained when sleeping time is, and that the alarm clock isn't their sign that it is time to get up - you are. Therefore, if no alarm and you stay in bed, they can just come in and sleep with you.

We had one that would wake my husband if he didn't get up with the alarm. But, if no alarm he wouldn't bother. It was a matter of getting to know our schedule.

Best to you and your kitties.

Answer 8

They've probably got their internal alarms set for this every day - without observing weekends - because they probably associate this with feeding times.
Fortunately for you you can get automatic feeders.
PetSmart sells one that you can set to open at a specific time - this would probably alleviate the meowing because at 6:30 they would get fed and be happy.
You'd need to feed them this way for the whole week though, first, so they realize they'll be fed without you.
Otherwise they'll still meow.

I, too, am in the process of "ferberizing" my kitten - because he feels the need to meow incessantly if I shut him out of my room after feeding him because *I* am NOT ready to be up at 7am :)

Answer 9

just let them in the room with you. nothing wrong with that. my cats has access to everything in the house and no meowing or anything if i close a door he will go nuts until its opened. he sleeps on my bed on the end of it. everyone is happy.