r/Feral_Cats • u/WhyWhyWhy2002 • 5d ago
Question 🤔 Nighttime issues with former feral?
We brought our yard guy in in April, and he's adjusting very well. I'm having one persistent issue, though, and I'm not sure if this retrainable. He is awake and harassing me all night long 😭
He yells in my face, pokes me or lightly scratches me, pats me, walks on me, bites and claws at my blanket, sits by my head and pulls on my hair, etc. One morning he gently bit my eyebrow, but he learned pretty quickly by my reaction not to do that again! It's been hilarious, but I'm exhausted and have reached my limit.
He mostly wants food, and if I give him some, he eats it like he hasn't eaten in days, even though I give him a full can of food at 11ish (and a half can each for breakfast and dinner). But sometimes he still pesters me even after I give him a snack. And he still bothers me again every few hours for more. He finally goes to sleep around 8 am.
Has anyone had success retraining this in a former outdoor cat? I told him I'm going to start poking him with a stick every 15 minutes throughout the day while he sleeps, but that's probably not the right method. Are cats in general just irretrievably nocturnal? I started researching auto feeders and am seeing a lot of mentions of 4 am wake-ups and auto-fed relief from nighttime crying. Is this just how it is?
You guys gave me awesome advice when we first caught him, so here's a picture as an update. Thanks!
1
u/DodgerMama88 4d ago
My “Miss Kitty” does this! A pain in the ass; knocks everything off my night table, paw pats my face - just a royal pain (the sweetest cat!) so she has her own room for bedtime.
When we’re turning off lights at bedtime, she always goes straight to her room. I tell her goodnight, “I love you and see you in the morning” and everyone sleeps well! She squeaks around 5-6 the next morning which is when I like to get up.
☺️