What can i do about my cat?

[cloverleaf1985]

Gandalf is 6 years old and is a house cat as he is deaf.

I adopted him from the Cat's Protection in September last year.

He is a lovely cat and gets on really well with my other cat Kimberley. However, we are having a few issues with him that are leaving me at the end of my tether.

The major issue is that he has a spot on body clock and at 5-6am every day he wails at the top of his voice because he is hungry. Now, i don't want to give in to him and get up at that time every day to feed him. We have just moved house, and in the old house we could shut them both in the kitchen overnight which was fine. However, as of friday just gone, we are now in a flat that has no kitchen door. We have left them out to sleep with us but he still does it. If he can't get our attention, he scratches the carpet which is brand new in our bedroom. Our flat is rented and i don't want him damaging it.
So far we have tried covering the bedroom floor with rugs, but he scratches the gaps in the rugs, shutting him in the bathroom for a bit of time out, spraying him with a spray bottle and giving them a snack last thing at night. None of these has stopped him.
I would shut our bedroom door, but they then both sit outside and wail.

We have a spare room that we could shut them in, but my guinea pigs are in there in a C&C cage that has a roof, although it is not up to withstanding a fat cat sitting on it! The cage cannot go in any other room.
Because he is deaf, he doesn't realise how loud he is and i don't want to upset the new neighbour's either.

What on earth can i do? I don't want to have to send him back to the CP, but this can't continue so i'm willing to try anything! :frown3:

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I always leave a big bowl of cat biscuits out overnight for the cats to snack on. They'd be waking me up at ridiculous o'clock if I didn't. I've never had a problem with them getting too fat by doing this.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

I always leave a big bowl of cat biscuits out overnight for the cats to snack on. They'd be waking me up at ridiculous o'clock if I didn't. I've never had a problem with them getting too fat by doing this.

Ditto this. Bless him, it sounds like yours is a darling and is just feeling unsettled by the move and I'm sure that given time to get used to your routine he'll settle into it.

You can get timer devices for feed bowls for feeding cats - think I've seen them at Pets at Home and/or on-line, where you can programme in what time you want your cat to be fed and the bowl thingey will open up at that time. People use them for cats if they're going away for a weekend say, and don't want to put down food coz if they did it would all be eaten up within the first hour. You could use this to gradually get him used to feeding at a time convenient to you, or leave him as he is to be fed at say 6.00 a.m. so that he's happy.

Here's one: there will be loads of others no doubt.

http://www.feedandgo.com/

 

[cloverleaf1985]

I can't leave biscuits down as he is on a diet, he's at least 0.5kg overweight!

He was like it at the old place, but it was bareable because they went in the kitchen at night, so we couldn't hear him.
Will have a look at timer bowls.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

In that case the suggestion of the timer bowl sounds like a good option.

 

[raspberryripple]

In that case the suggestion of the timer bowl sounds like a good option.

This!

 

[suestowford]

Yes! I had one of those timer bowls, it had a freezer pack that fitted inside it to keep the food cool overnight. A lovely invention to give cat owners a lie-in

 

[misterjinglejay]

The timer bowls sound like an excellent idea.
Regarding the scratching - cat scratch posts are brilliant, and as our scratch the carpet too, we put down some deep pile patches of carpet. They seem to prefer the deep pile.
Also keep the claws short and then the damage is less.
Good strong catnip will drug him into oblivion!

 

[cloverleaf1985]

He did have a scratch pole but he destroyed it, so I binned it when we moved. Bought another one last night and he used it. I keep their claws short anyway.
I decided to shut them in the spare room last night (laminate flooring). The guinea pigs are fine and he was fast asleep when I went in there! So I'll persevere with that for now I feel a bit bad for Kimberley as she's as good as gold and sleeps quietly all night, but its not fair to shut him away and not her, is it?

 

[MagicMelon]

I always leave a big bowl of cat biscuits out overnight for the cats to snack on. They'd be waking me up at ridiculous o'clock if I didn't. I've never had a problem with them getting too fat by doing this.

This? Pretty easy problem to fix isn't it? Because my cats are stupidly sensitive to food (they basically stuff their faces too quickly with wet food, if I fed them this at specific times, then threw it up everywhere), then I simply put biscuits out for them all the time. Their bowl is never empty and they just snack whenever they want it. They are in perfect condition, not too fat or anything. Definately the easiest way to sort this problem?

 

[cloverleaf1985]

I would, but he eats them all at once as hes a gannet, and i need him to lose some weight. There would not be any left by morning. Plus, I prefer them to have mostly wet food.

 

[cloverleaf1985]

Also, being house cats, they can't exercise as much as outdoor cats do, which is why he is overweight in the first place.

 

[cloverleaf1985]

A little update - he has settled a bit and now has a timer food bowl which has helped, and has an enclosure outside the kitchen door via a cat flap.
However, he is still waking up and yowling (we have let them roam the flat overnight), this morning was 3.30-6am when I got up grrr. His new trick is opening and shutting the cat flap a few times before he goes out which is loud in the middle of the night!

Kimberley stresses when she is shut away from me, so is it fair to shut him in the spare room with a bed, litter tray, timer and water and leave her out to sleep with us? He's a pretty laid back cat generally. Is he likely to be bothered?

 

[cloverleaf1985]

Anyone?

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Kimberley stresses when she is shut away from me, so is it fair to shut him in the spare room with a bed, litter tray, timer and water and leave her out to sleep with us? He's a pretty laid back cat generally. Is he likely to be bothered?

I would try it.

 

[FubsyMog]

I would have no issue in allowing one cat restricted access only whilst the other has free access, provided they are both settled with this arrangement. If he is happy and sleeping in the spare room whilst the other one is with you, then that's a good solution in my mind.

He may well actually feel more secure being semi-confined - we have had two cats (unrelated and at different times) that could not be kept in the house at night as they were so noisy (they were fine until everybody went to bed). They were put into the shed or garage at night, with a selection of beds, food and litter trays. Interestingly, both of them came to ASK to be put out there at night - they seemed to view it as their own private space. Initially I felt a bit mean at instigating this nighttime arrangement but it seems to suit some cats so I now take the attitude of 'whatever works'.


ETA> I know a lot of posters are suggesting to OP to leave food out all night, but having dealt with a chronically overweight cat (a rescue who came into the sanctuary at over 10kg!), for some cats this is not an option as they simply cannot seem to moderate their intake. Ours will eat every morsel that is put in her bowl immediately and then ask for more straight away. Leaving plenty of food out overnight for her would just result in her eating more than she should, and she would still be up demanding fed at the same time as there would be nothing left in the morning. Thankfully she doesn't usually get up too early!

 

[ebonyallen]

I always leave a big bowl of cat biscuits out overnight for the cats to snack on. They'd be waking me up at ridiculous o'clock if I didn't. I've never had a problem with them getting too fat by doing this.

I agree with this.

 

[MagicMelon]

Try what you're suggesting OP, you might as well try anything you can think of if its worrying you so much. Personally I'd leave biscuits out (you can buy low calories special biscuits and its no different nutrition wise to wet food, in fact I think its better for their teeth). If the cat is overweight then you must be overfeeding it wet stuff as it is. I wouldn't think the cat would overeat the biscuits once it realised they were always there. Mine are little pigs but they're the opposite, they snack on biscuits whenever they fancy and will guzzle anything else (ie. wet food or chicken etc.) so quickly that one will throw up hence why they get permanent biscuits instead!

 

[cloverleaf1985]

Try what you're suggesting OP, you might as well try anything you can think of if its worrying you so much. Personally I'd leave biscuits out (you can buy low calories special biscuits and its no different nutrition wise to wet food, in fact I think its better for their teeth). If the cat is overweight then you must be overfeeding it wet stuff as it is. I wouldn't think the cat would overeat the biscuits once it realised they were always there. Mine are little pigs but they're the opposite, they snack on biscuits whenever they fancy and will guzzle anything else (ie. wet food or chicken etc.) so quickly that one will throw up hence why they get permanent biscuits instead!

I have done research into biscuits and all with the exception of Applaws and one or two imported brands are full of cereals and carbs that cats should not have, they cannot digest it and should have meat only. So i only feed any food (wet or dry) that has no cereals or carbs at all. Unfortunately, they don't do "diet" versions, because essentially diet versions are just pumped full of more cereals to bulk them out. So that's not an option.
Plus when i first got him a year ago, the fosterer said he was a gannet and couldn't be trusted with 24/7 access to food. They only have 1/2 a tin of wet food each per day and a very small scoop of dry in the feeder.

I think i have decided to put him in the spare room with a litter tray etc, and leave her out with us with the normal litter tray. Hopefully that will keep them both happy and we'll get some sleep!

Thanks for the advice everyone