Tried everything: Cat still meowing all night

Question

My cat keeps meowing at night. I have tried ignoring her, not letting her sleep all day, providing enough food and water, making sure her litter box has been cleaned before going to bed, playing with her all day, and everything I could find for five days straight. I'm in terrible shape, and at night she still does this:

Digs in her litter box for 10 minutes, meows and jumps on me every two hours evenly and randomly spaced throughout the night (not related to the litter box) so I get as little sleep as possible

To clarify, she does these things:

• Somehow teleports a toy from a hidden box on top of a shelf and goes crazy with it (though most likely it is a missed toy in a corner)
• Goes to the restroom and uses it as an excuse to dig for 10 minutes until I am awake from my precious deep sleep
• Meows randomly at the times of my deep sleep (I have a sleep measuring watch and during deep sleep I wake up)
• Walks on me till I wake up

What I have tried:

• 100% Ignoring her (though even if I don't move she still knows I am awake)
• Playing and not letting her sleep during the day
• Giving more of her favorite food on the rare days when she doesn't meow

Clarifying my question: How do I make my cat's body clock reset?

She is still young and healthy, two years old, and I adopted her when she was one year old.

Answer 1

Your cat may be doing exactly what you are doing now: crying for help.

I assume that she only started this behavior about a week ago and didn't do anything like that before. The fact that she jumps on you and meows is a clear indication that she wants to draw your attention to somethin--most likely the litter box.

Why? The litter box is clean. There should be no reason for you to notice it. But the litter box isn't only the place where feces lie around, it's also the place for urinating and defecating. Your cat may want to draw your attention to the act of urinating / defecating itself, probably because it causes her discomfort or pain. She may be constipated, have a urinary tract infection (UTI) or even urinary stones.

Get her checked by a vet and report as best as possible how much she pees and poops throughout the day. You should see the wet spots in the litter if she pees. Try to remember if she ate some object that may constipate her, like hair ties, a toy that disappeared or anything else. The vet may require some blood tests to check for a UTI and an x-ray to check for constipation.

Answer 2

I will have to make this answer a bit general.

If a cat changes behaviour like your cat has done, the first thing to do is to consult your vet.

A cat will normally spend as little time as possible in the litterbox; toileting is a vulnerable situation for a cat where it can be attacked if it lives in the wild.

A cat using the litterbox for an extended time might signal pain pooping or peeing. Urinary tract infection might be one cause for this, and is not unusual in female cats. This condition might lead to kidney infection if untreated, so seek veterinary help at once if your cat has litterbox problems.

A cat with a urinary tract infection will tend to pee very little but frequently so look for small deposits of urine in the litterbox. It is normal for a cat to pee 2-4 times a day and to poop once or twice a day (depending on the type of food you give).

A cat will be most active at dusk and dawn as this is when they hunt/play, but cats can often adapt to your daily routine and be more active when you are around them.

Again, if your cat changes behaviour, like being more vocal, or starts hiding from you for unknown reasons you should contact your vet. Changes in eating/drinking or changes in use of the litterbox might be a sign your cat has medical problems.

Answer 3

Note: health concerns should not be dismissed out of hand. Since some other existing answers focus on possible urinary tract infections and other health issues, and since you have mentioned that you already visited the vet, I will attempt an answer focused on changing a cat's behaviour.

As far as I can tell, you are doing what is needed. From what I can recall from the literature and from my own personal experience, it takes at best 10-14 days of continuous behaviour (from you) for a cat to form a good habit or break a bad one. After that period, the cat should start adopting the behaviour you seek, or stop doing what is bothering you.

In your case, that means that you should ignore your cat at night for at least 10 straight nights, possibly up to 14. You should not acknowledge your cat's behaviour, you should not even acknowledge her existence at night. Act as if she simply does not exist. If she wakes you up, do not scream at her, do not complain, try to not make a sound or eye contact. Even bad attention is attention and would promote the continuation of her behaviour. If this is not something related to her health, your cat might be acting up simply because she feels like she's lacking attention.

To counter this feeling, be sure to dedicate time to play with your cats, to pet her if she enjoys it, and to generally give her attention. This "cat time" should be during periods of the day when your cat is active and ideally would be the same time every day. This will help create a good habit as the bad one is discontinued. Do not simply play with your cat every time she asks for it, that would be sending the signal that she will get attention whenever she asks for it. Lastly, try feeding her before bed: this will start a cycle of eat-clean-rest and she should go to sleep soon after. Also, you might try feeding her not immediately after waking up. That way she will not associate waking you up with food. Having meals at fixed times during the day can help regulate a cat's day and give them an internal schedule.

It might feel like 14 days is a lot and if your cat keeps this up every night you will certainly be tired by the time she changes her conduct. This could affect your mood and, if it does, will make it harder for you to maintain a "no-attention" habit at night. If you are able to keep it up though, and if this is not linked to something else that recently changed in your cat's life, you should be in the clear afterward and able to enjoy a good night's sleep.

Note that your cat might try to repeat this behaviour in the future, from time to time. If nothing else has changed, simply continue ignoring your cat and it will go away very quickly.

See this Jackson Galaxy video on the subject.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Real urinary tract infections are actually rare in young female cats. Other problems with the urinary tract are more common and often caused by the formation of crystals/stones in the urinary tract. This can cause meowing out of pain. However, if she has no problems after using the litter box during daytime, an urinary tract issue doesn't seem likely.

You specifically mentioned she wakes you when you're in a specific sleep phase (deep sleep). This reminded me of something I read a while ago; people reporting that their cats would wake them when they had episodes of sleep apnea. Of course, I have no idea if you have (a family history) of sleep apnea. Besides that, apneas (short periods of not breathing during sleep) mostly occur during the lighter phases of sleep and REM sleep.

Something that does happen more often during deep sleep is snoring (unrelated to sleep apnea). Do you have any idea if you do this? If so, maybe your cat "thinks" you're awake because you make sound but doesn't understand why you don't move/respond. Maybe you could try recording sound at night.

If all this doesn't apply, is it an option to move the litter box to a place further from your bedroom so you don't hear it? Don't move the box too often however; cats don't appreciate that.

Answer 5

If the cat is completely healthy and this sudden behaviour change does not have any physiological reason, there are two ways to force a cat to adapt to your cycle:

• Experimenting with the feeding times
• Tiring the cat

Cats tend to be more relaxed after they are fed. I noticed that the cats I look after exhibit some grooming behaviour and then more onto sleeping. For my current cat, the sleeping time and feeding time is separated by 1:30 to 2:00 hours. You have to observe the cat more to understand her behaviour after feeding.

Tiring the cat is also essential. It is not just not letting the cat sleep, you have to physically tire her. The best way to tire a cat is playing jumping games. Cat body, like most of the other felines, is evolved to perform several consecutive high agility high power moves after which they get exhausted. Since your cat is a very young adult, she would probably appreciate these jumping games, unlike adult and senior cats which usually develop arthritis and prefer more horizontal games.

For the sake of my peace of mind, I have to disclaim that any sudden behaviour change points to some trauma, either physiological or psychological. If this were a child, no doctor would try to alter the child's sleep cycle after such a dramatic change. If you are absolutely sure that she is physiologically fine, consider the possibility of an abuse.

I hope this helps.

Answer 6

A cat may also be dealing with other internal issues, such as thyroid and kidney issues. One of the indications is excessive howling at night, and their agitated behavior should be watched out for.

To confirm your theories, be sure to look for symptoms other than meowing. Do not hesitate to collar your cat and take them to the closest veterinarian if you think this is bothering them.

Answer 7

Just because I'm not sure it has been said: another alternative is for the human to adapt, with ear plugs if necessary. Some cats, especially un-altered cats but not limited to them, just like to belt out the Song Of Their People periodically. If you have had the catch to the vet and it isn't ill, you don't have to do anything about these soliloquies; they aren't addressed to you.

If you don't respond to it, that helps the cat understand that this isn't something that you encourage.

If you can't manage this, the solution may be similar to teaching a dog not to bark excessively: teach it to speak on command to remind it that it does have voluntary control over this, and only then focus on developing the do not speak command. See past answers on dog training for more details on that.

Answer 8

Maybe you will try to wrap her in a blanket, put her on the bed and hug so that it takes minutes for her to flee and by repeating this process several times you make her understand the futileness of being loud at night. Also, we can try different interactions with the cat at night in order to investigate the reasons for this behavior and possible solutions. You can wake up, turn on the light and see what does exactly she want from you? To play with her, to feed her, to watch her digging? Maybe it will be enough to play with her for five minutes. Maybe to offer her to sleep close to you helps.

Just in case: Did the place of the litterbox change recently? Did something happen with her usual places for sleeping? And if you didn't allow her to sleep during the daytime and she doesn't sleep at night then when she is sleeping?

Answer 9

First, check that the cat has no medical problems (see other answers). If not, then ...

Maybe the place you live is very small. But surely there must be a bathroom (or some other room, besides the one where you sleep) that has a door. Lock the cat in there with food, water, a litter box, and a comfy place to sit/sleep. And get some ear-plugs.

This might seem cold and heartless, but lack of sleep will hurt your work, your relationships, and ultimately your health. Take care of yourself, first.

Answer 10

I should note that sometimes a cat just doesn't understand why humans want to sleep through the night, is bored or lonely, and just wants attention. Extended scratching at the litterbox does suggest s health issue here... but if that is ruled out, you may have to resort to "if you can't be polite, you don't have access to the bedroom." Which will cause more wailing; be prepared to go to sleep with earplugs for a few days... but if the immediate response to misbehavior is being put out of the room, a cat can learn that this is counterproductive and amend it's behavior.

My cat was pawing at my face at off hours for a while, wanting to come under the covers. When that became unacceptable I started responding by putting a hand on her face and gently pushing her away. She has (re)learned that she can ask but can't insist, and that waking me up is not going to have useful results. We're still working on the stomp-across-my-ribs move.

Answer 11

If it is really just a bad behavior and all health issues are ruled away:

Wet the cat's tail with tap water when she starts meowing or running at night.

She will be busy for a while (30-60 min) grooming its tail and somewhat tired afterwards.

This is not a punishment, but a good method to get the cat busy with some silent, time-consuming activity that doesn't need your attention.

Answer 12

This is old but something for anyone in a similar situation to consider - Your cat may be waking you to check you are ok- sleep apnea, snoring, dreaming. Smart cats can recognise when something is up