Why does my cat suddenly insist on waking me up at 5 a.m.?

At 17 years old, your cat may have developed a physical problem that has now shown up.

Any time there is a change in behavior (like waking everyone up at 5 am) is a reason to take the cat to the vet.

I understand you are probably on a limited budget, but your cat's health is important.

Your cat should have bloodwork done, including Chemistries, CBC (Complete Blood Count) and a Thyroid panel. He should also have his teeth checked. He may not be eating because he has a bad tooth/teeth.

Edit: Animals can also suffer from dementia. At 17 your cat is 121 years old in human years. If your vet can find nothing wrong, then you may have to lock the cat up in another room overnight.

Cats are 'Crepuscular' animals, meaning most of their activity is at dusk and dawn. And it sounds like you may be reinforcing his 'waking habits' by adding the extra treat on his food. Au contrair' to what you may think, cats do fine eating the same food daily, as a matter of fact by changing their food their system never adjust. Do not reinforce his behavior, instead of giving him a treat when he is doing something you dislike, give him a squirt with a water bottle, it will work wonders. I have bred Maine Coons for many years and have found the best way to stop a behavior I dislike is with a quick squirt of water. One of my Queens loves to start pawing on our bedroom door around 5 AM, so instead of rewarding her behavior I open the door and give her a quick squirt. It took a few days of ME being consistent and guess what? She has stopped this annoying behavior.

Funny, a couple of my breeder friends and I have commented on that our males 'whine' and our girls 'chirp' but like you, I have heard some strong meows, especially on the way to the vets office! LOL

Best of luck to you and your boy!

It could be that once or twice your cat screamed until he got you up he realized HEY this is a way to get what I want. Try changing the food your feeding him. I have some of those spoiled animals also. We have a cat we got off a group here that was abused and she was a great cat but they told me she loved kids. No she loves kids when they are leaving her alone and being Quiet. If my grandchildren come and are being good she is great with them But let them get Noisy and the Claws come out until they settle down. The 2nd cat I got from an abusive home he loves the kids But let the kids come over when he was younger he loved them But now let them come over and they get his toys or in his space and he is gonna pee on someone. My husbands Chihuahua/boxer cross come froma family with 4 kids. So I figured he would be fine But let us introduce another abused animal to this house and he pee's on everything. So best thing to do is try to ignore him. Place him in the bathroom or in a wire kennel when you go to bed. Long as the Vet says nothing is wrong it is all for attention. Our 1 year old does it. My husband gets up at 3 a.m. for work Mon-Fri. and so this cat thinks he is supposed to have his bowl of milk at 3 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday also.You just have to ignore him or he will keepp it up. He is doing it for attention. You maybe done things with him before you were disabled and they are still in his mind. And he remembers being fed at a certain time every morning before you were off to work or to Doctor appointments. So now he wants it that way all the time.

Yeah, cats do that, so does mine. Weird that he'd only develop the habit now, but it's there. The only thing you can do to make him stop is to ignore him. When he tries to wake you up, don't move, don't pet him, don't get up or feed him. He's training you. Once you give in, he'll keep on doing it. You need to show him he has nothing to gain by waking ou up. It will take some time but he will stop.

Stop putting the extra treats on top of his food. He can get his regular cat food, and if he won't eat it, fine. Let him be hungry. He'll eventually decide that his regular cat food isn't so bad after a day or so of being hungry.

Close your bedroom door and ignore him. He's doing it because he knows you'll get up, give him attention, and give him treats.

Well first of all, you have one of the most spoiled rotten cats I've ever seen. It's fine for owners to love their cats and to know what your cat likes, but you're letting your cat own you. If your cat wont eat it's food without lunch meat on it, then leave the food alone, it's that or nothing for your cat. That's a waste of YOUR own food. Also if your cat insists on waking everyone up at 5 AM, put him in a timeout, like outside or a cage until he stops. You've got to let him know who's in charge, otherwise you're going to have problems like this with him as long as it's alive. There's nothing wrong with the cat.

According to a pets.ca article you should buy yourself a pair of ear plugs and ignore the cat but then pay extra attention to him at other times.