<p>My cat recently spent time at a neighbor’s, when we were out of town for an extended period of time. She has now discovered the joy of canned cat food. Prior to this, I just filled her bowl each evening, but wet food has to be served fresh.</p>
<p>I made the mistake of feeding her each day when I got up and each evening. She is pretty flexible about the evening feedings as I have always been inconsistent on the exact time. I thought I learned my lesson with horses, never to let the animal start a hard and fast routine, but apparently, though the actual time on the clock is different, the cue for hungry morning kitty is a combination of sunlight and me stirring. This was not a big deal in winter when it stays dark later, but as we approach the summer months, Miss Kitty is making her presence known with leisurely scratches on her post, or sometimes a chair!</p>
<p>It’s that good morning, pop…twang…pop…scratch. Sometimes a meow is added, but mostly it’s the scratching. It’s driving my husband crazy when he is trying to sleep. If I take the scratching post away, she will scratch the chair, if I take the chair away she does it on the carpeting.</p>
<p>Any wise suggestions as to the most efficient and effective way to change this? I can just turn over and ignore it, but DH cannot.</p>
<p>I am debating transitioning her back to only dry food except the evening feeding, then I can just leave out some dry food overnight. But I have to come up with a good way to do that.</p>
<p>So far only one barf episode on the carpet this month, so that’s good.</p>
<p>We do wet food only in the evening, so transitioning to evening might be the best thing for you. We have 4 cats and the diet is mainly dry food, but we split a can 4 ways for them each evening. They get ready for that feeding starting at about 4pm!</p>
<p>With food, you have to do what you need and stick to it. The cat will adjust, just like toddler will to bedtime. </p>
<p>A bigger problem is the cat who insists on going out when the sun is up. The days get longer, the intensive meowing gets earlier. </p>
<p>There is a fundamental truth about animals: they can be more persistent than people. They want what they want and they will stick to that. We had a cat who wanted your lap. Push her off 50 times and you’d look away and realize she was on you. Push her off 100 times and look away and she’d be on you. </p>
<p>I think food can be trained but some behaviors are really tough to change.</p>
<p>Is there a reason why you are not free feeding dry food? Is there a reason you are feeding canned food?</p>
<p>We personally feed only dry food (several different brands at one time in different bowls - we have more than one cat), which the vet has said is a very healthy way to feed cats. But anyway… canned food is fed “upon occasion”. There is one exception with this and that is an older kitty with teeth and health issues. She is fed canned twice a day and I frequently get meowed at first thing in the morning when she sees me and of course at our dinner time.</p>
<p>Be aware that tuna is very addicting and can cause definite nutritional deficiencies.</p>
<p>Like crazymonster, we leave kibbles out 24/7, no wet food ever. The vet told me it was better for their teeth, but to be honest, I do it that way because it’s so easy. No cat is ever yowling for food.</p>
<p>We did free feed for a long time, then I put her on a diet and did dry food AM & PM. I think, though it is the wet food treat that really affected the mornings. I will try free feeding dry again and see what happens.</p>
<p>If your kitty bugs you too much too early in the morning, get an auto feeder that dispenses dry food and set it up so it would dump out a cup of kibble at 5 am or whatever time and give her the wet food ration in the evening. The cat will get used to the idea that “the feeding god” is the one to wait for in the early hours. Our kitties got used to the idea very quickly!!! :)</p>
<p>It also works great to control the portions for overweight kitties. Of course, some cats will try to get more out of the feeder any way they can…</p>
<p>[Gimme</a> my kibble!!!](<a href=“YouTube”>YouTube)</p>
<p>Funny how vets differ on cat food issues. Mine switched my guys to canned food years ago, saying studies showed the high carb content of kibble was a risk factor for diabetes. (Free deeding dry food had never worked out well for them anyway, since they would ignore the food after it had been sitting out for a while–I think once the aroma wafted away, they didn’t find it appealing.) For their teeth, I give them a small handful of Hill’s Oral Care (big, extra hard kibbles) as a midnight snack–that seems to stick to their ribs and keep hunger at bay until a decent hour of the morning. Maybe a kibble snack when you go to bed would work for your gal.</p>
<p>You’re lucky it’s just scratching. Mine pokes my face with her paw, licks my eyelid, and starts knocking things off my bedside table until I get up. She has me well trained. (Yes, we use only tinned food twice a day; the dry food is also very high in salt as well as carbs.)</p>
<p>^^^ yes, our kitty is like this. My solution has been to shut her in the basement overnight - which works well for us. The vet I just took her to also suggested we start her on wet food - said it’s more like their natural diet and that cats just don’t drink enough when on dry rations. Obviously I’m getting too old because I remember being told years ago that wet food was bad for their kidneys so they should only be fed dry food. So current compromise is wet food am and dry food pm. This cat is very food motivated and would easily become a recreational eater (like the rest of the family) - on the plus side she’ll do anything for treats and has learned “sit” and “stay” … But I digress</p>
<p>Regarding the diabetes in association with dry food… I think this has a lot to do with the corn that is so prevalent in dry foods, however many brands are now going to grain free. Again this is one of the reasons why I feed a variety of different brands, so that there is a variety of nutrients.</p>
<p>In regards to increasing water intake, the trick for that is running water (sink if you want), we use a water fountain for pets.</p>
<p>We found out that our kitties like to have their drinking dishes scattered around the house. So we keep a few bowls filled with water for them to enjoy throughout the house. Unfortunately, they did not appreciate the expensive petmate fountain.</p>
<p>Our cat has also gotten into the habit of awakening us at the crack of dawn. (She gets one can of wet food daily and has supply of prescription dry food at all times because she has kidney problems.) </p>
<p>We have a simple solution: when we go to bed, the cat also goes to bed - in the basement. We have a finished basement, and that’s where her sandbox is. In the morning, when we’re up and getting ready for the day, we open the basement door and let her out. </p>