I feel bad squirting my cat with water

I feel bad squirting my cat with water. I think its terrible I have to scare him so he would let DH and I sleep.

Every morning around 5:30am he comes to the door, jumps at the door knob, sticks his paws under the door and meows. Its cute and all but its getting annoying. DH usually gets up at 530 and gets ready for work and feeds Ozzy but during the weekend we like to sleep until 630-7:00 but Ozzy wont let us. I wake up, and feed him at 530 but he eat and comes back and meows. I pet him and cuddle and play with him but he always comes back and meows and bangs on the door.

This morning he woke us up at 330 because DH went to the bathroom. I ended up shaking a water bottle at him and he left us alone for 30 mins he did the same thing I shook the bottle, came back in 5 minutes and then i squirted him with water and he left us alone for 30 mins again.

I dont know what to do, is it inhumane to squirt a cat with water? DH is getting annoyed and I'm super tired every morning because of Oz.

Re: I feel bad squirting my cat with water

have you tried just leaving the door open? maybe he just wants to be near you and will curl up on the bed with you and let you sleep

eta: squirting him with water isn't inhumane but it doesn't really seem to be doing anything for him (for longer than 30 mins at least)

Message edited 11/2/2010 12:55:59 PM.

Re: I feel bad squirting my cat with water

i posted a while back about my cat waking me up every 2 hours.. and then i have to cuddle him and play with him for 10 mins and i hit the sack, only for him to wake me up 2 hours later..

i would't squirt him with water, try to wear him out before you go to bed.. get a new toy and douze it with catnip. split his food in half, so he has something to eat at night (they are most active at night). i don't let my cat in my bedroom, when i'm sleeping.. he has the whole living room.

give them attention, i play with a lot more now, bring out his "predator" side

its hard, and my cat is far from waking us (well, me) up at night.. but it gets better..

Re: I feel bad squirting my cat with water

No, it's not inhumane to use water to train your cats -- HOWEVER, I would bet that your cat isn't misbehaving so much as not getting enough exercise.

My cats require 30-60 minutes of interactive play every day or they will keep us up all night.

Re: I feel bad squirting my cat with water

I play with him every day, in the morning and at night with the wand. Casey (my dog) and Ozzy chase each other around the house, wrestle. He has plenty of boxes to jump in and out and also a cat condo he likes to climb.

We dont let him in our bedroom because he likes to sleep on our faces and attack our feet at night.

Maybe I need to play with him more.

Thanks for the advice!

Re: I feel bad squirting my cat with water

I was playing with my cats, too -- about 15 mins in the AM and 15 in the evening... but it wasn't enough. They are part Siamese and ALL energy. They tire me out!

We sleep much better now that they are tired! LOL

FWIW, squirting ours with water, shaking a can of pennies, and ignoring it didn't work. Tiring them out more did. They have settled a bit more as they get older (they're only 2), but still need more play time than the other cats I've had... and all this is in addition to chasing each other around the house constantly!

Re: I feel bad squirting my cat with water

we have to keep the cats up until 10PM at least otherwise they wake us up before 7:30AM. I try to exercise them as much as possible now (its like another job) otherwise our little haley starts howling.

Re: I feel bad squirting my cat with water

Don't feel bad...whenever my Gabriel is really acting up and being crazy I spray him down. He doesn't like it but then he spends his time licking himself and calming down instead of acting a fool.

Like others were saying, I do find that he leaves us alone at night if we exercise him at least some...I have some of the wand toys so all I have to do is sit on the couch and bounce it for him...he also loves the piece of plastic you pull off a gallon of milk...he will entertain himself with that for hours.