# Cat biting my feet under quilt, every morning



## DL1996 (Oct 28, 2013)

Hi Everybody, 

Just hoping to receive some advice regarding my cat Marco. Every morning without fail (8am) Marco will crawl under the quilt and claw/bite my feet as if he is wanting me to get out of bed. This may seem quite funny but it is incredibly frustrating as I am not getting much sleep as I am always "anticipating" when he is going to start his morning ritual.  

If anybody has any advice/tips on solving this behaviour, it would be much appreciated. 

Kind Regards, 

Sarah x


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

It sounds as though Marco is trying to get you up in the mornings, as you say. He may be hungry, or waiting to go out, or just want your company. You could try studiously ignoring him and keeping completely still, but I guess that'd be hard if he is biting your feet! 

The best way to stop the behaviour is to shut him out of the bedroom at night, but as you did not set up this routine as soon as he came to live with you it may take some while getting him used to the new routine. You'd have to have two closed doors (his room and your room) between you and him at night, otherwise he'd be able to scratch at your door.

If you don't want to shut him out of your room, then you need to put up blackout blinds or curtains lined with blackout at all the windows, so your cat is not woken so early by the light. Dawn is the normal time for a cat to be awake, so you are lucky he doesn't wake you up earlier than 8 am at this time of year!

In case he is waking you due to hunger, buy an autofeeder from amazon and leave his breakfast in it, timed to open at around 6 or 7 am. He should eat, groom, then sleep until you get up. Some of the autofeeders have little ice packs with them which go under the dish to keep the food cool/fresh.


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## Cleo38 (Jan 22, 2010)

Shut your bedroom door!

My cat Basil used to do this all the time & it was such a horrible awakening. Even though he had to be pts last year I still wake early in fear of having my toes bitten .... I sort of miss it now though!


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## DL1996 (Oct 28, 2013)

chillminx said:


> It sounds as though Marco is trying to get you up in the mornings, as you say. He may be hungry, or waiting to go out, or just want your company. You could try studiously ignoring him and keeping completely still, but I guess that'd be hard if he is biting your feet!
> 
> The best way to stop the behaviour is to shut him out of the bedroom at night, but as you did not set up this routine as soon as he came to live with you it may take some while getting him used to the new routine. You'd have to have two closed doors (his room and your room) between you and him at night, otherwise he'd be able to scratch at your door.
> 
> ...


Hi Chillminx,

Thank you for your advice/tips. I will definatley try the above ideas. I don't want to shut him out of my room so I will definatley try the blackout blinds and the autofeeder.

Thanks again!

Sarah x


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## ForeverHome (Jan 14, 2014)

Sarah, 

Cats are very clever little creatures and when they want to wake you up they will keep trying things until they find the one thing you can't sleep through. As a general rule, consistency is your vital tool for this kind of nuisance behaviour. If you ignore-ignore-ignore then give in, what the cat learns is that persistence pays. Then you will never get any peace!

I would go for a multiple approach - remove the toy, remove the need for this behaviour, and offer an alternative. Remove the toy - I presume Marco is geting into the bed near your feet? Wrap a sheet right over the foot end of the bed and tuck it under the mattress so he can't get in. Remove the need for the behaviour - cats are crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk) so blackout blinds as suggested are good. Either an automatic feeder as suggested or a good meal of real meat at bedtime which takes time to digest and leaves him feeling full till morning. However some cats just think you should be up, like my Molly - if I feed her and go back to bed she carries on. 

Offer an alternative behaviour - that's where you need to work with Marco to reach some agreement. Decide what time you want to be woken up. If he tries to wake you up before, play dead. No response at all, no saying no, no huff, nothing. Keep that up until the time you have decided is wake-up time. But, if he happens to be trying to wake you when that time comes, wait until he has left you alone for at least 10 minutes, otherwise he will think his persistence has paid off. When it's wake-up time, then make a big fuss of him. Hopefully he should soon realise that if he comes and gently pats your face, or cuddles up to you, or whatever he decides to do, at the right time, then he will get a great reward. But you do have to be 100% consistent for a while until he gets it.


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## Blaise in Surrey (Jun 10, 2014)

I wish I could sleep until 8am


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## Aeth (Mar 31, 2014)

River will occasionally bite my hands for the same reason... with her, it is just in terms of 'breakfast plz!' She does seem to be growing out of it... what I do is ignore her if she's biting. If it's a particularly sore one, I have shut her out of the room for it in the past, and left it for a while before getting up to feed her. Now she's resorted to gently prodding my cheek with a paw, which I don't mind - I'll just get up, feed her and go back to bed if I need the extra sleep. She never gets fed before 7am whether she asks or not.

This is the thing, there's a reason he wants your attention, you know? So actually discouraging him from getting your attention is pretty much impossible - your options are to either create a situation where he doesn't need to get your attention (i.e. auto-feeder) or allow him to get your attention by more appropriate means (in River's case, the patented paw-prod ). 

Only problem with the paw-prod is that last Saturday she accidentally (I hope!) caught the tip of her claw just inside my right nostril... blood all over the pillow and I was too sleepy to notice until I'd got blood all over my hand too! But I'm calling that a one-off :thumbsup:


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## bordie (Jan 9, 2012)

DL1996 said:


> Hi Everybody,
> 
> Just hoping to receive some advice regarding my cat Marco. Every morning without fail (8am) Marco will crawl under the quilt and claw/bite my feet as if he is wanting me to get out of bed. This may seem quite funny but it is incredibly frustrating as I am not getting much sleep as I am always "anticipating" when he is going to start his morning ritual.
> 
> ...


shut the door


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## ehasler (Nov 1, 2010)

Smoggy does this too sometimes, although usually around 5am! I don't have the luxury of a bedroom door, so whenever she does it I tell her "no" and gently but firmly push her off the bed. Sometimes slightly more firmly, and slightly less gently depending on how hard she attacks me, and how early it is 

This seems to have helped - it took a few nibbled toes, but she's a lot better now.


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## Britt (May 18, 2014)

Chiming in here because I have a similar issue with Pooh who doesn't bite my feet but jumps on me every morning around 4:30am. Shutting the door isn't an option because he cries so loudly that I can't sleep. I might try an auto-feeder. I'm gonna read old threads on the subject and see which one is best for Pooh.


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## oggers86 (Nov 14, 2011)

I have the same problem. Elsworth wakes up really early and starts biting our feet because he wants to play. Today it was 5am, yesterday 4.30am :-(

Do blackout curtains do the trick? I am thinking of buying some but hubs is adamant they don't work.


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## DL1996 (Oct 28, 2013)

Hi everybody,

Thank you for all of your advice/tips. I will definatley try some of those.



bordie said:


> shut the door


Hi Bordie,

It would be useless shutting him out of my room as he is very attached to me and I know he will pine for me. I can't even go to the toilet without him crying for me.

Regards,

Sarah


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## Cleo38 (Jan 22, 2010)

oggers86 said:


> I have the same problem. Elsworth wakes up really early and starts biting our feet because he wants to play. Today it was 5am, yesterday 4.30am :-(
> 
> Do blackout curtains do the trick? I am thinking of buying some but hubs is adamant they don't work.


They never worked with my Basil he knew when it was time for me to get up regardless


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## oggers86 (Nov 14, 2011)

Cleo38 said:


> They never worked with my Basil he knew when it was time for me to get up regardless


Well interestingly last night we slept in the spare room which has darker curtains. We shut our bedroom door and the bathroom door along with the hall door as normal. It was a lot darker than normal and he slept in until 6am and then didn't wake me up biting my feet! I think him having access to food helps too, means he isn't waking up hungry and then wanting to play.

When he had just arrived I slept in the spare room with him and he rarely got up before 6am. I put it down to his age but maybe it is the light.

I will be able to test it properly when I am not on lates as when I am I play with him when I get it regardless of time (tonight it was 2am and we are going to play on and off until 3am)


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

I have found with all my cats (past and present) that blackout curtains definitely do work. You must make sure there are no ****** in the curtains letting shafts of sunlight into the room though. 

That, combined with food left in autofeeders for those cats that like an early brekkie!


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