I have 2 male neutered bengals. Ages 2-3. Well the older one is getting into this nasty habit of loud meowing at night. We are beside ourselves especially bc we have a 8mo baby who we obviously don't want to wake. We've tried playing for hours before bed, not letting in sleep during the day, which helps some, locking them in a room, felliway, oils, extra food, ect. Anyone have any tips?! On "good nights" he will sleep 5-6 hrs and start meowing at 5-6am until you either play or feed him.

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The little monsters 3

Him: Miaaaaaow

You: Have some play times and food

Him: Oh rewards, my humans have been trained.


The next night...

Him: Miaaaaaowwwww


From what other people have said, it's going to take you a good couple of weeks to de-train your bengal and teach him that a Miaow gets nothing.

I guess this is why I have not set my alarm since the second day my kitties came to live with me. If I sleep in until, the sun starts to rise they start playing in the room and making sounds like mmMMMmmmm periodically until I get up. They don't really cry out but want to let me know they want the day's routine to start. On the weekend I can usually get away with letting them out on the patio and going back to bed. They will eventually come back in and race around on the towers and bed to make sure I don't forget about them. I always give them a small amount of dry food at bedtime so they sleep until around 5.

Our kitties have hard food all the time and get wet morning and night. Anyone ever try clicker training? I'm thinking about looking into this? How does it work? Are you glad you did it?

Guess it just must be the time of year for neutered males to start crying at night! Another post was in the Discussion Topic. At any rate -- you first rule out that something is medically wrong. If the crying is just at night -- probably nothing is wrong. But, as I posted in the other topic, has anything changed in your household? Any outdoor cats or wildlife that may be coming by your doors or windows at night? I do wonder if some neutered males still yearn for females who are now going into heat for spring.

What you have to do is learn to "ignore" him. I know it's difficult. But Jackson Galaxy says it takes a good two weeks to change the behavior. When I first got my bengal, he had been an outdoor cat for 6 years. I decided to stop the roaming and keep him inside (he goes on daily walks and has an outdoor enclosure). He cried nonstop 24/7. Hubby and I simply got no sleep, but we did not give in (as much as we wanted to just get up and open the door and let him out). It took several weeks before he finally realized he was NOT going to be let outside and he stopped. Now he sleeps through the night for the most part. His alarm may go off around 3, but I can tell him to go back to sleep and he usually will.

Bengal cries are loud and can be extremely annoying, especially when you have a baby.

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The little monsters 3

Thanks everyone! I think it's just gotten out of hand in quickly responding to his meows for fear he will wake the baby. And I'm sure anyone with a baby would understand this! Time to crank the white noise and break this bad habit!

I've got a similar problem with Katniss. She used to meow at night time, but she has stopped that now as she gets fed before we go to sleep and then she happily goes to sleep without making a sound. It took about a week to crack this habit (she used to meow every night), but we just ignored her and she hasn't done it for about a month now.
What we haven't been able to resolve yet are the morning meows. She starts dead on at 6 am, which is when the alarm normally goes off. I'm pretty sure that's where she first got the idea, that if the alarm goes, then it's awake time. For some time now she starts right before the alarm, it's like she knows what time it is. It's difficult to ignore her then, because we do actually have to get up and even though we try not to pay attention to her when she meows, us walking around the house is attention enough for her. So it comes down to either ignoring her or being late for work, which is not really an option. Today she started at 5:30. That's the earliest ever, but if she keeps doing that it gives me extra half an hour to ignore her, so maybe it's a good thing, we'll see. I know from experience that ignoring works and also that you can't always ignore them. Katniss is only 4 moths and hasn't been spayed yet. I'm hoping she will just grow out of it. At the moment sometimes when I close my eyes all I can hear is meow meow meow - even when she is not meowing!

Listen, if my bengal will sleep until 5:30 or 6 a.m., I AM happy! Usually, at the first sign of light -- Raiden is up. Now we are in the routine of the alarm going off at 5:30 a.m. I feed him, get my husband off to work, and then Raiden and I go back to bed and sleep for a few hours. He knows the routine so well that I will find him back up on the bed waiting for me.

I'll never forget the first night my kittens slept with me. They both laid down on their sides next to my head and didn't move until the alarm went off in the morning. It scared the daylights out of them. It was their first night sleeping with a human in a bed. It was lovely until the alarm made them fly into the air and scatter. I have never set the alarm again. Blondie still sleeps next to my head but Grace switches her sleeping location constantly and visits us.

Gads, I HATE the sound of the alarm going off. I prefer to wake up to the radio.

It's Friday today and I had a day off work and don't have to get up until 7:30.. My body clock woke me at 6:05.. And it was still all quiet! She didn't actually start meowing today till 7:15! So confused now, it's been dead on 6 for weeks every day, except yesterday's 5:30.. Such a weirdo!

I wish cats could tell time. Raiden will usually wait until he sees my eyes open. Then it's game on! Time to cry and cry and cry. Cry to get fed, Cry to go out for the morning walk. You cannot imagine how fast I can get things done in the morning when he is howling his loudest.

Ah yes, the yowling thing. Thomas likes to do that at the door at night, and I happen to know he is sending messages to the other male cat down the hall.

After trying various approaches, one night I got fed up and swatted him on the behind with the flat of my hand. I was immediately sorry for doing that, but Thomas wasn't even offended. He just stopped and looked at me like, oh, you want me to stop? OK, I'll stop.

Every night, tho, I have to have this exchange with him where he starts yowling and then I tell him to knock it off. This is the one thing he does that's annoying tho, so I'm lucky.

Lady K