Hello

I have a year old bengal x tabby neutered male who is driving us MAD with his incessant meowing. It started a few months ago - no obvious reason why, no stress, moves, changes in routine or diet etc - he would wake us up in the early hours of the morning meowing (I know this is common for cats) but it is now a constant. He wanders around the house meowing day and night, literally from the moment we get home to the moment we leave again. We can't work out what is going on, we play with him, it doesn't seem to be food orientated, he is allowed out and about, he is flea'd / wormed / neutered, he has company (neighbours are home all day and he goes to hang out with them, and he has a sister for company) and he doesn't have any injuries or seem to be in any pain. He constantly wakes us up around 4am and we are almost at our wits end. We've tried feeding him later at night, playing with him before bed, leaving food out overnight, nothing works.

I know it is a bengal trait to be chatting but our full bengal female isn't half as loud as this. Does anyone have ANY advice on how to discourage this meowing!!

Thank you

Is it summer where you live? The days are longer? More time to be active for a kitty! My bengal sleeps through the night until the alarm goes off in the winter time. But, in the summer time he wakes me up around 3 to 4 a.m. Why? I don't know! He has dry food out all night. Some nights I get up and feed him wet. Other times, I tell him to lay back down and go to sleep. If I let him cry for a while, he will eventually come back to bed. This is really common cat behavior. The fact that you let him outside should make things easier as he doesn't feel cooped up.

The ONLY thing you can do is ignore the cries. Jackson Galaxy says it takes two weeks for the behavior to change -- and those two weeks can be exhausting. But you just have to be patient and diligent. Now, if he is sensing another cat roaming around your home during the night, that could set him off. Mine will start howling if he sees another cat walking by a window. Even though you may not see or smell another outdoor kitty -- your cat's sense of smell is 14 times stronger than ours. You say nothing has changed -- but something has! You just have to figure out what it is, deal with it, and things should go back to normal -- somewhat. Things are never normal if you have a bengal.

Grace comes into my room around 3 or 4am and makes sounds mmmmmmmmmmm? mmmmmmmmmmm? sometimes she'll even bust into a chirp and jump up next to me. I pet her but what she really wants is to go outside. If the time is late enough and I have energy, I will get up and let them out on the patio to play in the moonlight. This morning I fell back asleep and didn't wake up again until around 6:30. The last two nights Grace didn't want to come inside. I found her on the far side of the patio firmly planted on the ground. I had to pick her up and carry her inside. That didn't go so well. The same thing this morning before the pool guy came. She wants to live out there I think, at least at night when it's not so hot. Maybe it's the full moon.

It is summer here, but the other cat (Nancy) hasn't started waking up early or meowing just Sid.
The weird thing is, if one of us gets up he will run back out the cat flap and sit in the garden and if we ignore him he will literally just prowl around the house shouting

Earbuds it is!

If he's running back outside when you get up he may be trying to "show" you something outside.

We've been pretty lucky lately, all of the cats have been pretty calm at night. Diesel has been coming up for his snuggles earlier in the evening so he's not waking me up at 3am demanding to be pet.

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Dallas, TX USA
Diesel - snow Bengal born 09/01/2013 adopted Feb 2014
Tuck, Chloe, Buddy, Lewis & Tia - rescue kitties
Clyde, Bleu & Coal - Great Danes

My Magic used to wake me up constantly meowing around 3 am, i think this stems from when I got up for work at this time, now I don't work he was still doing it so I would get up and feed him then he would be fine.

Since I have had Pearl my 9 month old girl he has got better at sleeping through the night he only does it occasionally.

I think some cats are exceptionally noisy, Pearl never stops chatting we only have to look at her and she's off, sometimes in the night she will walk round upstairs meowing then jump down behind the bed meowing.

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

I'm pretty sleep deprived, Bengal style. However, it got really bad a few weeks ago but I was pretty certain it was the neighbourhood foxes disturbing Jagger, and once he's awake, he thinks everyone should be awake. The foxes were coming right up to the patio doors and even pooing two inches from the doors. As Jagger sleeps in there, I bought some fox deterrents and things are much better. Yes, he still gets me up between 5/5.30am, but it's not 2am! You may find you have something enjoying your garden at night too that is disturbing your boy. I took action not only for my sleep, but I was concerned they would feel territorially threatened and start spraying.

Also, I guess mornings right now are the only pleasant time of day for a furry Bengal. They are really active in the mornings, then come in when it gets hot and back out in the evening until I get them in for the night.

Of course, you may just have a Bengal X who has discovered his voice and likes it!

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Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK

Ours sleep in their "sleep area" ; we just lock them in a side of the house which contains three rooms as otherwise it's 4am cuddles - great if it wasn't for the fact that it's 4am. In the beginning they would miaow but we just ignore them, we are a whole corridor away so v easy to do. It's either that or no sleep.
I do love to let them sleep with me, but I seem to be able to sleep through anything. My other half is the "preferred human" so he gets all the unwanted attention too... Thus, sorry kitties but you are not sleeping with us!

I do not have a room on the opposite side of the house with a door that can be closed. He would have to stay in a tiny 1/2 bath in the bonus room. And I'm not in favor of confining him to such a small space -- but the biggest reason is that he howls so loud that I would hear him no matter what. I am such a light sleeper that the least little sound wakes me up. Raiden got me up at 2:55 a.m. this morning. It's easier to get up and feed him and then let him come back to bed and sleep than listen to him howl for an hour and then I can't fall back to sleep! I've had cats for over 50 years and they all have woken me up at some point during the night. It's a kitty thing.