Overnight Crying / Automatic Feeder

Hello! I have an 11-year old cat who has never allowed me to sleep through the night and I feel it’s getting progressively worse. I adopted him when he was about 1, he’s a barn cat but absolutely has some Maine Coon or something similar in him as he’s a quite large, long haired cat. He used to just free feed with dry food until years ago when we lived with another cat, and he began overeating to protect his access to his dry food vs. the other cat who would sometimes wonder in for a snack. There no competitive nature or food aggression but the habit continued once we no longer lived with the other cat so that’s when I switched to the automatic feeder.

I’ve been trying to master this for years. He’s a pretty lazy guy and like most cats, sleeps mainly during the day. The feeder gives me 6 times he can be fed, when I first got the feeder, the meals were split evenly throughout a 24-hour period but I adjusted it slowly over time to fit his schedule and habits better. Now, 4/6 of them are overnight at various intervals while only 2 go off during the day (which he still doesn’t go running for vs. the night ones which are his reason for living lol). One portion on the feeder is about 1/24th a cup and through a 24-hour cycle it gives probably around 20-22 portions (I can confirm this when I’m not writing this from bed feeling overwhelmed).

Now, every night, for ~10 minutes before each feeding time (which he has memorized), he will just sit and cry and cry and cry. And then he runs to go eat, then probably takes a nap, and then he comes back just to cry again before the next feeding period starts. It is always at least once a night, and more often 2-3. I can’t remember the last time he’s let me sleep through the night. He never cries for food during the day.

I’ve tried: • As mentioned, moving essentially 90% of his feeding time to be through an overnight period, running from about 11PM to 6AM • Giving him wet food before bed • Trying to get him to play before bed (he loves a few toys but is just getting older and play time will last as little as 90 seconds before he taps out) • Put a small portion of food in a lil ~ push to roll / rotate ~ for the food to come out to try to stimulate him overnight (he doesn’t find this super exciting but will usually give it a few minutes of his time) • Changing the intervals between feedings • Changing the time on the actual feeder so they ALL move up by some minutes [he just adjusts his times to cry after a 2-3 days]

Transparently, I do: • Give in maybe ~once a week where he’s being so relentless and I’m so desperate to get back to sleep that I and go put 10 pieces of kibble into his bowl early [and then the automatic feeder always goes off like 3 minutes later]

Today was the first day ever I finally just locked him out of my room [which I knew wouldn’t fix much because he hates closed doors and not having access to me], and he has just proceeded to cry outside the door. I feel like the next step is just to make 6/6 feeding times be overnight but it just feels crazy to me to have him not have access to food during the day at all? It seems like any adjustment I’ve ever made has led to him just adjusting the schedule he cries at And he’s definitely toeing a line between a healthy weight and slightly overweight so I know he’s not starving — but he seemingly thinks he is. He’s been to the vet plenty of times with no health issues and otherwise a very very happy guy.

I would really love to one day get a full night’s sleep and any advice would be so so appreciated 🖤