Cat meowing in middle of night
So I’ve had my 7 y/o cat since he was about year old from the humane society. Smart, cuddly orange tabby. He used to sleep in bed with me, especially during the winter, but my girlfriend recently moved in with me (about 6 months ago) and she has bad cat allergies. Her only request was to have an allergy free room, which logically would be the bedroom. We live in a small two bedroom house, and I have a little catio for the guy because we live in a wooded area with predators, so I want him to have some outside time without the risk of getting hurt. For the record, my cat LOVES my girlfriend, and with the help of some air filters in the house she hasn’t had much issue. Anyways, about two months ago, he started scratching and meowing at the door around 4am, usually 2-3 times a week. I have an automatic feeder that gives a mix of wet and dry food twice a day, around 5am and 5pm. Also my girlfriend gets up around 6am and lets him out to the Catio around that time. So from everything I can tell, he just wants food and/or outside early. But the meowing and scratching is CONSTANT until someone gets up. Clean bill of health from the vet recently, no behavior changes, as far as I can tell plenty of stimulation and human time. I would’ve thought this would happen when she moved in if it was going to. Only thing that seems to stop him is the spray bottle, which I don’t want to do, but I’m kinda at my wit’s end and don’t have the energy for redirection at 4am. Anything I’m missing to do here?