What does my cat need?

[lust2hart]

We got Boomer a year ago - the shelter thought he was about 6 at the time. He's always been talkative, but then we moved into our house in April, and the cat will not stop meowing. I posted about this before, on my home board, back in May/June, and was told that maybe he's just adjusting and to give him extra love and attention. We've been doing that, and it's been about 6 months now in our new house, and I've noticed no change in his behavior.

We don't let our cats into our bedroom. Boomer will cry at our door when we go to bed, and then he'll go away for the night and then he'll come back around 4:30-5:30 every morning and wake us up by crying at the door.

When we get up, he won't stop meowing. Food and water are full, we both pet him lots to say good morning. He won't stop. When we get home from work, same thing.

I don't know what to do. I think it would be one thing if it was just kind of a chatty meow - our other cat does this and it's fine - but this is really like a crying meow, like he needs something from us. But I don't know what he needs. Food and water are always full, we clean the litter boxes, we cuddle with him as much as he'll let us. It really seems like he just likes to whine, which is starting to drive us crazy, especially when we're in bed. And so, what we've been doing is disciplining him - trying to teach him to not meow by using a water gun to spray him when he cries. But, 1.) that doesn't work - he runs away when we spray him but comes back just a few minutes later; 2.) I don't want him to think he can NEVER meow, and I don't know that cats are smart enough to know "Ok, don't meow at the bedroom door but if I'm out of food it's okay to meow"; and 3.) what if he's crying all the time because he actually needs something?

And so, I guess I'm looking for 2 things:
1.) Any ideas on what he needs from us that's causing the meowing; or
2.) Ideas on how to effectively discipline him so he'll leave us alone.

[kellbell191]

Feliway? Our cat used to do this because he was bored/lonely. We use feliway for them, he also does better since we got other cats.

[polarbearfans]

You can't discipline a cat. Ignore bad behavior? Yes. Don't give attention or acknowledge him when he is acting up. Don't spray water, hit your cat, or yell for meowing. It's stressful.

Have you been to the vet yet to rule out anything medical? The stress off the move could have caused a number of issues.