scared cat

Question
Hi,

I recently made a move from Fl to CA and brought my 10 year old cat Minka with me. She has always been a little bit skittish and on the scared side, but I always attributed it to the fact that we had 2 older cats living with us at home and they weren't always the friendliest with her. But since the move, she hides in my closet all day long and only comes out to sleep with me on my bed at night when it's quiet. I've tried several times to pick her up and have her hang out on the couch with me and my roommate, but she freaks and runs straight back into my room. I feel so bad for her that she is so scared and locks herself up all day, do you have any suggestions on how to get her used to the new surroundings and more comfortable? I've been here for about 2 weeks now and she hasn't made any progress. Thankfully, she will come out to eat and use her litter box, but only in the early morning before my roommate is up and walking around. I have some calming treats and some tranquilizers left over from the trip out here, but I can't see how those will be the answer, I want to make her feel at home, not drug her up.

Please help, I feel terrible!

Thanks,
Monica

Answer
Hi Monica,

You need to introduce a cat into a new home very carefully as this is a very stressful time and failure to do it correctly could cause fear and stress related behavioural issues.

You need to provide her with her own 'safe place', a room that has her litter tray, food, water and toys etc inside it. She needs to have somewhere that she can feel safe and go and hide in if she is scared. You need to always leave the door to this room ajar so that she can go out to the rest of the flat and explore if she wants to. It is important that you try and keep noise and visitors to a minimum, do not try and carry her or take her to other parts of the flat as she may be too scared to do this right now and you will be risking her becoming aggressive towards you if you try and push her.

Simply provide her with a safe place, buy a pheromone diffuser and place it somewhere central in the flat (you can buy these from most pet shops and veterinary surgeries). Play with her and give her plenty of treats when she is outside her room, your flatmate can carry some treats in their pocket and whenever they see her or she passes them they can just drop one on the floor for her. Try and deposit her scent around the flat as much as you can, you can do this by rubbing a clean cloth along her flanks, face and base of the tail and then rub the same cloth on the bottom of chair legs, doors, skirting boards etc.

It takes time for a cat to adjust, your new home is full of scary unfamiliar scents, noises and people. Let her do this at her own pace, try not to coax her into the rest of the flat or to meet other people as she is not ready to yet, and doing this is only causing her to feel more threatened.

It will take time Monica, but putting into place the things I have suggested and making the flat as stress free as possible for her will certainly help.

I hope this has helped you a little

Thank you

Kelly