Adopting: Shy and Fearful Cats

Patience + Positive Reinforcement = Purrrfect

Change can be very stressful for cats, especially if they are shy or fearful. It can take new pets around three months to feel comfortable and show their true personality in a new home, but it may take even longer for some. Patience and compassion are the most important things you can offer your new cat.

Use positive reinforcement (that means treats!) to reward calm, social behaviors you want to see more of and create positive associations with you and their new home.

Remember: While you may be eager to interact with your new cat, they may not be ready to interact with anybody yet. It’s normal for them to want to hide, rest and decompress for the first week or so.

Avoid Punishment

Don’t punish your shy cat for hiding, fleeing, hissing, growling, spitting, swatting, or biting. These are signs of fear and stress and should be listened to and respected. Punishment includes yelling at your cat, spraying them with air or water, tapping or smacking them or using loud noises to startle or intimidate them. 

Punishment will only confuse and frighten your cat, increasing their fear and stress, and causing them to create a negative association with you and their new home.

Body Language 

Cats communicate that they are uncomfortable, stressed or scared through body language and behavior. You can better understand what your cat is feeling by observing their ears, tail, eyes, mouth, body and fur.

Your shy kitty likely shows certain signs of stress, like hiding, having wide eyes with large pupils, freezing or putting their ears back. Noticing these signs will help you understand when your cat is feeling uncomfortable with something in their environment, and you can work to manage it.

It’s important to listen to your cat's signals and respect their boundaries, so they don't feel the need to escalate to "louder" forms of communication (i.e. growl, swat or bite). To learn more about these signals and what they mean, check out our Reading Body Language YouTube playlist.

Space Isolation and Confinement

When you first bring home a new cat, give them access to just one small room (bathroom, walk-in closet, etc.) as their "safe space."

Immediately giving your new cat access to your entire home may cause them to find a single hiding spot (i.e., under a bed or behind a couch) and remain hidden. Once they become more comfortable in their safe space, they will start exploring more and hiding less.  

Safe Space Setup

There are several things cats need to help them feel comfortable in their safe space:

• Low Traffic, Minimal Activity. Choose a space that is relatively quiet and calm, without many people passing through daily.
• A litter box should always be available. Scoop the litter box one to two times daily. Clean the litter box and replace the litter around once per month (4-6 weeks). For more tips or if your cat is experiencing litter box issues, check out: Litter Boxes 101
• Food and water placed away from the litter box. 
• Somewhere to scratch. Offer at least one surface for your cat to scratch and knead.
• Places to hide. Offer a variety of hiding options where your cat can hide completely, such as a carrier covered with a towel, a cat tree cubby or a hidey-hole.
• Rest and relaxation. Provide multiple areas for your cat to rest (cat beds, blankets or mats). There should be at least one resting area up high, between 3-5 feet off the ground, because cats often seek safety this way.

Relationship Building

• The Power of Food: Offering meals and treats will naturally help you build a relationship with your cat, as your cat begins to associate you with food.
• High-Value Treats: Try a variety of treats, such as Temptations, canned chicken or tuna or Churu lickable treats, to find out what your cat likes. Gently place treats near your cat and step away. If your cat approaches you, you may offer treats from your hand. However, most shy or fearful animals prefer to eat treats from the ground at a distance away from people and other animals.
• Scent Swapping: Place a worn item of clothing in your cat's safe space. If you have other pets, place one of their used blankets, pet beds or toys there, too. Try sprinkling treats near or on these items so your new cat associates those smells with good things! (For more information on introducing cats to your other pets, check out: B&T Lecture - Introducing New Pets)
• Treat Retreat Game: Bring treats to your cat’s safe space and find somewhere to sit where you can see your cat but are not too close to them. Don’t face them directly or make eye contact, and use a calm, soothing voice to talk to them. Gently and carefully toss treats near your cat, aiming for the treat to land farther away from you, so your cat moves AWAY from you to get the treat. Don’t use the treats to lure your cat to come closer to you, as this creates stress and can cause your cat to associate those negative feelings with you. For a video example of this exercise, check out: Greeting Games - Treat Retreat.
• Play! Play fetch or use toys that allow you to play with your cat from a distance, such as wand toys, to engage your cat in chasing, grabbing and catching. Present wand toys at a distance and move the toy away from your cat. If your shy cat is not comfortable with interactive play, don’t force it before they’re ready! Give them ways to play on their own, such as a toy with a ball on a track.
• Follow your cat's lead: Allow your cat to move at their speed and choose whether or not to interact with people. Read and respond to your cat’s body language to ensure they feel comfortable. Don’t force your cat to be pet, especially if they are displaying body language consistent with discomfort, fear or aggression.

Signs of Stress 

Imagine you spill your coffee, lose your keys and get a flat tire on the way to work. After experiencing these events one after another, you’re likely going to be more irritable and take longer to recover due to compounded stress. This is called “trigger stacking,” and the same thing happens to cats.

Your new cat has likely experienced multiple stressful events in a short amount of time. So, assume your new shy cat is already trigger-stacked when they get to your home. This is why it’s important to do everything you can to prevent further stress for your kitty, and keep an eye out for signs of more severe stress, including:  

• Consistent fleeing or hiding.
• Excessive vocalization.
• Signs of extreme fearfulness, aggressive behavior or being shut down.
• Changes to or loss of appetite.
• Sudden disinterest in playing and/or scratching, or other changes in behavior.
• Litter box issues, spraying or other changes in potty habits.
• Decreased grooming, over-grooming, chewing at fur or skin, or other forms of self-harm.
• Urinary tract infection (UTI), upper respiratory infection (URI) or other illnesses triggered or made worse by stress.
• Other illnesses or medical issues.

Enrichment!

Providing your pet with enrichment is important to meeting their basic needs and reducing stress.

• Mental enrichment: Mental enrichment is anything that works your pet's brain and fulfills their natural species-specific needs. Think: puzzles, sniffing, foraging and even training! 
• Visual stimulation: Provide a perch near a window where your cat can look outside. You can also use a phone, a TV or a tablet to play “cat videos” to provide visual stimulation.
• The “Cat Prey Sequence” in play:  The cat prey sequence — staring, chasing, pouncing and biting — refers to the order of behaviors cats perform when they catch prey in the wild. Play and activities that allow a cat to complete the entire sequence are ideal because they are the most rewarding for the cat.
• Catnip: If your cat is older than a year, they may have a positive response to catnip, which is an herb that stimulates cats and increases their energy level.
• Training & Confidence-Building: Introducing positive reinforcement training and teaching our cats new skills is a wonderful way to boost their confidence because it engages their brain and shows them that they have some control and impact on their life and environment. Through training, our pets can learn that if they do one thing (i.e. sit, look, lay down), they get another thing (i.e. treat, praise, attention, toy).

Ask For Help

If you need additional support, here are your options:

1. If your cat has access to a large area of the home, confine them to a smaller area, ideally their original safe space. It’s possible that your shy cat gained access to the entire home before they were fully comfortable, causing them to become overwhelmed.
2. If you adopted your cat from San Diego Humane Society, schedule your free 1-hour  Post Adoption Consultation online over Zoom. We’ll help troubleshoot while providing advice and next steps.
3. Enroll in our live online Shy Cat training class over Zoom. 
4. Book an online Private Lesson (1 hour, online over Zoom). Open to everyone, these sessions focus on environmental management, troubleshooting and training exercises. 
5. Find a positive reinforcement trainer who can come to your home to assess the situation. Look for a trainer who specializes in fearful cats.

More Behavior & Training Resources

San Diego Humane Society offers training classes and resources to address a variety of needs for companion animals.

Our training philosophy is based on the behavioral science concepts of positive reinforcement. Training your pet using these concepts will not only help them learn new behaviors more quickly, but it will also strengthen the bond you share.

Please visit our website for a current schedule of training classes or call 619-279-5961.