Recently adopted shelter cat

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Katemcg
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Recently adopted shelter cat

Post by Katemcg »

Hi all,

This past Saturday we adopted a cat. He's a 10 year old male dsh. He was a stray before he arrived at the shelter.

We've put him in the spare bedroom to settle in. He spent the first two days under a cupboard and ate his food when we were out the room.

He's now out from the cupboard but he won't move from his bed. We can coax him out a few steps for some petting but apart from that he's shown no interest in leaving the room.

I wanted to check if that was normal and if we should be doing anything else which might make him more comfortable?

Also he's taken to only eating the jelly of his wet food. Is this ok? The shelter says he is prone to doing this. Should we try different wet food with him?

Thanks for your help. This is the first time we've adopted an older cat.
alanc
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Re: Recently adopted shelter cat

Post by alanc »

Welcome to the joys of adopting an older cat. Your experience seems quite normal, they can take quite a time to come round. My old Misty (9 when I got him) took over two months to come out of his shell (actually his igloo bed). When he finally got his confidence back, he became a very friendly cat with a loud purr and a magnificent set of whiskas, neither of which I had any idea he had! Although they can be hard work to start with, old cats can be very rewarding.
Can't help with the jelly licking, I have herd of several cats who do that, but none of mine have done it. (Owing to his experiences when he got lost for 9 weeks, he never ever left any food around, whether it was his or not.)
PS Note to admin, why does this spellchecker object to whiskas and want to change it to whiskeys? Misty never had any whiskey. Suppose I should be grateful that unlike many spellcheckers it does approve of Maine Coons.
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Mollycat
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Re: Recently adopted shelter cat

Post by Mollycat »

Perfectly normal in every way. Try to encourage rather than coax, an important part of a cat's trust is to know they will be left alone when they want to be, especially while they are getting used to a new place and new people. As he gets to feel more settled in his room he will start to want to explore. Do you have any other cats in the house, or is he just in a room of his own to start off? If there are no other pets, I've never closed doors, just let them come out and explore and go back to their safe base any time they feel the need, but do it all at their own pace.

A lot of cats only lick off the jelly or gravy. I can't help thinking this means they don't get the balanced nutrition of the whole food, but millions of them do very well that way so I wouldn't worry unduly. By all means look for a pate type food or just a different one that he will eat more of, but I wouldn't change anything until he is settled in and happy with you.

Alanc - probably because they're whiskers?
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fjm
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Re: Recently adopted shelter cat

Post by fjm »

When Tilly licked off the jelly and left the rest I squashed the food a bit with a fork - that seemed to do the trick in convincing her the lumps were also edible.
alanc
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Re: Recently adopted shelter cat

Post by alanc »

Mollycat, that would explain it! Must have been thinking of Misty's favorite food. His appetite for Whiskas was as impressive as his whiskers.
Katemcg
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Re: Recently adopted shelter cat

Post by Katemcg »

Thank you all so much. It's reassuring to know we're not doing anything wrong.

We don't have any other pets. We've had the doors open since Monday but he's still pretty happy inside the room. He loves between his blanket and his bed.

I've tried mushing his food up a bit. We'll see if that works.

Thanks so much all!
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Kay
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Re: Recently adopted shelter cat

Post by Kay »

my Penny, who I adopted last April aged 11, is still content to spend 99% of her time between two rooms, and has only stuck her head out of the back door when I have left it open, and the sun is shining - neither of which happens often round my way - she won't, by the way, eat any kind of wet food, or cooked chicken, so lives happily on good quality dry biscuits

I feed a couple of strays outside, and have found they struggle with the harder strips of meat in the more expensive foods, such as Felix As Good as It Looks - I have now switched them to Tesco's own cheap pouches and they are much happier with it - it would be easier to mash up too as the lumps are reformed meat and so softer than the strips of meat
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