Hello! My lovely older cat Mabel has all of a sudden had a change in behaviour. She's no longer finishing all her food straight away or within the time before her next feed and she's also hiding under the bed a lot which she has only done once on the day I brought her home. Since she was change onto special food for her IBS she was eating it all straight away and was having lots of cuddles but now she doesn't like to be snuggled as much and will move almost straight away when I sit next to her and hide somewhere. I thought she might be getting lonely because she's on her own for a few hours between me leaving for work and my boyfriend getting back so I gave her a huge amount of attention all night and all the way up until I left today but now she's hiding again. I'm just worried about her because I know she's older so I'm aware she can get poorly easier and I want her to be happy; this is the first time I've had my own cat so I'm unsure if this is normal or not.
I'm also wondering if she's missing the outdoors? She was a stray and the shelter put her down to be an indoor cat, she's started spending a bit more time next to the window and I thought maybe she was getting sad because she missed the outside. The problem is is that we can only have house cats because we're a first floor flat next to a busy road. It's probably nothing but I just wanted to ask because a trip to the vets is expensive for nothing and I thought maybe some more experienced owners might have had the same situation?
I'm also wondering if she's missing the outdoors? She was a stray and the shelter put her down to be an indoor cat, she's started spending a bit more time next to the window and I thought maybe she was getting sad because she missed the outside. The problem is is that we can only have house cats because we're a first floor flat next to a busy road. It's probably nothing but I just wanted to ask because a trip to the vets is expensive for nothing and I thought maybe some more experienced owners might have had the same situation?