Getting Adjusted To A New Home

[projectsyd]

Hello,

My Siamese Abby just moved into our new home (prematurely) and I was wondering if there are any ways I can encourage her to explore it more. I say prematurely because we had to move her prior to our renovations being complete due to circumstances with our landlords at our apartment (they are requesting we lock her up when they show off he apartment and in order for us to do that she’d have to be caged for 8-10 hours so NOPE just moved her instead). The major renovations are done, we just have to paint and install flooring on the main floor. She knows where her food and litter box are and I can tell she isn’t scared to go into that room because she ate all her food from it. She immediately gravitated to the room I’ve been sleeping in and now she doesn’t want to leave. She rolls over on her back and is purring in this room but will only leave it to go to the room where her food and litter box are which is the next room over.

If I leave the room, she immediately starts to cry until I return. Is there a way I can encourage her to explore more? She is already used to traveling as we would travel with her every two weeks and she was fine exploring the house we brought her to every two weeks. I suspect she recognized the place as we visited there regularily and she would sometimes stay there long term. Any suggestions?

 

[rubysmama]

Congrats on your new home! Hopefully things will be done soon.

Here's a few TCS articles that might be helpful with getting Abby adjusted to her new home.

How To Move With Your Cat To A New Home In A Safe Way
How To Help A New Cat Adjust To Your Home (even though she's not new, there might be something helpful)
How To Get A Cat To Come Out Of Hiding?

 

[Etarre]

Have you ever watched Jackson Galaxy's show? There are some helpful tips about "expanding base camp" in some of the episodes. Basically, he suggests moving some of the cat's scent-marked items and favorite toys out into other areas, and luring them with playtime and treats to spend more time outside of their 'safe' room until they start to take it for granted.

 

[duncanmac]

We moved house and 2 cats about a month ago. Set up a safe room for the boys and locked it so the movers wouldn't let them out by accident.

When the move was over and the house quieted down, we just opened the door to the much bigger house and let them loose. Like your cat, they stayed mostly in our bedroom and the room with their food and litter box for a few days, but after a week they were all over the house and after two or three weeks it was like they were their forever.

To speed them along, we played with them in different rooms and basically got a routine going where we weren't going to them and encouraged them to come to us.

 

[susanm9006]

She sounds like she is doing very well under the circumstances.
As long as there is work still being done, I would be satisfied for her to stick with her current space. She will move out to other areas when they are quiet and fully set up so that they have your smells and things in them.

 

[projectsyd]

Thank you guys!

She’s definitely coming around. We actually didn’t move with much furniture and are still in the process of moving what we do have. We were living with 40 year old hand-me-down furniture and decided to get rid of almost all of it for the move. We will be getting furniture soon though so I’ll be sure to keep her like locked away safely.

I don’t know why I was worried, growing up with cats my whole life I’ve seen them when they move I just don’t remember it being this way (last time I moved with cats was 2006).

She’s exploring more but only if I’m close by. I’m hoping she becomes more independent because I don’t want to be woken up 100 times during the night for the rest of my life haha. As much as I love her I don’t think I could handle that.