New 6 Month Old Kitten Question

[TBTF]

Hello All,

Mark here
First time poster, though I have lurked for a while and appreciate all the insight I have gotten on this site.

5 days ago, I adopted a 6 month old beautiful white cat from a shelter (pic attached)

, which I intend to introduce to my 6 year old daughter (an animal lover to put it mildly), who is moving in with me next week, figured it might be easier for her to adapt moving into a new city/no cousins to hang out etc..

Now I followed the advice I had read on this website to a T when it came to introducing a cat to a new environment. I set him up in a small spare bedroom (which happens to be the least noisy/no windows etc...). Set up his litter box , food, water in the room before hand, and opened the carrier. At first he stayed inside for about 10 minutes, then he very slowly and methodically came out and again in slow motion explored the room, eventually settling to hide behind a very small table (the only hiding spot in the room since I dont have any space under the bed). I could see his tail and all this time I had been laying on the floor without making eye contact with him. I left him there for an hour and came back, he was still behind the table, I gently approached him and petted him on the head, he came out of his shell very quickly I must say , even sitting in my lap that same first night and purring. Why I described this is because today I attempted to bring him to the room where my daughter would be staying to get him acclimated there and comfortable enough, but, doing the same routine again, things were not smooth. Now this room is noisy since it has a window that overlooks the street (car noises, people noises, trucks etc...), plus more hiding spots and he has now been under the bed the entire day. To compound the problem when I approach him now he is hissing at me which is the first time he has done so in 5 days, during the entire 5 days in the spare room whenever I came in the room he'd follow me around as I set up his food/cleaned his litter box/ and played with me/sat in my lap/purred/licked my hand , the whole nine yards.

Now i'm worried he is startled and won't warm up to my daughter. SO my question is should I move him back to the spare room and give him more time and have my daughter meet him in the spare room when she comes? Although I don't think it's ideal in my opinion, because I want him to be fully acclimated to my daughter's room since this is where he will spend most his time, so im afraid if i give him another week/2 weeks in the spare bedroom he might take that as his territory. Again, not sure what to do, any advice would be appreciated as I do not want him in that state when she arrives. He has had no food or drink or went to the litter box all day today and is still hiding under the bed.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tabbytom]

Hello TBTF, welcome to TCS

It’s ok to leave in the safe room where you first left him. Let him get use to that room first and also to you. As for exploring the house the getting use to your daughter, let your kitty do that at his own time.

Whatever towels or blankets and toys you have in the safe room, let them soak up the scent of the kitty first. After that you may take a blanket and leave it in your daughter’s room and also all over the house so that whenever he feels safe to come out of the room, there’ll be familiar scent and he won’t get a shock so easily.

Also since he’s new to the home and surroundings and people and sounds, it’s normal that he’ll hide. As long as there’s no hard to reach places in the house, it’s quite safe for the kitty else if CS somewhere and can’t get him out, it’ll be a problem.

Justbapproach him slowly and keep calling his name and talk to him so that he gets use to your voice, same for your daughter when she comes over. Later, after he has sort of settled down, set up a cat tree by the window for him so that he can look out. Windows are their big screen tv.

If he’s still hiding behind the table, lure him out with food and also play with him using a cat wand. If he does not come out, leave him there for awhile and repeat again. He must regain the confidence he has when he first came and sitting on your lap purring. Just be patience and shower him with love and do not pull him out from hiding.

Once he build back his confidence, he’ll come out and start exploring and in the meantime, he’ll probably eat or drink and use the litter box later when you are asleep but it’s best to get him out before you sleep so that the habit of coming out when no one is around starts to form.

Remember, just give him time and on your part, it’s love, patience and routine.

He’s a gorgeous cat

 

[TBTF]

Hello TBTF, welcome to TCS

It’s ok to leave in the safe room where you first left him. Let him get use to that room first and also to you. As for exploring the house the getting use to your daughter, let your kitty do that at his own time.

Whatever towels or blankets and toys you have in the safe room, let them soak up the scent of the kitty first. After that you may take a blanket and leave it in your daughter’s room and also all over the house so that whenever he feels safe to come out of the room, there’ll be familiar scent and he won’t get a shock so easily.

Also since he’s new to the home and surroundings and people and sounds, it’s normal that he’ll hide. As long as there’s no hard to reach places in the house, it’s quite safe for the kitty else if CS somewhere and can’t get him out, it’ll be a problem.

Justbapproach him slowly and keep calling his name and talk to him so that he gets use to your voice, same for your daughter when she comes over. Later, after he has sort of settled down, set up a cat tree by the window for him so that he can look out. Windows are their big screen tv.

If he’s still hiding behind the table, lure him out with food and also play with him using a cat wand. If he does not come out, leave him there for awhile and repeat again. He must regain the confidence he has when he first came and sitting on your lap purring. Just be patience and shower him with love and do not pull him out from hiding.

Once he build back his confidence, he’ll come out and start exploring and in the meantime, he’ll probably eat or drink and use the litter box later when you are asleep but it’s best to get him out before you sleep so that the habit of coming out when no one is around starts to form.

Remember, just give him time and on your part, it’s love, patience and routine.

He’s a gorgeous cat

Thank you for your advice. I definitely won't force him out of hiding tonight. I will leave him be till the morning and then try to see how he is doing, if he's still scared i'll move him back to the spare room. I must say that the first 5 days were pure joy with him, no problems whatsoever, hopefully it's just a little bump in the road and he can meet my daughter and show her the same love he showed me

 

[tabbytom]

Best is move him back to the first room when he first came. As for territory wise, the whole house will be his territory once he is used to everything.

When your daughter comes over, it’ll take some adjustments and your kitty can be trained to sleep with your daughter in the same room but best is sleep on the bed with her. But you just cannot force your kitty where to sleep, but you can train him to.

 

[TBTF]

View attachment 209449

Best is move him back to the first room when he first came. As for territory wise, the whole house will be his territory once he is used to everything.

When your daughter comes over, it’ll take some adjustments and your kitty can be trained to sleep with your daughter in the same room but best is sleep on the bed with her. But you just cannot force your kitty where to sleep, but you can train him to.

Yup, that's the spare room, i'll move him back there. and i will let my daughter in there when she comes here, maybe have her sleep there the first couple of nights so he can bond and get used to her.

 

[Kefa]

You can also put some of your daughters worn clothes in his room. Cats are very aware of smells. A new space is an affront to all senses, not just sight and sound. When a cat checks out a new space, he has to be able to sniff everything and assure himself that smell is okay. But rest assured, one day the house will be his.

 

[TBTF]

Thank you both for your advice.

Update: Late last night before I crashed, I placed sammy in his carrier and back to the spare room where we had spent the first 5 days. almost immediately after opening the carrier he went out, explored a bit and started purring and headbutting. So it's obvious right now he feels safe in this room after having spent 5 days there with only good things happening. He hadn't eaten in approx 12-13 hours at the time so when I was opening the canned food he was meowing as well and devoured the meal very quickly, faster than I had seen him do so. I also rewarded him with a a couple of cat treats and he was very happy. I will now keep him there and have my daughter spend the first few days with him in that room until he's ready to come out. She has been asking for so many photos and so excited to come home to him (her mom is scared of cats, i know it's crazy but also scared of dogs so she wasn't allowed to have animals there).

A couple of things I wanted to inquire about. Sometimes when I pet him for the first second or so there is an electrocution. It has happened often enough to make me ask the question. However he doesn't seem to care but still im wondering what can i do to prevent that. The second thing is that he isn't drinking water. I'm feeding him 2 cans of wet food per day and some treats but the water bowl is still untouched for the past 2 days. How can I entice him to drink. Just now before writing this he was following me around the room so I tried leading him to the bowl and poured in a bit more water to it, he just sniffed the bowl and walked away.

Some pictures of Sammy from today

 

[Kefa]

Aww he is adorable. Cats that eat wet food don't drink as much. I wouldn't worry as long as he is peeing in his litter box. For the static electricity you can try wiping him down with a warm lightly damp washcloth before petting him.