Hello,
I've recently adopted my first cat, he's just over a year old and has been in foster care for about 6 months. He's a shy boy, however with his foster carer had come out of his shell a fair bit (there is some unknown history, they suspect his first owners were not the kindest). The first few days with him were very good, he's set himself up a nice hidey hole in my wardrobe, and had gotten to the stage were he would happily lick treats off my finger (very food oriented). However over the last 2-3 days, my housemates have been trying to go into his safe space and pat him, they did this against my knowledge when I was out of the house. Obviously I've put a stop to this, but now he starts hissing as soon as the wardrobe door opens. He had never hissed with me before, but I hadn't tried to pat him as of yet (because he was obviously not ready for it). How do I get him to start trusting again? I can't get near enough to him to bribe with treats the way I did the first time....I'm a first time cat owner so any help would be really appreciated.
Thank you so much in advance
I've recently adopted my first cat, he's just over a year old and has been in foster care for about 6 months. He's a shy boy, however with his foster carer had come out of his shell a fair bit (there is some unknown history, they suspect his first owners were not the kindest). The first few days with him were very good, he's set himself up a nice hidey hole in my wardrobe, and had gotten to the stage were he would happily lick treats off my finger (very food oriented). However over the last 2-3 days, my housemates have been trying to go into his safe space and pat him, they did this against my knowledge when I was out of the house. Obviously I've put a stop to this, but now he starts hissing as soon as the wardrobe door opens. He had never hissed with me before, but I hadn't tried to pat him as of yet (because he was obviously not ready for it). How do I get him to start trusting again? I can't get near enough to him to bribe with treats the way I did the first time....I'm a first time cat owner so any help would be really appreciated.
Thank you so much in advance