What Can I Do To Encourage Tuxie To Cuddle More?

[I_Wuv_Kitties]

Tuxie is my heart & soul But he cuddles with me the least. He doesn’t really like to be petted. He allows it but only certain times of the day. Like at bedtime or in the early morning when I get up to use the bathroom.


He’s kind of a scaredy kitty, he gets startled so easily. And if I approach him directly, he will run away :-(


I wonder if it has to do with testosterone levels. Because when I met him in the shelter, it was right after his surgery, and he was very confident and outgoing. As time has gone on, I’ve noticed him become less and less boisterous like he was before


Idk if there’s anyway to fix this though. If maybe I could give him a supplement to help them.


Any thoughts?

 

[Merlin77]

If he's recently moved into your house, he might still be a little "on the edge", so to speak. I'd let him take his own time, and only pet him when he wants to be petted. In time he'll grow more confident again.

Some cats are just less friendly

 

[I_Wuv_Kitties]

If he's recently moved into your house, he might still be a little "on the edge", so to speak. I'd let him take his own time, and only pet him when he wants to be petted. In time he'll grow more confident again.

Some cats are just less friendly

I’ve had him for about five weeks. I think he just startles very easily. And he definitely has anxiety. But it’s funny, he is literally the cat version of me

 

[Etarre]

Five weeks is a really short time! Remember that Tuxie is not just getting used to you, but also to your entire living space, routines, any other pets/humans who live with you, and even a brand new set of noises that come with a new environment. So there are a lot of perfectly understandable reasons for his anxiety, and even if you're the very best of soul mates, you can't expect that to outweigh all the scary new things in his life quite yet.

I'm working on getting a relatively new scaredy kitty settled in myself, and it takes a lot of time and patience. My Juniper has been with us for two and a half months and has just worked up to being brave enough to snuggle, but only in the middle of the night when we're asleep and other noises (we get a lot of street noise and noise from other apartments during the day) are less frequent. When we're awake, she's happy to play, and will allow petting sometimes on her own terms, but snuggles are still not comfortable for her. And maybe that's her personality and she'll never be a snuggler, but we've come so far since we first got her and she spent most of her time hiding in behind an a/c unit in the back of the closet, that I'm hoping we'll get there one day.

When you met him at the shelter, had he been there for awhile? That environment may have been more familiar and comfortable to him, and enabled him to seem more confident when you first met.

Good luck! I know it's hard to wait for those cuddles. It sounds like you're a great match, and I'm sure you'll get there soon.

 

[duncanmac]

I'm working on getting a relatively new scaredy kitty settled in myself, and it takes a lot of time and patience. My Juniper has been with us for two and a half months and has just worked up to being brave enough to snuggle, but only in the middle of the night when we're asleep and other noises (we get a lot of street noise and noise from other apartments during the day) are less frequent. When we're awake, she's happy to play, and will allow petting sometimes on her own terms, but snuggles are still not comfortable for her. And maybe that's her personality and she'll never be a snuggler, but we've come so far since we first got her and she spent most of her time hiding in behind an a/c unit in the back of the closet, that I'm hoping we'll get there one day.

My shy guy is the same - he is generally friendly to me, but he is really cuddly in the middle of the night. He will roll over for pets and just is generally a mush. It has been a year and he has just started hopping up into bed with us. (Our other cat chasing him out of the bed before didn't make that process go quicker either.)

The catalyst for this change: play. I found a toy he loves LOVES L*O*V*E*S - its a mouse on a string made out of hair almost like a fishing lure/fly. He will chase that thing until he is exhausted and panting and then chase it some more. I think this made him confident and let him realize that we aren't so bad. Play really seems to fix a lot of behavior problems.

He may never be a true cuddler - he is just sleeping at my feet or between my legs right now - but there is hope. My other and definitely not shy boy just turned into a lap cat so who knows.