Scaredy Cat: How to Handle a Frightened Feline
Cats have a lot of stereotypes surrounding them. They’re considered curious, mischievous, mystical, and even regal. However, everyone is familiar with a feline that’s been characterized as skittish or easily spooked. Cats are very independent creatures, and can sometimes be mistaken for fearful. But there are occasional cases where a cat is genuinely aghast at whatever is going on around it. They are small and fragile, if not somewhat resourceful, creatures. What can be done in such a scenario, where a scaredy cat is unsociable to the point of concern?
Today’s post will discuss some different strategies for dealing with a frightened cat, and making it feel more at home in its own skin.
Why is my cat scared?
There are many reasons why cats develop a fearful disposition. It can be the result of past trauma at the hands of a human or another animal, a disruption in its regular routine, even pain and illness can have an adverse effect on a feline’s mentality. Cats also don’t like continuous loud noises, and cluttered or dirty environments.
An overabundance of accompanying animals can cause a lot of stress-related fear. This can be exacerbated if the cat doesn’t get along well with the other animals. Another reason they could have developed new and abnormal signs of fearfulness is being exposed or moved to a new environment to which they’re unaccustomed.
Any number of factors could be contributed to a cat’s fearful demeanor, but what you really need to know is what to do about it.
Giving a scared cat a place to hide is a good strategy for making it feel more comfortable, but the eventual goal is to get it to enjoy your company. So you’ll need to interact with the cat. Though because of their finicky nature and fearful disposition, this can be somewhat complicated. You’ll have to go slowly, and let the cat take the lead on interacting. Try to coax it into playing with a toy, fishing pole toys work great for this. It gives you some distance, while still allowing you to interact.
Você também pode freqüentemente alimentar o seu felino com a sua marca preferida de gatos. Isso, juntamente com os tempos de refeição regulares irá percorrer um longo caminho na construção do vínculo entre os dois de você. Na maioria das vezes ao lidar com um gato com medo eles não vão tomar o tratamento diretamente de você, e você terá que deixá-lo sentado para eles. No entanto, depois de algum tempo passou e você construiu alguma confiança você pode tentar mão-alimentação. O truque é fazer isso de forma incremental, tente assistir o gato comer de uma distância, e obter um pouco mais perto de cada vez.
If you can patiently follow these guidelines while still giving your cat the space it needs to adjust, and eliminate any of the outlying stress factors that might be causing a fear response in your cat, then you’ll definitely succeed in socializing your scaredy cat into a fearless feline.