7 Ways To Encourage Your Cat Trust You

So you’ve just brought a new cat into your home. Cats can be a mercurial creature, petting up against your leg one moment and scratching your arm the next. Either way, you need to do anything and everything to help it acclimate to its new environment and to trust you as its “new person”. Here are 7 ways to help your new cat trust you.

1. Private Space

Give your cat its own private hangout space with a comfy bed. This will ensure that your pet will have a place where they can experience a time out from its new owner, new home, new animal siblings, and the chance to spend its time on its own. You will also learn the new kitty’s personal preferences - does it need your attention or prefer introverted time? Does it prefer to be an indoor or outdoor cat? This also includes will it prefer to be an indoor cat or an outdoor cat. Every pet is different.

2. Public Space

You can make minimal adjustments to your home that can make it their home too. Leave several litter-boxes and cat treats around. Empty high spaces for them to hang out. Buy a ‘cat tree’ where they can jump from level to level, climb on the ladders, hide in the small boxes, play with the toy mouse or other attached toys, and inevitably exercise. Clear off your window sills so that your cat can sit on them for hours of commercial-free entertainment - people watching, share the beauty of the sunset, and even put a bird feeder right outside the window to attract their prey. Making your home a mini-kitty playground will assist in building a trusting relationship between you and your cat.

3. Toys

Toys can relieve a cat’s boredom and make him able to play independently, without human intervention. A great example is a cat playhouse or cat tree with space to jump from the different levels, climb on the ladders, hide in the connected boxes, play with a toy mouse, or scratch its claws on the vertical scratching posts. Use trial and error to experiment with different preferences, such as bouncy, fluffy, battery-operated, simple, noisy, or colorful toy preferences. Remember that cats have deeply embedded survival instincts Lion King-style. When a cat “plays”, he wants to pounce, stalk, hunt, and act out his natural, instinctual, and predatory behaviors. To stimulate these stealthy predator’s instincts, you can use various toys that mimic prey and play around with speed to expend their energy.

4. Routine Playtime

This is why the adjustments to your space can make it an effective kitty playground and allow them to experience their new environment without you. However, at the beginning of the adoption period, you could make playtime with you longer and prevent loneliness which stems from boredom, physical interaction, and mental stimulation. Try out a cat’s kind of fetch where you throw things so that they can “catch their prey”, or even try out chasing a light beam from a flashlight. During your playtime, you can choose to include simple string, hair, and feathers to mimic their prey or play with household mats, rugs, or carpets.

5. Food

You can feed a food that shows that their health and food sensitivities or picky eaters are observed, such as Nature’s Instinct turkey canned cat food.

6. Love

Ensure that your actions and feelings demonstrate genuine love and appreciation for your new invaluable family member. Cats can be a mysterious species, so spend the time to get to know them.

7. Physical affection

I have learned that putting out the upper side of my palm for them to smell allows me to be vulnerable to them and allows them to initiate potential play, love, and physical affection. Physical affection can look like pets, hugs, a hold, or massage, but only if THEY want it. If after you make yourself open to them (e.g. putting out your palm for them to smell it) and they hiss, move away from you, or swat at your hand, you MUST give them space, and not force the interaction or physical affection.

In the April 2017 issue, ScienceDirect studied adult domesticated cats and experimented between four different stimuli: food, scent, social interaction, or toys. The scientists discovered that most important to domesticated cats is human social interaction, followed by food. Ultimately, cats like their owners, but it might take time to trust them. In time, both of your behaviors will adjust to the other and your cat’s trust will be earned.