NationStates Jolt Archive

Let her alone? She's a cat. They're not all gregarious creatures. Some, like people, prefer the company of one or two of their food-givers.

I love Amelia, she is a great and wonderful cat, however she is extremely shy. She spends 90% of her time in my room, and will only venture out if I'm there, other wise she just hides in my room. She's also afraid of new people (well new to her) and well yea. Anyways I was wondering if there's anyway to train a 1 year old cat to be less shy and to spend more time in the other parts of the house. She's probably taking after her owner lol.

Who cares, its a cat.

I love Amelia, she is a great and wonderful cat, however she is extremely shy. She spends 90% of her time in my room, and will only venture out if I'm there, other wise she just hides in my room. She's also afraid of new people (well new to her) and well yea. Anyways I was wondering if there's anyway to train a 1 year old cat to be less shy and to spend more time in the other parts of the house. She's probably taking after her owner lol.

Carry your cat around you when company comes over. If it freaks out, squeeze harder.Never take advice from a dog owner.

You don't acclimate cats, cats acclimate you. Or cut you.

My cat is he exact opposite... he was raised near dogs as a kitten and behaves a lot like htey do and is avery affable and social cat. I'd say that if you got the cat to meet new people mre often, and perhaps 'ecouraged' it to wander in other areas of the house she may become more social. But, usually after a year they ar epretty much set in thier ways.

I love Amelia, she is a great and wonderful cat, however she is extremely shy. She spends 90% of her time in my room, and will only venture out if I'm there, other wise she just hides in my room. She's also afraid of new people (well new to her) and well yea. Anyways I was wondering if there's anyway to train a 1 year old cat to be less shy and to spend more time in the other parts of the house. She's probably taking after her owner lol.

Set fire to your room? That ought to do the trick. Or it could backfire horribly I suppose, but what are the chances of that happening?

Alternatively, buy a dog instead :p. If you want completely extroverted (read: insane) pets, get English Springer Spaniels. I have three of them. They'd spark some life into your cat, or eat it. Or lick it to death. Or bark it to death. Or all three.

One of my cats is similar. She was apparently trapped under a house for 3 days without food after her mother was hit by a car or something. Now she's very skittish and is also very vocal about what she wants. Not really anything we can do about it. She always seems to know when people are coming and hides under someones bed maybe four hours before they arrive, only coming out a few hours after they leave.

My other cat (her half-sister), on the other hand, is very quiet, but is also much more calm around other people. She will even go up to people who come to the door sometimes, especially if they have ladders (she seems to have great affection for ladders, boxes, and showers, and is generally curious anyway.) She's the perfect cat for Halloween, as she is a black cat and she likes to sit at the window by the front door and look at the trick-or-treaters in a place where they can see her, too. She always seems to keep waiting by the door for a few days after Halloween, like she's expecting more trick-or-treaters to show up.:)

Hopefully this was helpful somehow, or at least coherent. It's nearly an hour past my bedtime, so...yeah.

Let her alone? She's a cat. They're not all gregarious creatures. Some, like people, prefer the company of one or two of their food-givers.

You're facing an uphill and probably impossible task at this point; her behavior will be well-ingrained by now. Your best bet is probably to get another cat, hopefully the most sociable one you can find. His sociability might rub off on her, in the sense that she'll start seeing benefits to sociability that she didn't need previously.

Set fire to your room? That ought to do the trick. Or it could backfire horribly I suppose, but what are the chances of that happening?

Alternatively, buy a dog instead :p. If you want completely extroverted (read: insane) pets, get English Springer Spaniels. I have three of them. They'd spark some life into your cat, or eat it. Or lick it to death. Or bark it to death. Or all three.

Heck, I know how you feel. Got a Staffy-JRT cross, 4 years old. Either she wonders what cats are, or she already knows and hates them. Either way, as soon as she sees one, she pulls like hell and yelps like you've just beaten her. The cat, naturally, runs like Satan's on it's heels.

She also likes to sit on our windowsill, much like a cat. Gets dog-snot all over the window though. Pain in the ass, we're cleaning them every day now.

RE: Miss Chandelier - I'm not keeping you up am I?

Sounds like just a cat personality. Really is best to get cats in pairs though, makes them more sociable and healthy-since they always have a playmate.

RE: Miss Chandelier - I'm not keeping you up am I?

You are.:p

But I'm going to go to bed now, so goodnight.:)

I'm only reading this thread because I thought it was "Making America Less Shy." Now that I could make a joke about.

Leave her be.

You can't change a cat's behavior without abusing them, and obviously by abusing them you'll just make them skittish and more likely to attack others.

I've noticed our American Shorthair--whom we named Sokkwi, which means "little fool"--is extremely people friendly. When in a people mood he will quite literally jump up onto your lap and start rubbing his face against yours repeatedly, though he goes after me more than anyone else because I have a furry face.

Of course, he can get annoying...he has broken into the bathroom as I am using it more than once...more than twenty times, actually...all in the name of rubbing himself all over me.

Wish I could help, but our Mikaido likes people. She runs right up to them after they sit on the couch and snuggles up to them. Of course, she won't snuggle up to me unless I have her brush, or I'm asleep and she wants me to get up and feed her. Or pay attention to her. Or she wants to help me type. Or.. something. She also has toxic poop, which she just demonstrated. Excuse me, I need to don my hazmat suit.

I love Amelia, she is a great and wonderful cat, however she is extremely shy. She spends 90% of her time in my room, and will only venture out if I'm there, other wise she just hides in my room. She's also afraid of new people (well new to her) and well yea. Anyways I was wondering if there's anyway to train a 1 year old cat to be less shy and to spend more time in the other parts of the house. She's probably taking after her owner lol.


Hmm, dunno. My cat isn't shy, but when certain family members come over she takes off and hides. Where when some others do (the dog owners who have no use for cats-- but she's alright with them- go figure) she doesn't. I would say that she's sensing something I do not.. but I don't take a cat senses as true as I do a dogs, as far as where a dog can tell that's a mean SOB or something. Did you keep her in your room on purpose for a long period of time? If so, she's probably just comfortable with that. All I can say is do it gradually.. or else you'll have a really pissed off cat. They aren't like dogs ya know. Dogs appreciate you, cats think you are there to serve them and going against them is a no no.

Throw her out side for a couple of days.

Cats adapt quickly.

Your cat is planning something. Better watch your back. *nod*

I have four cats.

Clyde (aka Bubba) is gregarious. When repairmen come over he follows them around, trying to help. He talks to people, follows them around and rubs on them - he was pretty much born this way.

Bonnie (the Diva) is Clyde's sister. She is less gregarious but more demanding. She picks and chooses who she wants to associate with, then commands their attention.

Persephone, the Queen of Hell the Bipolar Prozac Cat, aka Bitch Kitty the Saber-Toothed Housecat was a pound rescue. She had been abused earlier in life, so she keeps away from all strangers, but, once she has decided that a person is ok, she'll come out and condescend to allow them in the same room with her. If she actually likes someone, she nips.

Emma is another rescue. She is incredibly skittish and shy. She only comes out for family members (including "adopted" ones) and then only after taking a long time to get accustomed to them.

The point is, each cat has a different personality, determined in part by genetics and in part by nurture. Amelia may have no history of abuse but just be shy by nature. You can't train her to be gregarious, but, if the people around her are gentle and soft-spoken with her, she may learn to accept some of them.

Ask a vet.

Don't introduce another cat into the family. It may well make matters worse.

Cats are wildly different critters. Some's down to the breed, some's down to chance and some's down to the life of the kitty. Cats are highly habitual. If it's behaved a certain way for a year, you can pretty much forget about it changing. Likewise, cats get stressed if you change their environment without consistency. The perfect example if food. Cats will eat pretty much anything, but if you feed it a particular thing for a week or two, it'll prefer you continue and get confused if you change it's diet.

Cat flu, if untreated, has a nasty tendency to addle their brains. Poor balance and stressed out behaviour's the typical consequence.

Finally; ask your damn vet. It's not that expensive man.

Of course, he can get annoying...he has broken into the bathroom as I am using it more than once...more than twenty times, actually...all in the name of rubbing himself all over me.

There's a joke in this, just waiting to come out. :p

I love Amelia, she is a great and wonderful cat, however she is extremely shy. She spends 90% of her time in my room, and will only venture out if I'm there, other wise she just hides in my room. She's also afraid of new people (well new to her) and well yea. Anyways I was wondering if there's anyway to train a 1 year old cat to be less shy and to spend more time in the other parts of the house. She's probably taking after her owner lol.

Not much LOL to it. Cats definitely take after their owners. When I first met my wife she had two cats. One of them was something of a lump, but the other one was very skittish. Whenever we walked in the door the cat would bolt for the bed and hide under there for hours until driven out by thirst or hunger. At first I thought the cat was just afraid of strangers, as most cats are. Later I learned that the cat acted the same way when my wife came home alone. And she had owned the cat for 6 years.

I'm a much more sedate person than my wife, and in time this cat would start approaching me while I was sitting on the couch and regularly curled up next to me, became calm enough to allow me to brush her hair with a wire brush (up until then it had been to scared to even my wife to brush her). I thought that the cat was just getting used to me, but it turned out that the cat was actually becoming calmer. She even became affectionate towards strangers. Though she still ran for cover when the vacuum cleaner was turned on.

I'm a much more sedate person than my wife, and the cat was picking up on that. One day I came over and the cat's tail was so she looked like she was wearing a raccoon hat as a sweater and she was running all over the house stalking loose threads in the carpet. My wife was also very anxious about something. Once we sat down on the couch, my wife calmed down and the cat curled up next to us.

Calm owners, calm pets. Timid owners, timid pets.

Your cat is planning something. Better watch your back. *nod*

Cats are always planning something, they're kind of like you. If you start watching your back for LG or a cat, one or both will come at you from the front.

You're facing an uphill and probably impossible task at this point; her behavior will be well-ingrained by now. Your best bet is probably to get another cat, hopefully the most sociable one you can find. His sociability might rub off on her, in the sense that she'll start seeing benefits to sociability that she didn't need previously.

That or attempt to kill it.

My cat thrives on change for some reason.

She doesn't mind if I change her dry food. She'll try new cereal when I give it. Yet prefers fish-based products when it comes to her wet-food. But it doesn't matter where it comes from as long as it's fish. She also like lettuce and other 'leafy' goods.

She's highly sociable but loves writhing on purses and coats more than paying attention to people. She she will come around if people are near. She'll look for a cozy lap and jump on, even if the person is total unexpected.

In other words... cats are best left alone; don't bother to fire her out. Even if she's shy, it's best to leave it like that.