🐱How can I help my cat with social anxiety?

Let’s find a scientifically proven answer to the question: how can I help my cat with social anxiety? 🐱

It is essential to have an understanding of the fact that a solitary action rarely alleviates anxiety in cats. You will need to tackle the issue from a number of different perspectives all at once if you want to be of genuine assistance to your cat and see improvements that will last.

You can use this strategy to address virtually any behavioral issue, including the following:

4 suggested steps you can take to help your cat with social anxiety

1. Determine what is causing your cat's anxiety and how it is triggered.

Both the personality of cats and the things that make them anxious can vary a great deal from one another. It's possible for one cat to flee in terror when they hear the rumbling sound of an unbalanced washing machine, while another cat is perfectly undisturbed by the sound.

Anxiety is described as the anticipation of a threat or danger, regardless of whether or not the threat or danger actually exists (but to your cat, it does).

Common causes:

• Changes in their routines or environments (territory) that come on suddenly.

• Loud noises

• Foreign smells

• Unstable relationships between members of the home and/or household animals, competition for resources (e.g., food, litter boxes, affection)

• A state of boredom and idleness

• Lack of early exposure to other people and their cultures

• Wild creatures found outside the house (especially stray or neighborhood cats)

2. Eliminate the Factors That Are Leading to Your Cat's Anxiety.

You can lower your cat's stress levels by reducing or eliminating your cat’s exposure to the cause of the stress you've identified.

For instance, if your cat is stressed out because other cats in the neighborhood are loitering outside your home and causing her anxiety, you can use cat-friendly deterrents to keep the other cats away or restrict your cat's view of certain parts of your yard.

3. Provide Positive Alternative Behaviors Through Enrichment

Cats have innate requirements that, if satisfied in the appropriate manner, can have a significant positive effect on the cat's quality of life and mental condition.

It is a guaranteed method for relieving anxiety to provide them with opportunities for play, hunting activities, cerebral stimulation, and of course, a sense that they are safe and secure. Participate in socially enriching activities like the following:

• Engaging in play with others

• Affection

• Cognitive stimulation in the form of food-based puzzles and structured practice sessions

📑 Related Reading: FAQs on Taking Anxiety Meds

4. Transform the surrounding environment.

Make use of some of these suggestions for environmental enrichment to create an area for your cat in which they are able to organically adapt their behaviors and experience a reduction in their levels of anxiety.

• Climbing structures that are elevated, such as a cat tree, are essential for instilling a sense of security in a pet.

• Cat beds and cardboard boxes are two examples of tranquil getaways.

• Catios and other pet-friendly outdoor spaces

• Variety of scratching posts

• Wheels for exercising

Additional Suggestions and Tips to Help You Manage Your Cat's Anxiety

You should make small changes gradually. Slowly include new elements into your cat's environment and normal routine. When moving or rearranging furniture, it's best to focus on one room at a time.

When moving to a new house, you should confine your cat to a smaller area and gradually let them explore the rest of the house over the course of several days or weeks. If you have a new pet for your home, make sure to consult with your vet on how to ease it into the household gradually.

Provide comfort. A terrified cat may require reassurance and comfort in the same way that a terrified child does. Nevertheless,  keep an eye on the cat's body language. When they are startled, some cats have been known to react by biting or scratching.

Products that are calming. There are treatments available that can be useful in relaxing an anxious cat, such as sprays and diffusers that produce a material that imitates natural cat pheromones. However, you should not rely on them as the only solution to the problem.

Medications for anxiety. Your veterinarian may recommend an antianxiety drug to assist your cat deal with the many stressors in its environment more efficiently in certain situations.

These medications may be very useful, but they shouldn't be used in place of making adjustments to your surroundings; instead, they should be used in conjunction with such changes.

Never employ punishment. If you punish a worried cat, the situation will only get worse, and they will respond with an even greater level of anxiety. This encompasses all methods of corporal punishment, such as beating and swatting screaming.