Hi there, I'm after some advice regarding my 11 month old male cat.
He's always been quite sensitive, but over the last 4 weeks or so he's becoming increasingly anxious.
He's never been massively keen on visitors and has always ran upstairs to hide away from them initially, we don't have many so maybe he isn't used to them. He would mostly eventually come downstairs (if the visitor was a quiet person on their own) and play with them, take treats from them etc. Now he hides when anyone visits.
He's also now hiding when we (my OH and I) walk into the house, he'd usually be stood waiting for us with the rest, but now he runs upstairs to hide behind our pillows or even our actual bed. We do go upstairs and comfort him, he is fine with this, purrs, but if we for example lift up the pillow entirely he will burrow himself under the quilt.
It does seem to be noise related, ie walking downstairs, opening doors, music (not even loud, even just the Alexa on low while cooking) and we wonder if it stems from when we had the loft insulated as that was a lot of noise but only over a 1 hour time period. If we hoover he will hide for ages and refuse to eat, we therefore have to time when we hoover, make sure he's fed first, that we don't hoover and then go out etc.
He is still very loving with us, every night before bed he will cuddle with us, purr like mad and demand strokes, nudging us with his head etc, he will also sit on our knee. I don't feel he's scared of us, but when we are walking around he does seem nervous.
He gets along well with the other cats, no fighting, he sleeps with them, plays etc, no concerns there.
We do have a feliway plug in, this has made no difference at all.
Does anyone have any experience of this/ideas? We want to help him!
Here is our precious ginger boy!