Could it die under there?? It’s been over 24 hours. I’ve pushed some water under there, and some food, I think both have been ignored, it hasn’t used the litter. It was a young cat, maybe 3 - 4 mos. old, the guy who gave it to me said 4 cats was too many for him. I’d like to take it to the vet, but it’s under the couch!!!
You would be surprised how long they can keep out of sight, but left alone with food, water, a litter box, and solitude, he should come out to eat when nobody is around. (IR motion-sensing camera if you want to be really, really sure, or just photograph the food and water levels and compare later.)
If you have reason to suspect the cat is poorly (really ignoring food and drink counts), then I would take him to the vet. Some kittens you may be able to (gently!) grab from under the couch, possibly having moved the couch; with a completely feral cat you have to be more sophisticated. You will need a cat carrier btw.
Cats don’t like being in new places. The best cat i ever had hid under a bureau for a week after we got him. (He did eat when no one was looking.)
I’ve done a lot of fostering, so I’ve have a lot of new-to-me cats. I bring the cat carrier into the house, set up food, water, and litter, open the door to the carrier, and then go away, and give the cat privacy for a day before i even expect to see it.
And i don’t expect to see much of the new cat for a week.
When I got my first cat, he hid for an entire week. At one point, I decided to only put food down after he came looking for it, and he went almost 18 hours before he showed up. At one point, I became convinced he’d actually managed to slip out of the house when I wasn’t looking.
He got better.
When Andy the Fierce Hunter Kitty was a young cat new in our household (maybe 2-3 months old), he hid under a dresser that sat in the hallway for a week and a half, coming out at night to eat/drink/use the box.
We figured he was beginning to adapt when his hunting play instinct made him like us enough to take playful swipes at our feet from his hiding place as we walked by.
OK, I measured the water so I can tell, I have been doing fresh wet food 2x a day and the litter box is untouched. I will check in with y’all people giving me hope manana.
Have you tried one of those sprays, or plug-ins? Those worked for my cats, when they were new.
sprays?
Some cats will stay in hiding for days, but eventually be perfectly fine.
Peer under the couch with a flashlight. Is the cat awake and looking at you? If so, blink at it and then turn your gaze away. Pull the food dishes out and put fresh food in – OK, just saw latest post and see that you’ve done that. If the cat has eaten, it’s probably OK. If it hasn’t eaten in 24 hours, but seems awake and alert, I’d put some really tempting food under the bed, go away, and check again in a few hours.
Was the cat’s previous human able to handle it? If not, you may have a total feral, right near the edge of being too old to tame easily. Can they tell you what food it was used to eating? Some cats who have been fed only one thing won’t eat anything else; if the previous human only fed one thing, get some of that and, again, put it under the couch. You’ll be able to transition to other food after the cat’s comfortable with the situation.
A sufficiently scared cat might piss under the couch instead of in the box; but they can go a surprisingly long time without. If the litter pan will fit, you might try putting that under the couch too.
– if you look under the couch but don’t see any cat: the cat may have snuck into another hiding place. Look places where the cat couldn’t possibly fit as well as places where it can. Don’t sit in any chairs with moving parts until you find it! – I once had a new kitten disappear from under a bed. Close inspection showed what might be a tiny bit of paw hanging down. Bed was right up against a wall, but kitten was between bed and wall, balanced on a bit of baseboard about half an inch wide; he had managed to get three paws up on it, but the fourth didn’t quite fit.
he’ll come out when he’s good and ready. I got a stray at 6 weeks from a construction site. He’s a good cat but does NOT like to be touched unless he comes to me. He doesn’t like his ears scratched but loves his back rubbed and he talks back to me when I talk to him. They are a fickle lot.
My point is that everything is on their terms. You are their servant.
I took in two rescue cats years ago and they disappeared in my house for six weeks – I kid you not. But food vanished and poop appeared so I knew they were okay.
Don’t keep the food and water under the couch if you want the cat to come out from under it. Unless I’m misunderstanding what you wrote.
I agree. Food, water, litter box next to couch.
Under couch until the cat is eating/using the box. Then out from under, but right next to couch for a couple of days.
We have a bathroom off the guest bedroom that we don’t usually use. When i bring a new cat into the house, the carrier goes in the shower stall, the litter box goes under the sink, and food and water are just outside of the shower stall. I put our both wet and dry food. (and leave the dry food there.)
And i give the cat a lot of privacy until it expresses an interest in company.
Kittens are different, because they are more adaptable and they need to be handled. But i still wouldn’t worry for a couple of days.
If your cat is in a busier part of the house, it may be spooked by your coming and going.
Blinking at the cat then looking away is good advice. That’s cat for “I’m not an enemy”, or even “i like you”.
Feliways~a pheromone product that often calms cats. There is more than one brand name but Feliways is the brand I had success with.
Chewy.com would be a reliable place to look for it.
Human contact goes in the opposite direction from the food. Food moves gradually away from cat, over a period of days or weeks if necessary, until you’ve got it wherever you intend to feed the cat longterm. Human starts off sitting very still and very quietly on the far side of the room, a little while at a time, each time you bring food. When the cat will come out and eat while you’re doing this, sit a little bit closer the next time. When you’re close enough to touch, try one very gentle pat; if cat flees, go quietly away until next time you bring fresh food, and try again.
If the cat’s not feral, this process may not take very long, or may even not be necessary. But with a 3 to 4 month old kit, it’ll probably work eventually even with a feral kitten.
We rescued a 3 month old kitten from a feral cat colony, and boy was he ever scared. We had him in the basement as we had adult cats and a dog upstairs, and he went and hid in a hole in the bathroom wall (had some water damage in the bathroom and had to break open the wall, which was to be fixed soon). So we set up his temporary home in the bathroom and kept the door shut…he had a litter box, food and water, bedding, toys, and a scratch post too. He’d come out of the wall to eat, drink and use the litter box when no one was in there, and when I’d go down to check on him, he’d be in the wall.
I’d sit in there for a long time talking soothingly to him or just would sit and read, but he never would come out to me. I also would try to play with him with one of those feathers on a stick toys…reached it in there to entice him. He started to bat at it after a few days, so that was a good sign.
Next was putting some food right by the opening of the hole in the wall while I sat nearby, and eventually he’d come closer and closer to get to the food. Then one day, he finally let me pick him up as he was right by the hole, and he learned that he actually loved to be held and petted.
I think it all took just about a week to get him to come to the hole and let me pick him up, but I kept him in the bathroom for longer to allow him to get used to things more. Eventually we were able to bring him upstairs with the rest of the fur family and all was great (after doing slow introductions to everyone).
It could take longer for your kitty if in a main area of the house where a lot of activity is going on, but I agree with others to start putting the food and litter box right outside of the couch so he/she has to come out. Enticing your kitty with a toy at the end of a stick you reach under there may help too.
Use a ‘slow blink’, where you try to blink at half-speed or slower, then leave your eyes half=closed. That’s cat talk for “I’m a friend – I trust you enough to close my eyes when near you.”
If the litter box won’t fit under the couch (remember that they want to be sitting up to use it comfortably), consider putting it nearby with a tall cardboard box upside down over it, with a access hole cut in the side nearest to the couch. That way the kitten can use it while still being concealed from the dangers lurking in this strange place.
After he starts using that, cut another hole in the opposite side of the box, so he can look out while using the litter box. Then eventually remove the box from over the litter. (But place it nearby in the room as a play spot.)