Hi!
I already made a post with questions about my Finn under another subject, but I thought this was a different subject so here's another post.
Finn is 10yo,male,neutered,standard Norwegian house cat breed, 6,5kg, beam: seems sad and bored, but has bursts of energy. Seems sader and less interested after both a change to weight loss food (what my other post is about) and a weather change to full on snowy winter. Animal shelter foster cat, been with me since June, diagnosed with FHS, on no medication, allowed outside.
My main concern is that he seems bored and sad. Ever since he came here to me he has seemed a bit overwhelmed by play. If I use regular such as stick toys or balls he seems either uninterested or overwhelmed/scared. He might awsken his chasing instinct, but when engaging with the toy he gets scared and often walk away to sit further away or in a corner, as if he is scared. During the summer he was outside quite a bit. He didn't jump around for hours but enjoyed some walking about and rested a lot out in the fresh air. As the colder weather crept in during the fall he was more and more idle and less and less outside. Now he only goes outside for about 5-10 minutes to sit or pee/poo, and spends all day resting/sleeping but he seems sad. I don't know how to activate/connect/play/engage with him in a way that he is interested, but not overwhelmed. I suspect he has not been played with a lot in his life, but his FHS might also play a role. If he gets overwhelmed/scared/stressed by a toy he sometimes just ends up cleaning himself in a stressed way like a FHS symptom. Not for long though, but for me it's a sign of some imbalance. I really want to engage with him and connect, but I don't know how. We are also having a really hard time with food for him because ne needs to lose weight, but the weight loss food from the vet seems to have triggered something in him, because although weather also changed he was very frustrated with the kibble wight loss food and it seems to have made him more symptomatic although it's hard to say. But this is what I'm addressing in the other post. This post is more to do with how can I best play and engage with him now that he doesn't want to be outside and also gets easily scared and overwhelmed or is simply uninterested in standard stick toys? Thank you so much
@Dr. Christina @Dr. Barbara
I already made a post with questions about my Finn under another subject, but I thought this was a different subject so here's another post.
Finn is 10yo,male,neutered,standard Norwegian house cat breed, 6,5kg, beam: seems sad and bored, but has bursts of energy. Seems sader and less interested after both a change to weight loss food (what my other post is about) and a weather change to full on snowy winter. Animal shelter foster cat, been with me since June, diagnosed with FHS, on no medication, allowed outside.
My main concern is that he seems bored and sad. Ever since he came here to me he has seemed a bit overwhelmed by play. If I use regular such as stick toys or balls he seems either uninterested or overwhelmed/scared. He might awsken his chasing instinct, but when engaging with the toy he gets scared and often walk away to sit further away or in a corner, as if he is scared. During the summer he was outside quite a bit. He didn't jump around for hours but enjoyed some walking about and rested a lot out in the fresh air. As the colder weather crept in during the fall he was more and more idle and less and less outside. Now he only goes outside for about 5-10 minutes to sit or pee/poo, and spends all day resting/sleeping but he seems sad. I don't know how to activate/connect/play/engage with him in a way that he is interested, but not overwhelmed. I suspect he has not been played with a lot in his life, but his FHS might also play a role. If he gets overwhelmed/scared/stressed by a toy he sometimes just ends up cleaning himself in a stressed way like a FHS symptom. Not for long though, but for me it's a sign of some imbalance. I really want to engage with him and connect, but I don't know how. We are also having a really hard time with food for him because ne needs to lose weight, but the weight loss food from the vet seems to have triggered something in him, because although weather also changed he was very frustrated with the kibble wight loss food and it seems to have made him more symptomatic although it's hard to say. But this is what I'm addressing in the other post. This post is more to do with how can I best play and engage with him now that he doesn't want to be outside and also gets easily scared and overwhelmed or is simply uninterested in standard stick toys? Thank you so much
@Dr. Christina @Dr. Barbara
