Change in behaviour?

Hello! My lovely older cat Mabel has all of a sudden had a change in behaviour. She's no longer finishing all her food straight away or within the time before her next feed and she's also hiding under the bed a lot which she has only done once on the day I brought her home. Since she was change onto special food for her IBS she was eating it all straight away and was having lots of cuddles but now she doesn't like to be snuggled as much and will move almost straight away when I sit next to her and hide somewhere. I thought she might be getting lonely because she's on her own for a few hours between me leaving for work and my boyfriend getting back so I gave her a huge amount of attention all night and all the way up until I left today but now she's hiding again. I'm just worried about her because I know she's older so I'm aware she can get poorly easier and I want her to be happy; this is the first time I've had my own cat so I'm unsure if this is normal or not.

I'm also wondering if she's missing the outdoors? She was a stray and the shelter put her down to be an indoor cat, she's started spending a bit more time next to the window and I thought maybe she was getting sad because she missed the outside. The problem is is that we can only have house cats because we're a first floor flat next to a busy road. It's probably nothing but I just wanted to ask because a trip to the vets is expensive for nothing and I thought maybe some more experienced owners might have had the same situation? 

How long have you had her? How long was she acting "normal" and how long differently? When it comes to the food thing, when in the shelter, cats are fed whatever they have as they get donations and sometimes they are fed a different kind or brand of food at each feeding. Sometimes cats dont like the food or are too afraid to eat while in the shelter. So her eating all her food for a bit when you first brought her home sounds normal to me because she probably didnt eat much in the shelter and was hungry. Normally cats will eat a little and come back through out the day and eat as needed which is called free fed. Thats where you keep food down for her to eat when she pleases. Some people feed their cats so much at a certain time of day and then again later. It is completely up to you but just keep an eye on her activity level and weight. If you had multiple cats you would definitely see her eating all her food quickly and all at once as she would be afraid one of the others would get her food lol atleast thats how mine are. If you have a patio, I would suggest building a little enclosure so she can be out side and safe. You can buy wire squares that connect to build one. They are used for the organization cubes but you can put them together to build an enclosure. Here is an example:


If you google "wire cube cat enclosure" you will see all kinds of ideas. I found a site where you can get the materials cheap. I am not sure where you are located but you may still be able to use the site.  StoreSupply

They usually use these little connectors that snap on to hold the panels together but me personally, I dont trust that those would keep my cats from getting out. Here are the snap on connectors:


I would personally get the ones you screw together (shown below) to hold the panels together. This will just give her a safe space to be able to be outside with out running the risk of running off or getting hit by a car. You can get a planter and plant some cat grass to put in her enclosure and maybe a small cat tree of sorts and of course a litter box. I really hope this helps!

I've had her for a month and a half and she's started changing behaviour in the last week or so, I thought it was because I was working just a little bit more. She's been leaving whole bowls of food at the moment. The vet told us to feed her half a pack 4 times a day because she needed to put weight on so maybe she's just fed up of eating so much? We have a balcony as we're a first floor flat so that might be a good option for her to get some outside time, as long as we make sure it's secure because we live right next to a main road and a fall off our balcony and a stumble into the road is sure to be bad news! Thank you so much for that idea, I will definitely look into it!!