Hi all!
I adopted my 8-year-old cat, Skimble, about 9 months ago in September. He's the first pet I've owned living on my own. I've had cats before, but I'm still sort of a newb. He showed signs of stress from the beginning, particularly by pulling out his fur very often. I feel like he's just really settled into my home and gotten comfortable within the past two or three months or so, and the overgrooming decreased significantly. However, it's recently increased a lot. There have been some stressful events recently. One of my roommates moved out, so there were lots of boxes and packing and whatnot. The thing is, aside from the fur pulling, he really doesn't seem very stressed. He's eating and using the litter box normally and not displaying any abnormal behaviors. So I'm just wondering what I should do because the overgrooming is concerning to me. He doesn't have any bald spots (I think because he just has a ton of medium length fur), but I don't want it to get to that point.
I had heard a lot about success with calming treats on these forums, however I've bought 2 different brands and he won't touch them (of course). I also saw liquid supplements to put in water at the store, but I use a FreshFlow fountain with a filter, so those wouldn't work for us. I tried Feliway about 5 months back and it didn't seem to have a great effect, but I'll try it again. I was hoping I could get some suggestions of what else to try. You guys are so knowledgable on this forum and I would greatly appreciate any help!
I adopted my 8-year-old cat, Skimble, about 9 months ago in September. He's the first pet I've owned living on my own. I've had cats before, but I'm still sort of a newb. He showed signs of stress from the beginning, particularly by pulling out his fur very often. I feel like he's just really settled into my home and gotten comfortable within the past two or three months or so, and the overgrooming decreased significantly. However, it's recently increased a lot. There have been some stressful events recently. One of my roommates moved out, so there were lots of boxes and packing and whatnot. The thing is, aside from the fur pulling, he really doesn't seem very stressed. He's eating and using the litter box normally and not displaying any abnormal behaviors. So I'm just wondering what I should do because the overgrooming is concerning to me. He doesn't have any bald spots (I think because he just has a ton of medium length fur), but I don't want it to get to that point.
I had heard a lot about success with calming treats on these forums, however I've bought 2 different brands and he won't touch them (of course). I also saw liquid supplements to put in water at the store, but I use a FreshFlow fountain with a filter, so those wouldn't work for us. I tried Feliway about 5 months back and it didn't seem to have a great effect, but I'll try it again. I was hoping I could get some suggestions of what else to try. You guys are so knowledgable on this forum and I would greatly appreciate any help!
