Turtle and I need Your advice again

[turtlesnewmommy]

Turtle still spends a lot of time in her bedroom; just coming out once in a while to see what I'm doing. She hasn't shown any interest in the rest of the house yet, but I know in time she will want to go exploring. 

It's a large house compared to where she's lived before. It's two-story with 12 rooms and a full basement. Do I close off sections of the house and let her adjust to a couple rooms at a time until she's feels comfortable? Or just let her do her own thing? 

Another thing, when she does take over the whole house (yes,I see that coming) should I have a couple more litter boxes in other parts of the house? 

 

[speakhandsforme]

Once again, I want to thank you, both for taking Turtle in and taking the time to come here to update us and ask questions.

I would do what you suggested first: let her explore a few rooms at a time. Maybe open up a new room every day, or every other day, or however long it takes her to feel comfortable. :nod:

Yes, you should have at least one box per floor. She is an only cat (right?) so she shouldn't have any territory issues with other cats and the box, but having more boxes will be helpful in getting her to adjust to her new home.

 

[ldg]

:lol3: Once Turtle completes her conversion of you, all those rooms will come in very handy for the foster kitties!

But yes, I agree. :nod: It's always a good idea to have a litter box on each level of a home.

Where do you spend most of your time (apart from the bedroom). Living room? Kitchen? If you don't use the other rooms much, any reason not to just close the doors, and not worry about it for a while? She can explore the halls and find her way to where she'll want to be going (where you spend your time). Then once she's comfortably moving between the areas where you spend most of your time, maybe just open one door at a time? :dk:

I don't know if she's ever been in a home with stairs. I know it took our kitties quite a while to get comfortable with them. I had to feed them upstairs, then at the top of the stairs, then at the bottom of the stairs, and just slowly moved their bowls across the living room to the kitchen, where I wanted them to be eating. it took about a month. They all came to LOVE the stairs. But they were very scary at first, and those monsters waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs were very daunting! :lol3:

The other option is to just not worry about it. Assume she'll explore at night once she's more comfortable. She'll be drawn to areas where she smells familiar scents (where you spend more time).

But I'm not sure i'd worry about helping her with the stairs yet. That may be a while. :lol3: (When we moved, and our cats already totally trusted us, other than one of them, they stayed in the bedroom, even with the door open, for about two weeks before timidly starting to explore at night).