Cat's behaviour

bm1296

Hey,

I'm just looking for some general advice from other cat owners.

I adopted my cat back in May from a charity that rehomes feral/stray cats. They introduce them into foster homes slowly before permanently rehoming them. 
My cat has always been very timid since adopting him and only recently has started to trust me. He has been going outside since August but doesn't go further than the garden or go outside for longer than 20 minutes. He prefers to come and sit with me in the living room even if the back door is open. 

The problem is on a night time, I feed him a wet pouch just before I go upstairs and start getting ready for bed (about 9pm). Throughout the night I let him roam the house and he has access to all rooms. He tends to sleep in one of the bedrooms until around 5am. 
At this time he gets up and is obviously hungry, so I bought some automatic feeders to open at around 5am which he does eat from. 
However, even after he has eaten, he still wonders around the house meowing and scratching at the stairs carpet. I do already ignore him but unfortunately I do have to get up for work at 6:15am. 
When I eventually do go downstairs at around 7am, he is so quiet around me and you never hear anything more from him he just follows me until I leave for work.

I'm wondering whether he has some separation anxiety especially when I'm out most of the day at work. We do have 1-1 play time in the evening for about 20 minutes and as soon as I'm home from work at 4pm I let him out into the garden. 

Is there any advice anyone can give me to prevent him ruining my house and carpets? 

I've tried putting items in the areas he does scratch - he just scratches somewhere else and sadly I can't put items on every step on the stairs....  
I've got a vertical and horizontal scratching posts/mat - he's never looked at them never mind used them even when I try encourage play around them 

donnac2558

You need to play a good 20 minutes before bedtime as well as when you come home.   I mean have him panting and tired out.

Try getting some cat nip and spraying on the scratching posts.   Can you trim his nails?  That is why cats scratch to get the nails down.

KxMx

You could try a Feliway plug in to see if that helps him feel calmer. 

Mnoee

Do you have any toys he can play with solo? If he's restless then naughtiness is appealing if there's nothing else to do.

My cats recommend : Catit roller circuit, a dangly bird that sticks to the window by Kong, the round ball in track things (I got mine at Tesco, there's loads to choose from), 'noisy toys' that chirp/squeak when batted (again many options, but maybe only for during daytimes when you're out!), one of those wiggly fish, puzzle feeders for treats, and shallow boxes with holes cut out that I drop toys down for them to 'rescue'. 

Brie

Does he get quiet if you respond to his meowing?  Our cat would shout for attention but all she wanted was to have her presence acknowledged even if it was just me sleepily saying "shut up Artemis!"  Having proved to her that I hadn't died in my sleep she would go curl up somewhere for a nap.