How to Boost the Confidence of Your Anxious Cat

Cat anxiety is a surprisingly common issue that many pet owners find themselves having to deal with at some point. 

Anxiety affects cats in a very similar way to humans, often causing significant changes in behavior. These can either lead to withdrawal or cause your cat to lash out at others around them.

Regardless of how anxiety exhibits itself in your cat, it’s not something that you’ll want to ignore.

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at everything you can do to help boost the confidence of your cat if they’re suffering from anxiety.

We’ll be going over the various forms of medication for cats with anxiety but simple changes to their home life can also work wonders.

Changing Your Cat’s Home Environment

The majority of cats that suffer from anxiety are triggered by something they perceive as wrong or uncomfortable in their home environment.

After all, your home is where you’re supposed to feel the safest. You would also probably feel anxious if it was full of people, noises, and smells you’d never encountered before!

Here are some of the simple changes you can make in your home to help boost your kitty’s confidence:

Keep Other Cats Away

Many household cats love to take a stroll around their neighborhood. However, with so many pet cats running around, it can be easy for territories to cross and personalities to clash!

These interactions can cause anxiety if a cat feels that its home and territory are under threat from another feline. 

To combat this, you can try shooing the neighboring cats away from your backyard but this doesn’t always work! There are numerous cat deterrents on the market that you can also try but make sure you don’t upset your own cat at the same time. Many of these deterrents use high-pitched sounds that are just as irritating to a cat as nails on a chalkboard are to us.

Proven methods to deter cats from your garden include natural citrus scents, planting strong-smelling plants such as rosemary, and installing noisy windchimes or an automatic sprinkler.

Designate A Room For Your Cat

This might seem like a big step to take, but it is definitely one of the most effective things you can do.

Your home is your cat’s territory. However, it can be difficult to keep an eye on an entire house at once, especially when there are humans roaming all over it! This can lead to anxiety if you have a particularly nervous cat. 

By designating one room of your house to be cat-only, with no humans allowed, it will give your pet a more intimate and controllable environment to feel safe in.

There doesn’t need to be anything too advanced in this room. Simple stuff like a bed, litter tray, food bowl, water bowl, and a few toys, will make it feel like a new home for your cat.

Of course, you will need to go in at some point to change the litter and refill the food and water bowls. However, you should try to stop other people from going into the room at any other time.

This room should also be away from noisy environments like the kitchen or living room, where your cat might be disturbed by lots of human-made sounds.

Plenty Of Love

Of course, just like with humans, a great way to combat anxiety in your cat is to show plenty of love and affection.

This could take the form of simple physical contact, spending regular time with your cat, or stimulating their minds and bodies with plenty of play sessions.

Encouraging your cat to spend time with you, even if they’re just sleeping on your lap, is a good way to get them to feel more comfortable around the home.