So I adopted this 6 year-old neutered and toothless male back in early November (2.5 months ago). Prior to living with us, he was at a shelter for about one month, and before that he was in a cat colony pretty much his whole life.
I quickly noticed that he is an anxious cat, and easy to scare, but I also noticed that it depended on where he is in my condo. I am to conclude that he has three "safe zones" where he doesn't get scared: (1) the 6' x 9' carpet in our living room, including the couch and loveseat that are on it; (2) by the scratching post; and (3) on our bed. Anywhere else, he gets scared.
If he is not in his safe zones and we walk by him, he runs away from us. He even gets scared of his favorite toy (a piece of string attached to a thin wand). In fact, I was playing with him outside of his safe zone just now, and he was being very cautious, and the moment I lifted the wand in the air and brought it close to him, he immediately ran to his safe zone.
When he is in his safe zone, he will play loads. He can play for 20-25 minutes nonstop. We can also walk by him, cuddle him and he doesn't get scared.
I watched a few of Jackson Galaxy's videos on cat behavior to try to understand what could explain this, and the conclusion I got is that he would become more confident over time as we play regularly with him. It's been two months since my wife and I began implementing a regular playtime schedule, and we play 15-20 minutes twice per day, every day, without fault. This does not seem to have helped.
Anyone has any advice on how I can help him gain confidence? I barely see him explore the condo, and I never see him jump on furniture other than the couch, loveseat and our bed.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/eq8o92/help_my_cat_is_scared_of_everything_when_not_in/
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