My wife and I adopted two kittens about a week ago, a 5 month old and a 3 month old. The 5 month old cat is very friendly. The 3 month old kitten we adopted was very shy at the shelter, and we were told it would take a couple days for them to feel at home. For the first day, he mostly just hid under the bed and avoided being picked up by us, occasionally hissing. After that, he started to move around, but would run when approached, or even if we moved close to him. This is basically how he has acted since then, he will only approach us if he is hungry.
What confuses us about this cat though is how seemingly selective his fear is. He is okay if approach while he is on top of something, like a chair or table, but will freak out if he is on the ground. We thought this might be because of the height difference, but even if I army crawl up to him he will run away scared. We managed to replicate these results to a degree by keeping him in the bathroom, where he had nowhere to run or hide. In there, he seemed pretty calm, and would even purr if we started petting him. However, we didn't want to keep him confined to the bathroom, since he would often meow at the door and want to be let out. Usually it seemed to be because he wanted to interact with our other cat. While they seemed hesitant to be together at first, they have become very comfortable around each other, and will sleep together and play together often.
Another thing that confuses us is despite how afraid he is of us approaching him, he will usually not resist once we get a hand on him. He seems to enjoy being held, or at the very least, not dislike it. Sometimes he will choose to remain on our lap, although often he will attempt to leave once we stop petting him.
So basically, we are curious as to why our cat acts like this, why his fear seems so inconsistent, and what we can do to make it better. We are also wondering if he will grow out of this, or if this cat will just be a shy cat. So far, in order to help him feel more comfortable, we have played with him often, tried to handle him whenever possible, and move slowly around him, as well as hand feed him. Thanks!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/o38ahn/confused_about_kitten_and_wondering_how_to_help/
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