Hi there,

I recently adopted a blind kitten into my studio apartment. I was on vacation when she came, so my boyfriend picked her up. He oriented her well, said she was bouncing around playing energetically. When I came home, however, things were different.

She's been hiding in the bathroom on a little shag rug I have. She won't leave. Sometimes we pick her up close to the ground and put her in the common room, but she finds her way back to the bathroom rather quickly.

I've tried to soothingly speak to her so she recognizes my voice, sometimes she'll come crawling out of the bathroom and follow it, but most of the time she looks around and runs back to the bathroom again.

She's scared of my bed for some reason, the cushy-ness freaks her out, I think. When my boyfriend plays guitar or we turn on the tv she looks absolutely terrified. It's kind of funny watching her, but mostly sad. I just want her to feel at home.

She may just be disoriented, but I'm looking for more tips to figure out how to get her more comfortable. Does anybody here have experience with a new blind kitten?

no experiance - but didnt want to read and run. if bathroom is her safe zone - thats ok, let her get confident in her own time. no big changes in furniture!

Personally I would give her more time to settle. If she feels comfortable in the bathroom leave her be for now. Put her litter tray, food and water in there for her and let her come out in her own time.

If she is blind picking her up and moving her will only add to her confusion in my experience as she will be disorientated, so let her come out of the bathroom in her own time.

Personally I would not put her on your bed at all at this point. She will have little idea of where the edge is and could fall off, which will only knock her confidence further. My blind cat hated my bed - my theory behind it was that its she didn't knew where she was and she would wander towards the edge - numerous times I had to stop her walking right off the edge.

Although your boyfriend got her settled, you coming home will have changed things for her, the noises, routine, vibrations and smells will be different, so give her time to settle in again.

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Hi there,

We have got 2 rescue kittens with cataracts. Hunter's are pretty bad.

However, as cats use their whiskers and sense of smell for most things, they are pretty good.

When ours get a bit scared, they hide, and the best thing is to leave them to come out when they are ready Too much handling or coaxing tends to make them worse.

Its important to give them places to hide, even in a small studio flat, you can get a cardboard box with a nice fluffy blanket in.

calling and getting toys on strings to dangle around will hopefully encourage play and get used to your smell without being too threatening.

If things don't improve and she is really stressed, you can nip to the vets and they can prescribe something like Zylkene which you put in food and calms cats/kittens down.


Hope it helps.