Stress in a cat can lead to all kinds of behavior problems including aggression, a cat not using the litter box, and destructive behavior. Stress is also bad for a cat’s health. Recognizing the signs your cat needs to decompress and destress will be appreciated by your cat and result in behavior you’ll love.
Acute Stress
Stress can be acute or chronic, but looking for signs of acute stress is important to prevent injuries to people or other animals. Cats that are stressed out due to something that happened recently might show the following signs:
- Vocalizing
- Biting or scratching humans, other cats, or other animals
- Hiding
- Scratching objects such as scratching posts or your furniture more frequently than normal
- Changes to eating habits (though this could be medical so talk to a veterinarian if you notice this)
- Pacing back and forth or running around (this could also be the zoomies!)
- If something spooks your cat suddenly, they may urinate on the floor
Subtle Signs Of Stress In Cats
While there are signs of stress in cats that are easy to see, others often get missed. Your cat may do something repetitive such as pawing at a window or the ground without reason. They may might calmly walk away from the situation, which is an example of a distance increasing behavior.
In some cases, your cat’s body language will be the biggest tip off. For example, cats that are unsure what is happening may have one ear forward and one ear to the side. You may notice their tail go from being straight up with hooked tip (think a candy cane shape) to having their tail straight behind them. If their tail starts moving, that’s a clear sign of stress.
Displacement Behaviors
When cats are acutely stressed, they may do something called a displacement behavior. Think of displacement behaviors as being like a human fidgeting: it may not directly be related to the stress, but it’s a way of diffusing some of the tension they’re feeling. The behavior may be normal, but it’s happening at a time that the behavior wouldn’t normally happen.
Displacement behaviors include:
- A really quick, subtle nose lick
- Yawning
- Sudden, frantic, brief, and focused grooming
You’ll notice some of those are normal behaviors. Yawing in particular isn’t always a displacement behavior, but in the context of other signs of stress it might be.
A Word On Displacement Grooming
With displacement grooming, how your cat is doing makes a huge difference. Grooming is a normal, relaxed behavior in cats. Relaxed grooming is usually slow, sustained, and involves multiple areas of the cat’s body. It may be a displacement behavior if your cat suddenly seems fixated on a particular area and briefly grooms it.
If this is happening frequently and focused on one location, it could also be a sign that something medical is happening. Talking with a veterinarian will help you determine if it may be a displacement behavior or a sign your cat is in pain or ill.
Chronic Stress In Cats
Stress isn’t limited to the short term. Your cat may experience stressors (whether a single stressor or multiple stressors) that last for days, weeks, or even years. Chronic stress isn’t something to write off as being normal because it can have very significant negative impacts on your cat’s health.
The most common way you’ll see stress show up is with unwanted behaviors. Notice how vaguely I phrased that. Most unwanted behaviors can be caused by or worsened due to chronic stress in cats. Even if it’s not the only cause, reducing your cat’s stress isn’t going to hurt anything. You may need to adjust something else such as changing their litter box or not continuing to use deterrents.
Real Life Examples
Not sure what that means? Let me share a few examples of common situations I’ve seen of cat behavior concerns that resulted from chronic stress:
- Cats urinating outside their litter box when their humans go on vacation
- A normally very sweet cat aggressing toward their human when they weren’t being played with enough
- Overgrooming to the point where the cat developed bald spots
- Cats that get along gradually developing tension before having a larger fight
- People using tin foil to keep their cat off their counters triggering aggressive behaviors in their cat
- Certain medical conditions
This list doesn’t even touch all the very real ways cats can experience stress. Even if stress isn’t the only cause of the behavior concern, it may make exacerbate other behavior concerns due to stress stacking.
Does It Matter If Your Cat Is Stressed?
If you suspect your cat is experiencing stress, do you need to do anything about it even if they aren’t showing behavior concerns that bother you? Ultimately, yes! It matters to the well being of your cat and their overall quality of life. Brushing aside the stress your cat is experiencing because it is not showing up in a way that bothers you now doesn’t mean that will last forever. That could change as your cat becomes a senior, develops a medical problem or pain, or It ultimately benefits you to figure out what is causing your cat to be so stressed out and taking steps to fix their stress.
