How to tell if a cat is grieving or depressed
Cats can experience sudden personality shifts, becoming sedate, withdrawn, or crying loudly after losing a companion or experiencing trauma. This leaves owners second-guessing whether their pet's unusual behavior is true grief or depression, and whether they need another animal companion to cope with the loneliness.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Watching them closely, providing extra comfort or presence, and discussing their behavioral changes online.
- 2Giving him plenty of love, attention, scritches, brushes, lovings, and massages
- 3Giving him time to process the loss and providing companionship and reassurance
- 4Considering getting another cat friend down the road when the time is right
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“It’s been two weeks. he’s been very down and now the last couple days has found his voice again, but cries super loud early in the AM every morning. Is he grieving ? he grew up with his sister from birth, i’m worried he’ll be lonely now as the single cat of the family.”source ↗
“I still am fighting mentally if he is struggling from the loss of his sister ( i know we all still are) and maybe we can get him another cat friend to play with down the road when the times right.”source ↗
“I was there when my ex's mother died. as soon as she died one of her cats (actually an overly aggressive and not particularly affectionate cat) changed personality immediately, became sedate, withdrawn - things that if a human was doing after a death we'd regard as depression.”source ↗