How long is it normal for a cat to hide and barely eat after moving house Behaviour

Four days of hiding after a move is very normal, and the fact that she is eating some food and using the tray at night is the reassuring part. Plenty of cats take one to two weeks to come out properly and some take a month.

The number I would actually watch is food. A cat eating nothing at all for more than about 48 hours is a call-the-vet situation rather than a wait-it-out one, because cats genuinely do not tolerate a complete fast the way dogs do. Half her normal amount, with the tray being used, is a different picture and is not in that territory.

Practical things that shorten it: keep her in one room rather than giving her the whole house, put the litter tray, food and a hiding box in that room, and do not pull her out from under the bed. Sit in the room reading out loud and ignoring her. Let the choice be hers and it usually happens faster.

Weigh her if you can do it without a fight — a kitchen scale and a carrier, or standing on bathroom scales holding her and subtracting yourself. Body weight over a fortnight is a much better signal than trying to guess how much of the bowl she ate.

Ours took eleven days to come out during daylight and about three weeks to act normal. What helped most was putting something unwashed that smelled of the old place in her hiding spot, and moving her food bowl six inches further out of the hiding spot each day rather than putting it where we wanted it.

Also do not be surprised if she is fine for a week and then regresses when the last boxes get moved or a new piece of furniture arrives. Ours went backwards twice and still ended up completely settled.

Small warning from experience: check every gap behind and under kitchen units, and make sure windows and the loft hatch are shut. A frightened cat in a new house will find a space you did not know existed, and getting them out of one is worse than the hiding itself.