Thinking of renaming my new cat Turtle..

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Turtle because since I brought him home 10 days ago he has lived under my bed, so I have put his litter box on one side of the room and his food and water on the other, and he sticks out his neck like a turtle to eat from the food bowl and quickly pulls his head back in if he sees me.

He does explore the house in the wee small hours when he thinks I am asleep. He is a neutered middle-aged adult male who was a stray for most of his life and spent the last 18 months in a rescue centre, so he hasn't been in a house before with a human.

Any cat experts here who can guide me on how to draw him out? I tried gradually moving his food bowl slightly further away gradually though that was met with a hunger strike!

The positive thing is that he is eating really well, though he gets little exercise and very rarely makes any sound. He is stressed, though I am at a loss about how else to calm and reassure him, he won't let me near to pick him up and I am not trying to.

Maybe get him some cat toys...see if maybe he'll play with them, if so then you could maybe get something on a string for him to chase and then he would play with you that might help. The cat will probably take time to warm up to you but encouraging interaction and making sure interactions with the cat are positive should help. Have you tried giving him treats? And if worst comes to worst...it might sound kind of mean but if you block off under your bed so he'd have to spend more time out in the rest of the house but its not healthy for a cat to be in a dark corner all day indefinitely. But obviously you also don't want to stress that cat out too much right off so maybe he'd give into toys to chase or treats, does he let you pet him at least?

He loves cat treats, but won't let me pet him at all (he did at the cat rescue centre, he felt comfortable enough there to lick my hand and follow me around). Maybe he misses all his friends there? There were about 60 other cats in a large common area and he was considered one of the most congenial to other cats. I haven't tried a toy (did get him a cat tunnel) so I will try that next... Thanks.