diff --git a/tests/test_fetcher_ng.py b/tests/test_fetcher_ng.py
index 434c62a2..03cb33f3 100644
--- a/tests/test_fetcher_ng.py
+++ b/tests/test_fetcher_ng.py
@@ -109,7 +109,11 @@ def test_http_error(self) -> None:
     def test_response_read_timeout(self, mock_session_get: Mock) -> None:
         mock_response = Mock()
         mock_response.status = 200
-        attr = {"stream.side_effect": urllib3.exceptions.TimeoutError}
+        attr = {"stream.side_effect": urllib3.exceptions.MaxRetryError(
+            urllib3.connectionpool.ConnectionPool("localhost"),
+            "",
+            urllib3.exceptions.TimeoutError(),
+        )}
         mock_response.configure_mock(**attr)
         mock_session_get.return_value = mock_response
 
diff --git a/tuf/ngclient/_internal/urllib3_fetcher.py b/tuf/ngclient/_internal/urllib3_fetcher.py
index 85cc80d5..8c2a2ff6 100644
--- a/tuf/ngclient/_internal/urllib3_fetcher.py
+++ b/tuf/ngclient/_internal/urllib3_fetcher.py
@@ -103,8 +103,9 @@ def _chunks(
 
         try:
             yield from response.stream(self.chunk_size)
-        except urllib3.exceptions.TimeoutError as e:
-            raise exceptions.SlowRetrievalError from e
+        except urllib3.exceptions.MaxRetryError as e:
+            if isinstance(e.reason, urllib3.exceptions.TimeoutError):
+                raise exceptions.SlowRetrievalError from e
 
         finally:
             response.release_conn()