# Kitten hissing at strangers- HELP



## vivianviv (Sep 10, 2005)

I have such a sweet kitten, never hissed at us for a month, then people come to visit, and he hisses. Usually he just hisses once, and that's that. He will play with the stranger and become friends. My dad has a cat too, and our kitten would go by him, and hiss and hiss. He hissed for two days straight. He's not afraid of him though. 

I'm sorry to say, I was playing with him when dad was over and he hissed once at me. When I stopped playing with him. Who knows, maybe he got that cat scent again. 


He is an only cat, but we got him at the humane society, so he's been around other cats, but not in the same cage.

I'm very embarassed by his behavior, and hurt that he hissed at me.

Why is he doing this? How can I stop it?

I read that hissing back at cats can get them to stop bad behaviors, DH wants to bring out the water bottle, I'm not happy with that. I did hiss at him, he hissed at dad about five times, I kept hissing back, and he stopped and walked off.


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## Superkitties (Jan 30, 2004)

Welcome! What's your kitten's name?

I don't think you're going to be able to stop this behavior. The good news is that it shouldn't last forever. Meantime, I strongly advise against the spray bottle, as he's not going to get why DH/you are doing it, and he'll start getting afraid of you.

He's in a new place, and just wants to 'guard' his territory from intruders, 2 legged, and those that smell like the 4 legged that may invade. It'll take a little time for him to get used to new things on top of making his home. 

His mother could have taught him the instant hissing response. It's kinda like your hackles going up. The clue is that he'll warm up to the stranger afterwards, when he sees that it's ok. In your dad's case, since he smells the other cat, it's very threatening (i.e. to his food supply).

Approaching it humorously may make you feel better: just let everyone know he's a really good guard cat (all 4? lbs of him). It could help to have a phrase for him each time he hisses. Mine is "it's ok, a visitor, it's ok". My Ginza growls when strangers approach, then goes for petting after getting the ok from me. We all joke that he's such a good protector (sometimes he runs off first). :lol:

Your kitty sounds like such a character, we'd love to hear more of his 'embarassing' behaviors! And sharing them will hopefully help you feel better.

Moving this over to Behavior for you.


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## lilysong (Apr 4, 2005)

If all he's doing is hissing, and he's getting over it, I guess I don't see what the problem is. He's a youngun, and they have some fickle behaviors when they're little. Things scare them, or startle them, or make them uncomfortable. My old boy was defensive of his home, even as a kitten.

I'm quite sure he'll grow out of it, and since the behavior isn't at all destructive, I would leave it be.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

Dittoes to all the above. And please don't hiss back. You can reserve that response for something really serious. When you really need to use it and the cat isn't expecting it.

Just give the little guy the time and space to warm up to visitors, if he wants to. And he may not want to. Just explain to your visitors that he's shy. I don't have many visitors here and so my cats aren't used to strangers. They usually head for the nearest hidey-hole when the doorbell rings. I tell visitors to just ignore the cats if they happen to see one. Sometimes Tommy will come out to say "Hi", and Mellie and Rocket might peek around the corner, but that's about all visitors get to see of my cats.


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## siamesecat (Jul 3, 2005)

My younger cat is a hisser too. He hisses when he is scared or feels threatened - like every trip to the vet and when we first intoduced the two cats. It should stop once he feels more comfortable. I wouldn't worry.


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## reprot (Nov 11, 2004)

Sounds wacky, but someone told me once to say in a firm voice "don't do that to your mommy" when I had a little hissy cat. Oddly enough it worked for me.


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## coaster (Dec 1, 2004)

Not whacky at all. I think cats are quite sensitive to our tone of voice. They know very well what pleases us and what displeases us. Whether or not they choose to please us is another thing, though. :lol:


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## d_b (Jul 17, 2004)

Psycho hisses at everyone he meets. He doesnt attack or run away, he just hisses. Then all is well. I think its the cats way of saying "this is my place".


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## vivianviv (Sep 10, 2005)

Thank you all for responding; I really do appreciate it. 

My Xavier is just such a sweet people loving kitty that it threw me for a loop. 

When I first met him, he was purring like crazy, and so excited to be out of his humane society cage. I picked him up and he calmed down, and nuzzled up to my face. That was it, he was mine. I haven’t had a cat in almost ten years, because of living in the dorms and apartments. Not a lot of apts around here take animals, and I didn’t want to hide him like many of my neighbors and risk loosing him or her. 


Anyway, he follows us around a lot, plays with us and watches TV with us. We were taken aback by this behavior. He’s hissed at many visitors, but usually warms up to them, and becomes good buddies with them. But with my dad, he must have hissed like 100 times at him. Xavier would follow him around, and want his attention, and then he would hiss hiss hiss. He would leave for awhile and follow him around again and keep hissing at him. If I was at someone’s house and their cat kept hissing like that, ugh. I felt bad for dad since he likes cats and here is our cat following him and just hissing up a storm around him. But he understood it was probably his cat’s smell that was inducing it. 

I’ve been reading about those lavender plug ins and maybe I’ll get one of those for when visitors come, especially for weekend visits. 


I just love the suggestion for making a joke about our guard kitty. I will have to use it. : )


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