Cat Hates Guests! Why??

[zeneli12]

I have a one year old rescue named Nacho, he was always so friendly and loved being pet and handled by anyone. When he was little (about 3 months old) for about 4 months I had another kitten and they would play together for hours 0 aggression, just fun. (the other kitten sadly passed away of leukemia) and nacho has since been alone and a house cat. He gets plenty of love and attention. About 3 months ago I started taking him to the groomer (only 2x) to get his nails trimmed because I was scared to do it myself and that's when I realized he developed a fear of driving in the car, when he used to love it. On top of that I had a few guests over the past 3 months and he would hiss and try to scratch and bite them and today the same thing with the vet. When he used to go to the vet everyone always held him and complimented how calm and loving he was. Hes scheduled for a neutering since hes not but i've read so many articles that say its not hormonal and its behavioral and neutering him wont help (im getting him neutered anyway cuz he needs it but still). I want to assume he started getting aggressive because of however the groomers were handling him and he'd lost trust with strangers? but how the heck do i fix this!? He used to be such a social and loving cat (he still is with my family but strangers is a no) help please!

 

[catsknowme]

can you take him for regular visits to your relatives and friends? that way a car ride means a fun visit. do it around the same day and hour. then once he calms down, you can try introducing going to another groomer. Maybe ask a vet tech to clip his nails on their day off. But whatever happened at that other groomers, it was not good for your boy so avoid them like the plague. Even a cat rescue person would probably be better - they would charge a lot less & trimming claws is easy.

 

[duckpond]

neutering will help calm him down, a lot! Honestly i would not worry about it at all, until after he is neutered. His personality will change normally for the better in the few months after the surgery. You should notice a lot less aggression afterwards.

The fear of strangers may or may not go away. I have 4 cats, two absolutely hate to have visitors, they hide the whole time. And i never allow strangers to handle or try to play with my cats, unless the cat instigates it. It is way too stressful for cats. If the cat wants to interact with a visitor they will let the visitor know, otherwise leave them alone. My other two dont really care if people are there or not, one would much prefer they leave her alone, one will sometimes interact, but only with certain people. Older cats are often not as friendly with everyone as kittens are.