Kitten always hissing

[NovusAnimus]

NovusAnimus I'm curious - do you talk to her as all of this is going on?

Woops, forgot to respond to this part. Yes, lots of talking, gentle, consistent tone of voice, frequent use of her name, etc. I won't walk around a corner without at least humming, just to make sure she knows where I am and doesn't get startled.

 

[She's a witch]

That’s such a weird behavior from a cat that comes from a breeder and should be well socialized.. did you talk to her breeder about this? Are any other kittens from this litter like this? Did she behave like this when she was with her siblings? Is she coming from reputable or backyard breeder?
I would avoid standing over her as much as possible, you’re way bigger that she is and that can be intimidating. Being at her level would most likely work the best. I wouldn’t pick her up and hold her, most cats don’t like this anyway, but I would pet her on her head and neck despite her hissing.
Kittens needs so much food as they develop so fast, I’d give her free acces to food if she shows signs she’s hungry. If you don’t want to feed dry, I’d make sure she always has fresh canned food in her bowl (there are bowls that close automatically, that also protects against insects etc, I’ve just purchased one. Adding some water also prevents drying to fast).
Not sure if you are male or female, but one of my cats have has some objections towards men. It took him few months to warm up to my husband. He’s also very wary of our male guests. He must have bad association. You can ask your breeder if this was a case for your kitten, if she ever showed any objections for any male/female humans. Maybe she wasn’t around men/ women enough. My cat is now totally fine around my husband but it took lots of patience.

 

[NovusAnimus]

That’s such a weird behavior from a cat...

She's a witch

I am male. The breeder is female.

The breeder did say she hissed at her once as the breeder was picking her up. And as I said earlier in the thread, the breeder suggested picking her up and ignoring her hissing, to help her overcome her fear of being touched, so I get the impression the breeder is rather 'old school' about things.

In retrospect, I should have taken more time to investigate, but due to distance and timing issues, I couldn't arrange for proper introductions with the kitten before acquiring her. Though the breeder's website assures that the kittens are frequently handled.

Approaching her either standing or crawling doesn't seem to really matter, for the hissing.

Are you sure I should try petting her despite the hissing?

 

[She's a witch]

She's a witch

I am male. The breeder is female.

The breeder did say she hissed at her once as the breeder was picking her up. And as I said earlier in the thread, the breeder suggested picking her up and ignoring her hissing, to help her overcome her fear of being touched, so I get the impression the breeder is rather 'old school' about things.

In retrospect, I should have taken more time to investigate, but due to distance and timing issues, I couldn't arrange for proper introductions with the kitten before acquiring her. Though the breeder's website assures that the kittens are frequently handled.

Approaching her either standing or crawling doesn't seem to really matter, for the hissing.

Are you sure I should try petting her despite the hissing?

No, I’m not sure. Every cat is different and can react differently. But even few days ago I’ve seen a feral in a cage hissing a lot only to melt and relax completely, with purring, when being eventually touched, despite the hissing. Cats love petting in the head area so hopefully she’ll learn your touch is great. She’s not feral though so I’m not sure if that will be helpful or more terrifying for her. But I think it’s worth risking.
Being at her level might not lessen her hissing, but for sure it will make you smaller, therefore less terrifying and can speed things up.
If she’s indeed afraid of you because you’re a man and she didn’t have much to do with men before, she needs to get used to you and that can take time. You might be bigger than other humans she met, your voice sounds different, you smell differently. Try to speak quietly and calmly around her (even if when not talking to her), I’d also leave unwashed T-shirt close to her spot so that your smell will become more familiar to her without your presence.
Is her vet visit crucial? Like she needs vaccination etc or is this just routine visit? If it’s not crucial, personally I’d move it so that she has more time before she needs to be grabbed.

 

[NovusAnimus]

No, I’m not sure. Every cat is different and can react differently. But even few days ago I’ve seen a feral in a cage hissing a lot only to melt and relax completely, with purring, when being eventually touched, despite the hissing. Cats love petting in the head area so hopefully she’ll learn your touch is great. She’s not feral though so I’m not sure if that will be helpful or more terrifying for her. But I think it’s worth risking.
Being at her level might not lessen her hissing, but for sure it will make you smaller, therefore less terrifying and can speed things up.
If she’s indeed afraid of you because you’re a man and she didn’t have much to do with men before, she needs to get used to you and that can take time. You might be bigger than other humans she met, your voice sounds different, you smell differently. Try to speak quietly and calmly around her (even if when not talking to her), I’d also leave unwashed T-shirt close to her spot so that your smell will become more familiar to her without your presence.
Is her vet visit crucial? Like she needs vaccination etc or is this just routine visit? If it’s not crucial, personally I’d move it so that she has more time before she needs to be grabbed.

Unfortunately all this advice is stuff that I've been doing since day 1. I'm a methodical and diligent researcher, and read at least a dozen guides on how to acclimate a new kitten to an environment, before I got her.

She's literally running around right now, in and out of the bedroom, playing and stuff, sliding under my chair. Just this morning I had her rolling onto her back and swiping at a feather on a 6" string, on a 12" stick, so quite close to me. An hour ago, I was unravelling 250' of split loom tubing, to start covering the hundreds of wires I have in the place (she doesn't chew wires, but you never know). She came up within 1 foot of me, on her own, with me making a LOT of noise, and played with the tubing.

If I slowly, gently move my hand in her direction, she hisses and leaves. Open, closed, palm up, palm down, doesn't matter. I literally can't pet her, it's not an option, unless I pin her (both occurrences of this have been described in this thread, and those are the only two times I've seriously touched her.) If I sneak the lightest touch of her fur when she's distracted, even with a stick, she hisses and bolts.

The vet visit is for her to meet her new vet, to get weighed, and to get a dose of Revolution (or for me to buy said dosage anyway). If you think I should delay this, I probably can.

 

[Pjg8r]

You mentioned you have a roommate. Has the roommate been able to touch the kitten? Will the kitten come up to any other part of you and allow you to have contact (your foot perhaps)?

 

[NovusAnimus]

You mentioned you have a roommate. Has the roommate been able to touch the kitten? Will the kitten come up to any other part of you and allow you to have contact (your foot perhaps)?

Roommate has never approached the kitten, never been near the kitten really. He stays in his room mostly, door closed. So his exposure to the kitten is 1/1000th mine has been, literally.

The kitten has touched me on a couple occasions when exploring, and touched me many times when chasing a feather. But, an example would be, I'm sitting on the floor with her, playing with a feather toy, and she comes near my foot. I move my toe an inch to gently touch her cheek, she hisses and runs away.

 

[She's a witch]

Unfortunately all this advice is stuff that I've been doing since day 1. I'm a methodical and diligent researcher, and read at least a dozen guides on how to acclimate a new kitten to an environment, before I got her.

She's literally running around right now, in and out of the bedroom, playing and stuff, sliding under my chair. Just this morning I had her rolling onto her back and swiping at a feather on a 6" string, on a 12" stick, so quite close to me. An hour ago, I was unravelling 250' of split loom tubing, to start covering the hundreds of wires I have in the place (she doesn't chew wires, but you never know). She came up within 1 foot of me, on her own, with me making a LOT of noise, and played with the tubing.

If I slowly, gently move my hand in her direction, she hisses and leaves. Open, closed, palm up, palm down, doesn't matter. I literally can't pet her, it's not an option, unless I pin her (both occurrences of this have been described in this thread, and those are the only two times I've seriously touched her.) If I sneak the lightest touch of her fur when she's distracted, even with a stick, she hisses and bolts.

The vet visit is for her to meet her new vet, to get weighed, and to get a dose of Revolution (or for me to buy said dosage anyway). If you think I should delay this, I probably can.

Hey, it doesn’t sound that bad if she plays with you, showing her belly. Playing is a great way to bond with the kitten. Maybe all you need is patience and time, and less expectations. She may never be cuddly even when she eventually stops being afraid. I have a super social cat that loves humans and follows us around, but she mostly doesn’t like being touched, she’s never hissed in response to it but she would often bend escaping the touch (one of her nicknames was “Can’t touch this”). But recently, she’s almost three, she started liking petting the belly after she wakes up, and one time she surprised us when she hopped on my husband lap and curled to sleep - she’s never done that before. Of course we don’t want your girl hissing every time you come close, but I’m pretty sure time and patience and continuing what you’re doing will help her in being more relaxed around you.

Did you try to pet her when she’s deeply asleep? Does she wake up and hiss and escape as well?

And are you stressed by her behavior? If so, it’s not helping as cats are super sensitive to people’s emotions and it’s possible she’s picking up any stress she feels around her.

As for vet, I don’t know. I’d normally advice against taking cat that is not yet adjusted and comfortable with the owner, if the visit is not really medically needed, but in your case, it’s also somewhat possible that she reacts that way because she’s in pain.. which would make sense to be checked by the vet. You can talk to your vet and ask what they think. If you decide to take her, you can take the opportunity when she’ll be in the carrier to pet her. But retreat if that won’t relax her in any way.

 

[NovusAnimus]

Did you try to pet her when she’s deeply asleep? Does she wake up and hiss and escape as well?

And are you stressed by her behavior? If so, it’s not helping as cats are super sensitive to people’s emotions and it’s possible she’s picking up any stress she feels around her.

I can't attempt to pet her when she's in deep sleep because she only does this when under the bed or couch.

I'm stressed for a number of reasons, honestly, but I'm very, very good at not letting it affect my actions. My current circumstances will ease up in a few weeks, so maybe she'll feel it. Maybe not.

I've moved her scratching bed and food and water into a different place, the living room (she found them easily enough), and not in the direct line of walking path for anyone. She really, really hates it when I walk toward her, so maybe this will ease some of her stress.

 

[NovusAnimus]

... or not, because now she's sitting on the floor, 3 feet from me, where the scratching bed used to be, despite knowing where I moved it.

Dilemma.
Option 1) Hope she moves to new scratching bed spot.
Option 2) Bring it back, so she can hiss and run away from me each time I enter my bedroom like before.

 

[She's a witch]

Do you have any other cat bed or a simple cardboard box with a blanket? I’d put it in her old place and let her choose it.
Also, cats feel generally safer if they have a higher spot, so if you have any spare shelf for her that she can reach, she might appreciate it.

 

[NovusAnimus]

Do you have any other cat bed or a simple cardboard box with a blanket? I’d put it in her old place and let her choose it.
Also, cats feel generally safer if they have a higher spot, so if you have any spare shelf for her that she can reach, she might appreciate it.

I do have another cat bed. She doesn't use it, but I'll try it, put it there and put my t-shirt on it. She moved onto her cat tower in the living room anyway.

I swear, it's impossible to tell what this girl wants. She clearly doesn't like eating around me, because she gets extra skittish when eating. So I put her food down in the living room and sit 8 feet away. She looks at the food, looks at me, looks at the food, paws at the floor a couple times, comes up to me and touches my toe with her nose, before she walks away, ignoring the food.

 

[She's a witch]

Maybe she simply doesn’t like the food you offered her and looks at you asking for something else there are several reasons why cats try to cover their food, my cats mostly do it when they decide they don’t like it anymore. If you feed her the same food all the time, she may be bored with it already, as many cats would, so check if you can introduce her to something else she’d potentially like (actually it’s great to give kittens a variety so that she won’t be too picky when she’s grown up).

 

[NovusAnimus]

I meant more so how she can come up to me so readily in that circumstance, a 180' on her attitude if I even move two inches toward her.

 

[She's a witch]

Some cats that don’t like to be touched turn into loving, head butting cats when food is involved. Plus you’re not moving, she is, so it’s in her control and for some cats it’s really important.
If you lay flat on the floor for some time, would she come closer?

 

[NovusAnimus]

Some cats that don’t like to be touched turn into loving, head butting cats when food is involved. Plus you’re not moving, she is, so it’s in her control and for some cats it’s really important.
If you lay flat on the floor for some time, would she come closer?

Shrinking my size doesn't seem to make much of a difference, the only thing that does is movement. If I move toward her, she gets upset, ESPECIALLY if I'm behind her (she leaves the kitchen, I'm bringing food, she hisses because I'm behind her during this movement).

I managed to bring my hand in to almost touch her to give her a treat (I didn't touch her), when she was on her cat tower in my room. She's about 3 feet from me for this picture.

 

[NovusAnimus]

Don't worry about the garbage can, I only throw non-food items into that one since it's in my room. Plastic and stuff.

 

[NovusAnimus]

Day: 16
So this evening, I sat down on the floor with her bowl of food, and waited for her to come to me. She's quite comfortable eating like that, me sitting with the bowl against my legs, but this time, I showed her my hands, and gently brought them in toward her face, in her clear view.

Immediate hiss and her backing away.

We played this game for 30 minutes, her trying to get close to the bowl, and me trying to slightly pet her, but always making sure my hands were in clear view. No sneak pets. Often she gave up, sat about 1 foot away, and mewled sadly. I tapped on the food bowl, reminding her what was in it, and she'd try again. It took 30 minutes to be able to get the slightest touch, a gentle graze along the edge of the fur of her head, and her pushing her head against my hand to try and get underneath it to get some food before that.

So, progress. Minor, but it's something.

 

[Talien]

Have you considered getting her a playmate? Having another Kitten around could boost her confidence since she'd have someone to play with that isn't 20x her size. That and sometimes if a Cat sees you giving attention to another Cat they'll learn that it's something good and not something to be afraid of.

 

[NovusAnimus]

Have you considered getting her a playmate? Having another Kitten around could boost her confidence since she'd have someone to play with that isn't 20x her size. That and sometimes if a Cat sees you giving attention to another Cat they'll learn that it's something good and not something to be afraid of.

Alas, no, I couldn't afford another cat.