What should I do about my cat's behavior?

Question

My cat won't stop hissing at me! I have had her for 2 months and she was perfectly fine. Now she won't stop hissng at me. I went to a cat website that suggested spraying cats who misbehaved with water. I sprayed her & now she won't come from behind my washer.. :( What should I do?

Thank you to everyone for the great suggestions. My cat is 2 yrs old, female & I gave her treats & sat and played with her all the time. I came home from work Friday to play with her & she just started hissing. Her food, water & litter box is in the laundry room so she has come out to eat and use her litter box. I've tried to coax her out with treats but she hisses whenever she hears a sound now. She's even growling, before she'd always nuzzle & sit on my lapto play now she hates me!

Answer 1

has she been declawed since you got her??
declawed cats often hiss/bite etc.. and often become more paraniod..

spraying her will make her worse, you need to befriend this cat, hissing is a sign that they were not properly sociallized.... keep her in a smaller room so she cannot get away from you for long.. have dry food and water out all the time.. then force her to be held and offer her CANNED FOOD (small amount chicken and rice only) only when you are in the room with her and holding her.. so she gets to associate people with good things...

has she been checked by a veterinarian?? there might be some thing wrong with her.. is she adult or kitten?? more info might help

Answer 2

It really sounds like she is sick, or something happened that put her in a state of shock. I hate it when people say "spray it with water." That's just being nasty and worsens the situation. Is she an adult cat or kitten? Even if she won't come out from behind the washer, she still has to have food and water. I think try some TLC. One time when my cats were kittens, they were traumatized by a thunderstorm. They hid underneath a building for about 2 days and would not come out. No amount of coaxing would work. But hunger took over and they were fine. But they still run when they hear thunder. I make sure they are inside at the first sign of a storm. Good luck.

Answer 3

What you need to do is condition your cat to be around you with rewards.

Here is what you do. Get a box of treats. When you see your cat, sit down and shake the box of treats. Your cat should come running up to you. If not, go to the cat and give the cat a treat. Wait a few hours and do it again but this time wait a little bit longer before going to the cat and giving it a treat. Make it longer each time. After awhile the cat will get impatient and run up for a treat. After that, never go to the cat but make the cat come to you.

The next stage is to pet your cat. Shake the box and when the cat comes for the treat, pause a second and stroke his head briefly. Then give him the treat. Keep doing this over a number of days and weeks but pet your cat a little bit longer each time.

Next start picking up the cat and petting it without shaking the box. Then give the cat a treat. Do this for a number of days. Then, every once in awhile, pet the cat but don't give him a treat. Over a number of days, make the petting without a treat more and more the rule than the exception.

Your cat should be aclimatized to you and see you as a source of comfort, affection and being taken care of.

What's happened here is your cat has become unsocialize. That happens sometimes if the cat has been abused or left for long periods of time by himself or was separated from his mother and/or siblings at too young an age. The cat is basically insane and needs to be brought back into socialization with other creatures. If you put the cat with other cats or other animals, it would probably hiss at them or even hit them. After you get the cat bonded to you, this will be much less likely. Once bonded to you, your cat will take socialization cues from you. Cats think humans are other cats and react to us very much like that.

Answer 4

She is probably just angry... how long has she been hiding? What did your cat do to deserve being sprayed? Usualy this is a good technique to keep a cat off of certain furntiture or away from certain things in the home. If you sprayed her just for hissing thats kinda harsh and no wonder shes pissed at you. leave her alone for a day or so and if she doesnt come out talk to a vet. try to pet her and show her some affection, shes just scared your gonna spray her and thats why shes hiding probably.

Answer 5

Could just be her personality. My cat did it just because she was ornery. If she won't come out at ALL, then try one of the above suggestions. If she's in there only for a few hours, she's ok, just hiding. My cat did that to men when I had some people coming over and ran the vacuum...apparently, she didn't like it and opened a cupboard up in my kitchen and climbed on top of my pots and pans and up into the drawer to sleep until everyone left. Of course, I was in a panic...

Answer 6

There is a reason she is acting that way...out of fear or pain. Has someone else been around her lately that could be hurting her when you are not around? Or she may be sick or hurt. It is hard to tell without knowing the whole situation.
She apparently been traumatized so be gentle, patient and loving with her. Trying to punish her for trying to protect herself is not right. Spraying her will only make things worse. She needs to know that you or anyone else will not hurt her.
If company comes over put her in a room where she will safe and not bothered by people that she don't know. That will help too.

Answer 7

We had the exact same problem with one of our cats. Assuming your cat doesn't try and scratch you, put your hand against it's nose gently, and say "No." It will take a few times, and sometimes the cat will not totally stop, but the hissing won't happen as often. We got this tip from our vet.

Answer 8

Have you changed your perfume lately? Cats are sensitive to smells, and some perfume products have ingredients from animals' scent glands that drive cats nuts.

For the spraying technique to work, the cat shouldn't see you spray the water. When you see it doing something you don't want it to do, you sneaky spray it, so it doesn't know where it's coming from.

Answer 9

WOW, HOW LONG HAS SHE BEEN BEHIND THE WASHER? DOES SHE/HE COME OUT TO EAT/DRINK. LAY LITTLE TREATS BY THE WASHER AROUND IT WHERE SHE CAN COME OUT AND MAYBE JUST CALL HER GENTLY BY NAME.. MAYBE SHE DOESN'T LIKE YOU, DONT TAKE IT TO HEART, SOME PETS ARE THAT WAY, IF IT KEEPS UP MAYBE YOU NEED TO GET A NEW CAT, ONE THAT IS A KITTEN. SPRAYING WITH WATER IS WHAT MY NEIGHBOR DOES IF HER CAT GETS ON THE TABLE, THE CAT HAS LEARNED NOW THATS A NO NO.. GOOD LUCK TO YA..

Answer 10

My cat is the same way, I took her to the vet and they gave her a prescription for "happy pills" she took them for a few days and was back to normal. She has episodes now and then but those pills worked well. They're called Clomicalm.