Cat we have rehomed hissing at us

[why100000]

She must be scared - she is 6 years old and has lived all her life so far with her previous owners.

Now she is in a completely different environment with strangers - it must be terrifying.

Is this why she is hissing at us repeatedly, or is it because she is underlyingly aggressive?

She has a whole room to herself at the moment, with everything she needs in it, and we go in every so often to visit. When she feels more confident we will give her the run of the house.

What can we do? It’s a bit scary to be honest as the other cat who has spent a lot of time at our house (that we looked after for a friend) never hissed once, and was pretty good natured.

We need to take her to the vet to get her registered, but tbh I am scared to try and pick her up.

Have we made a mistake if I can’t even cope with hissing .

Any advice welcome. She is half tabby, half siamese and looks really switched on.

What a pretty cat! I'm sure she will settle in and it will be fine.

When we got our rescue cat he was terrified. He hid under a cupboard for weeks and hissed if we came in the room. I used to lie on the floor nearby, reading out loud and pretending to ignore him.

Then when he did come out he was quite bitey and scratchy. I was a bit scared of him, and really worried he was going to be a horrible cat who hated us and would attack the kids. I might have actually cried about it at one point.

Anyway it didn't take him long to calm down and he is now a calm, soppy, cuddly boy. He is so tolerant of the children too!

It sounds like she’s decided your youngest is her human and is playing with her.

Our cat won’t always play with dh as he’s a mommas boy.

Hi all
I wanted to let you all know that the cat (Silver - that’s the name she has had since she was a kitten) is hissing a lot less and definitely settling in.

Here she is chilling on my son’s bed.

She was well hidden in the house yesterday, to the point that dd was convinced she had escape. Only to appear later. Where do they hide ?

escaped

Mine go in the wardrobes or under the bed

Plus I have never known a cat to drink so much water. It’s probably because her owners were only feeding her dry biscuits, with the occasional packet of wet food. Not sure why?

Can anyone recommend good wet food?

Zooplus do a lot of good stuff, filter by grain free
Offhand I can think of thrive, Lily's kitchen, natures menu, meowing heads

Awww she has settled in rather fast. How lovely. Keep an eye on her water intake and let the vet know of any abnormalities when you eventually make it there - you dont want to destroy this newly-won trust yet. Cats often have kidney issues, hopefully Silver won’t have.

Oh! She looks to be at least part Bengal? In which case all normal cat rules go out the window 😂

I think it was a bit of a mistake to keep them in the one room to start with. When you entered you were only ever going to be seen as an unpredictable threat.
Keep on with the treats. Cats don’t hiss at dispensers of treats for long and as you gain trust they will probably start to be happy with stroking. Not all cats enjoy being picked up though so play that by ear.

I'm glad Silver is feeling a bit more at home! Our two rescues took about 2 weeks to start coming out of their shells and stop hiding so much. Now they won't leave us alone! Hope you have many happy years with her

Thank you .

Yes I do agree that keeping her closed in that room at first didn’t help.

Could she be half Bengal half Tabby, instead of half Siamese, half Tabby as her owners said?

Aww. I’m so happy to read this.

Could she be half Bengal half Tabby, instead of half Siamese, half Tabby as her owners said?

I don't really know enough to know the answer to that I'm afraid, could be Siamese X and that's where the unusual tabby colour is from. Might be interesting for you to read up about Siamese and see if they have any personality and behaviour quirks that you notice in her :) Glad she's settling in :)