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Question about 6 week old kitty behavior??

post #1 of 5
1/25/11 at 11:01am
Thread Starter 
Hello,

We are currently fostering a 6 week old kitten (un-neutered male kitten) which we have received about 4 days ago and have some questions about his behavior. As a background, we fostered 3 kittens (all at one time) previously and had a wonderful experience and noticed a significant difference between those 3 and the new cat.

We don't know the history of this cat, but we think he must have been a stray because of his behavior. This kitten is very sweet and is snugly, but suddenly "hisses" whenever he is scared (he will quickly snap out of it back into his playful ways). Also, as we tried to feed him some chicken last night, so we broke it small pieces and placed it on napkin for him to eat it. Then we tried to move the napkin and he started making this weird aggressive noise and then started hissing... basically, he was protecting his food (we never heard the 3 other kittens hiss in 3 months!). As well, the kitten even hisses or makes a popping sound at our dog whenever she comes close. Our dog is sweet as can be and was adored by the 3 previous cats.

We have a couple of questions...
1) how do we stop this type of behavior in the cat?
2) will this continue for the rest of its life?

Thanks in advance
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post #2 of 5
1/25/11 at 11:19am
He's a tiny baby, he spooks easy because he doesn't have his mother or siblings to give him any confidence boost.

As for the food issues, that's normal for baby kittens when it's something like that.

He will grow out of these behaviors provided that you socialize him with care to humans and other animals.
The food issue should go away on it's own once he discovers no one really wants his food.
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post #3 of 5
1/25/11 at 7:41pm
I think he's growling with the food as a warning that it's his, and he isn't going to share. He doesn't realize yet that no one is going to steal his food.
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post #4 of 5
1/26/11 at 9:53am
Attitude acted like that with a toy, hissing and growling and not wanting to share when she was right around that age. She had a mother, aunt, grandmother, and 8- 11 other kittens to share food with so she knew not to get hot and bothered over food because she had to share. The spider toy however was HERS and no one else could have it.

She matured and was more than willing to share toys with Nuts once they were moved inside.

Right now the dog is a huge threat and he thinks you want his food. He'll calm down as he gets used to his surroundings and realizes the dog isn't going to eat him and no one wants his food.

Taryn
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post #5 of 5
1/26/11 at 10:07am
This is typical behavior whether its a ferel or one that was born in your house. I've had purebred kittens go thru the "hissing" and "its mine" stage when introducing them to shredded chicken. Its funny as heck to me.

They grow out of it. The hissing at other times is probably due to not living in a warm house and having to be on alert or defense outside.

One other thing, in a few weeks work on nail trimming weekly so by the time he's ready to go, he will be used to getting his nails cut.
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