How normal is my cat???

Hi, I'm a new cat owner. My cat's name is Delia and she's 1 1/2 years old now. I got her when she was only 8 weeks old.

I have a problem with her getting along with company that comes over to my apartment (which is fairly often). She seems to deal with 2 or 3 people in the room just fine, but as soon as more people come she starts to get neurotic and hisses at almost anyone that tries to touch her. She also will bat at them with her paw but she NEVER has used her claws to try and hurt anyone nor does she bite. She's just EXTREMELY vocal about her dislike or discomfort. I don't know what to do about it... with me and my roommate, she's totally at peace. She just refuses to trust any strangers at all it seems. Any advice on how I can get her to calm down?

Oh, also, she has a habit of wanting to suck on my ear lobes when she is snuggling. I would have thought she'd outgrown this by now... is this normal? Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

The suckling is normal. Was she a rescue? This can cause suckling (an anxiety behaviour). She'll probably grow out of it eventually.

Secondly, is she spayed? This will help her behaviour immeasurably. Do people approach her when they come over? This will probably overwhelm and frighten her. She needs to be ignored, and desensitized to these situations.

Perhaps have a separate place for her with toys, litter and a little food when people come around where you can put her so she doesn't freak out. One of my cats does this too when there's people over. She flounces around in a huff yelling her head off until they leave ... lol

Having treats for her when people come over could help her associate visitors with a good thing, but some cats are just shy, and like their people only, and don't like anyone else. She's also probably learnt that she'll get a reaction from you if she plays up, so you need to ignore her, too. Don't punish her, but perhaps some alone time when you have guests wouldn't hurt, as long as she has stuff to do. You can get her used to this by putting her in a separate room for a few minutes at a time, when there's no one over, and building it up gradually, so she doesn't associate alone time with a punishment.

It's overwhelming for her having too many people in the house from the sounds of it, because Rosie can be very timid as well although she's 3 years old now, but she was fine as a kitten.

I would say if your having a few guests around to put her in another room with some food, water, toys etc... that way she'll soon snuggle down for the night

And as for the suckling, that sounds normal, and it's so sweet!!