# A few behaviour questions



## Furrball (Mar 13, 2011)

My kitten growls and hisses when he has a particularly tasty meal. He's an only cat and his growling is directed at me if I come too close! He also growls and hisses if he has one toy and happens to be near another toy, or if another toy is offered to him? He's my first kitten (well he's 6 months old) and I can't find help on this behaviour directed toward the owner, only to other cats.

Also, for those with indoor cats, how long did it take for your cats to grow out of racing out of open doors? He has a harness and leash but I've decided against letting him out alone as there are far too many idiots around me that have abused other cats. 

Other than the above he's a really lovely kitten and I'm currently trying to toilet train him with a litter kwitter. Oh and for those dreading the upcoming summer with indoor cats, I picked up some Flat Cats today and they're bloody brilliant, so make sure you don't boil to death and order yourself some! I even got one custom made to cover the patio door.


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## buffie (May 31, 2010)

Hi welcome to the forum.Has he always displayed this type of behaviour or is it something which has developed recently.Has he been neutered,if not he is at the age where it needs to be done to stop him wanting to spray,go wandering ,looking for females and can cause aggression in some.This may also be behind his desire to rush out the door.


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## Furrball (Mar 13, 2011)

Hi, he was neutered (and chipped, just in case) back in January so he shouldn't have the urge to find a mate or claim a territory! He's more or less shown this behaviour since he settled in with us.


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## lymorelynn (Oct 4, 2008)

Was he from a large litter? He may have had to fight for his share of the food and hasn't learnt that it's all his now. I have had kittens that do this towards their litter mates but always try to intervene so that they do not leave me with the same bad manners. Growling over tasty food is quite common. I would just leave him to eat his meal alone and quietly so that he isn't worrying that someone is going to take it away. 
Taking him outside on a harness is a good idea. If you can a cat run in the garden would be better. As for making a dash for the open door I think he should grow out of it but perhaps not for quite some time. Some cats just see an open door as an opportunity to be nosey - it doesn't matter where the door leads to.
My own cat now knows the command 'stay' when I open a door, though I wouldn't risk leaving it open for longer than a few moments.


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## Furrball (Mar 13, 2011)

Actually no, he was from a mere litter of three (him being the middle child) but did display some aggressive behaviour to his siblings and mum when being fed as a young kit too. I suppose it's just his personality! I'm hoping he will grow out of it, if we give him a bit of chicken to munch on he does get very possessive of it even if we aren't even paying attention to him and just happen to be walking past or standing near to him.

I'm glad to hear that he should (hopefully!) grow out of the dashing, he comes to 'greet' me when I come home from work but part of me thinks he's just dashing down the stairs to try his luck for the front door! He does similar when I leave my bedroom ... I have rodents in there!


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## Sparkles87 (Aug 30, 2010)

Hello and welcome to the forum!
My kitten is 7 months old (my word the time goes so fast) and has been known to give a wee growl to my OH on occasion if he goes too close to him when he's eating something he particularly likes (such as fish or raw meat). Funnily enough he doesn't do this with me but it's as though he thinks OH is going to attempt to steal it from him or something. 
I wouldn't worry too much about it; as lymorelynn said, it isn't that uncommon. 

I'm not sure about the running out the door thing. William (my kitten) hates to be on the wrong side of any door as he seems to think he's missing out on something meaning he follows us from room to room all the time, but he doesn't attempt to get out the house when we leave. It is probably much the same thing though - like a child your kitten simply doesn't want to miss out anything. 

Have you got any pictures of him? It's an unwritten forum rule :001_smile:


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## Furrball (Mar 13, 2011)

Ask and you shall receive  My fave photo.










William sounds very like my kitten, he follows me around like a puppydog. Rarely wanders off independantly - unless an outside door is open!


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## gskinner123 (Mar 10, 2010)

What a beautiful, wistful looking kitten 

Hope you don't mind me being cheeky as I can't really offer any advice on his little growling problem (one of mine does that too and we do our best to ignore her!) but can I ask - did you put up your screen on the patio door yet and, if so, are you pleased with it? We've just had the downstairs of our cottage made more open plan and with a litter of kittens running round I know we're going to bake in our south facing kitchen/diner this summer. I was about to order a stupidly expensive 'roll out' screen for the French doors but...


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## lymorelynn (Oct 4, 2008)

What a sweetie :001_wub: I love his little nose


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## Sparkles87 (Aug 30, 2010)

Awww he is so beautiful, I love his colouring :001_wub: Glad that I asked now  William is a little McGinger, although he finds the term strawberry blonde far less offensive. 

Aww bless his paws! I love having William as my wee shadow, although it would be nice to get the occasional shower in peace


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## buffie (May 31, 2010)

What a little stunner :thumbup: he is gorgeous :001_wub:


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## Furrball (Mar 13, 2011)

Thanks for all the compliments! Unfortunately he knows how adorable he is, so he's basically got us wrapped around all four of his paws.

Yes gskinner123, I put it up not long after I came home with them and it seems great, I've not trimmed the velcro yet and not trialled it with the door open (too cold!! brr!) but it seems to withstand me pressing against it. The guy that makes them, Dominic, showed me some of his window Flat Cats that have been scaled by his cats when they were younger so it should be able to handle your kittens! I'm really chuffed with them to be honest, it's taken a huge weight off my mind for the summer and Dom is still honouring his 50% off for users of the pet forums if you ask.


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## Jansheff (Jan 31, 2011)

I've got indoor cats and would never dare to leave a door open with them around. Luckily on both the front and back we have a porch, so we can shut ourselves in there before opening the door to the outside.

I'd never heard of flat cats, so I just googled them. They look great, but unfortunately I live in a Victorian house with sash windows and can't see how they'd work on them.


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## Gratch (Aug 22, 2010)

Hiya, when I got my boy Kerry he was the same. He would growl at Gratch and bully her away from her food and at OH if he got too close. I was very suprised as I hadn't seen this before and was indignant on Gratch's behalf (OH can fend for himself) and started lifting his food when he was being bad and putting it back down when he settled. He quickly learned some manners.


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## Furrball (Mar 13, 2011)

Jansheff, it might be worth contacting Dom, he may have some advice for you with the sash windows, my windows are a bit old fashioned and he was able to advise me on how to modify them slightly so I could fit the flat cats. 

Thanks for the advise Gratch, he actually tends to growl more if we're preparing it on the top (i.e. cutting up large lumps) than when he's eating it but I've been petting and talking to him while he eats and he doesn't seem as fussed, although it's only really over certain yummy foods!


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## elizabeth-davies099 (Mar 20, 2011)

hi i have a male kitten which is 7 months old i also have his sister, but he is scared of every thing, the only time he comes over to me is when i show him food or a piece of meat, but his sister is fine she all ways comes up to me and she all ways loves to play, but even when i go to pick him up or walk over to him he throws him self to the floor and plays dead, im just worried that he wont get use to human interaction, the thing about both of them is that they were both Feral cats.


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## whitehouse19 (Feb 4, 2011)

I know this probably won't be much help but I just thought I'd post this as it might put your mind at ease a bit. I have a kitten who is around 8 months now and he displayed the same behaviour. I do have other cats, but he would growl and hiss at things when there was no one near him e.g. he is fed apart from the rest as he is on kitten food. As soon as I made a noise checking on him he would growl, or he would growl at random things - toys, shadows etc.

This is changing slowly but surely and he only seems to growl now when I feed him a treat when we have had our dinner. 

I was worried about it at first as I thought he was going to become an aggressive cat but he is growing out of it!


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## debbie29 (Feb 6, 2011)

Furrball said:


> Thanks for all the compliments! Unfortunately he knows how adorable he is, so he's basically got us wrapped around all four of his paws.
> 
> Yes gskinner123, I put it up not long after I came home with them and it seems great, I've not trimmed the velcro yet and not trialled it with the door open (too cold!! brr!) but it seems to withstand me pressing against it. The guy that makes them, Dominic, showed me some of his window Flat Cats that have been scaled by his cats when they were younger so it should be able to handle your kittens! I'm really chuffed with them to be honest, it's taken a huge weight off my mind for the summer and Dom is still honouring his 50% off for users of the pet forums if you ask.


I'm going to be ordering mine tonight!! I have been searching for a solution to stop Reggie from trying to jump from our bedroom window onto our conservatory roof when the weather gets nicer and I want the windows open. He has a habit of doing exactly what I don't want him to!

Thanks for the recommendation Furrball, they look brilliant!


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## Furrball (Mar 13, 2011)

You're very welcome! I'm trying out the patio cover today as the weather is so lovely, my kitty initially was rather confused and kept trying to jump through it and scaled it once but quickly settled down to watch the birds in the garden! Very happy with my flat cat things!


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