Should I Hiss At My Cat – Behavior & Proper Interactions

Sometimes cat owners may feel a bit conflicted if their cat starts to misbehave or start to lash out at them. In these kinds of situations, some cat owners try anything just to get their cat to stop engaging in this undesirable behavior. Some even wonder; should I hiss at my cat?

You should not hiss as your cat. Although it is not necessarily bad to hiss at your cat, experts suggest that doing this is not the most effective mode of communication between a cat and its owner. 

Hissing at your cat can actually cause them to become more aggressive and not rectify the problem. Read on to learn more about how hissing can have a negative impact on your cat, and learn alternative ways to teach and discipline them.

Should I Hiss At My Cat When He Bites? 

It is not recommended that you hiss at your cat when he is biting you. This is because hissing does not necessarily communicate to your cat that you do not like something that they are doing. Instead, cat owners should assess the reason why their cat is biting them and react accordingly from there. 

For example, some cats will bite their owners when they are playing and if they get overstimulated. These situations should be handled differently from cat biting due to fear or anxiety. If you do not like your cat biting you during playtime, then it is recommended that you use cat toys when you play with them. This way, the cat will bite on and lunge at the toy instead of you. 

For overstimulated cats, it is best to take a short break from petting. This will allow your cat to calm down a bit. However, biting due to fear or anxiety is more serious. In this situation, it is best to find out what kinds of interaction your cat likes and refrain from doing things that they do not like. You may also want to take your cat to the vet if they are biting out of fear, as this can sometimes be a sign that they are in pain. 

Is It OK To Hiss At Your Cat? 

To put it simply, yes, it is ok to hiss at your cat. However, you should not expect hissing at your cat to really get any results. This is because, even though hissing at your cat is not necessarily bad, it is not an effective mode of communication between cats and humans. Just like how nothing will happen when you meow at your cat, it is most likely that nothing will change when you hiss at your cat. 

Should I Hiss At My Kitten? 

Hissing at a kitten and an adult cat is likely to get similar results. Although hissing is not an effective way to communicate with a kitten, it is not likely to scare them too much. As a result, you do not need to worry about frightening a kitten by hissing at them most of the time. However, there are much better ways to communicate with a kitten and correct their undesirable behavior. 

Do Cats Understand Punishment?

Even though it may seem to the untrained eye, cats do not understand punishment in the way that some people think they do. This is why cat behavior experts suggest that cat owners should refrain from doing things like spraying their cats with a spray bottle and rubbing their noses in accidents. 

Although using a spray bottle or yelling at your cat may appear to work because they tend to run away, the cat is most likely running away because they are annoyed or afraid of you and not because they know that their behavior was bad. It is suggested that cats do not understand punishments in this way. 

How To Stop Bad Behavior In Cats 

At this point, many of you may be wondering how to stop bad behavior in cats if they do not understand punishments in the way that some people previously thought that they do. Even though punishing a cat is not necessarily the best way to get your point across, cat owners should still refrain from letting bad behavior from their cats slide. 

When it comes to punishing bad behavior in cats, cat behaviorist experts claim that removing your attention from your cat can be more effective than actively punishing them. For example, if your cat starts to bite you during playtime, then it is best to remove yourself from the situation. This way, the cat slowly learns over time that biting during playtime makes it stop. 

Of course, it is also a good idea to set up your cat’s environment to prevent them from engaging in destructive behavior. A good example of this is providing a scratching post to prevent a cat from scratching up the furniture. Similarly, it is also best if you pair these two things with praising and encouraging good behavior when your cat engages in it. This way, cats can loosely learn what their owner would like them to do instead of the undesirable behavior. 

Things To Consider 

You may want to consider some other things when it comes to if cat owners should hiss at their cats. These include knowing what hissing in cats means and what happens if a person hisses at a cat. Knowing these two things could help understand what is going on with a cat and how to go about remedying some kinds of cat behaviors. Here are some things to consider about people hissing at cats. 

What Does Hissing In Cats Mean? 

When a cat hisses, they communicate that they are unhappy about something. Usually, a cat hisses when they are nervous, anxious, or scared. However, cats can also hiss when they are in pain or feel sick. It is also important to note that hissing is commonly a precursor to aggressive behavior when not listened to. As a result, it is always best to back off from a cat when they hiss to prevent them from scratching or biting you.  

What Happens If A Person Hisses At A Cat?

Although a cat’s reaction to hissing may change slightly depending on the situation, it is most likely that nothing will happen when a cat owner hisses at their cat. However, there can be a lot of variables in addition to different situations though. For example, some cats may be more responsive and talkative than others. Hissing at a cat is not likely to communicate much to them, and it is not an effective form of correcting bad behavior in cats, though.