Savannah kitten anxious around visitors

A six-month-old Savannah during the socialisation window — this is actually a really important moment to get right. Savannahs are high-energy and highly perceptive, which means they pick up on strangers' energy faster than most breeds, and at this age their confidence is still being built. Cat anxiety is genuinely easy to underestimate because cats hide it so well — by the time you're seeing obvious signs, it's usually been brewing for a while. Pheromone-based products are the most effective calming tool available, but placement and timing matter a lot. To point you in the right direction: what are you actually seeing when visitors arrive — hiding, hissing, something else? And how long have you had her?

That pattern — completely settled with her core family but shutting down around new people — is classic for this age and this breed. It tells me her bond with you is solid, which is actually really good news. The challenge is that her threshold for stranger stress is low right now, and every time she bolts and hides for hours, that response gets reinforced. How often do you have visitors, and when they do come, do they try to approach her or do they mostly leave her alone?

Right, so the well-meaning coaxing is almost certainly making it worse — it removes her ability to choose her own pace, which is the one thing that would actually build confidence over time. The good news is you have a consistent enough visitor pattern to make a diffuser genuinely useful here. My recommendation is the Feliway Classic Starter Kit — the plug-in diffuser with the refill. It releases a synthetic version of the feline facial pheromone, the one cats deposit when they rub their face on things to mark somewhere as safe. Run it in the room where visitors most often gather, plug it in a few days before you expect guests if you can, and keep it running continuously rather than just on visit days. It won't sedate her or change her personality — it lowers the baseline stress response so she's less likely to tip into full panic. Alongside that, the single most important thing your guests can do is ignore her completely. No eye contact, no reaching out. If she approaches them on her own terms, even just sniffing a bag they've left on the floor, that's a genuine win at this age.

One diffuser covers roughly 70 square metres, so for most flats it's one room rather than the whole space. Put it in your main living area — wherever visitors spend most of their time. You don't need one in the bedroom where she hides; that's her retreat and it should stay neutral. If you have a larger open-plan space or a split-level layout, a second one might be worth it, but start with one in the social room and see how she responds after two to three weeks before adding anything else.

Most people notice a change within two to four weeks of consistent use — not a dramatic transformation, but you should see her taking slightly longer before she bolts, or coming out from hiding a bit sooner after visitors arrive. At six months she's still in a window where positive experiences with strangers can genuinely reshape her long-term confidence, so it's worth being patient and consistent. Keep the diffuser topped up monthly, keep guests briefed on the ignore-her approach, and let her set the pace. Savannahs that get this right at this age often become surprisingly sociable adults.