Anyone ever tamed a wild kitten?

[1acrefarm]

My cat got run over a few months back and I noticed his girlfriend (a wild stray) being followed around by a kitten. Once this kitten is weaned I plan to try to trap it and try to tame it. Being that it is most likely my cats offspring it is kind of a sentimental project, Would it be possible to tame a housecat born in the wild?

 

[babyspice35]

Yeah. We have a lot of feral cats here and my friends mom catches, tames, and puts them in homes.

I asked her how she did it and she said the first step is to catch them [good luck] let them calm down, then wrap them in a towel tightly and just hold them.

 

[quail newbie]

My brother did this with his cat manfred. They locked him in the bathroom and they hand fed him, nothing out of a dish for the first few weeks so he came to trust people. He was probably 8 weeks old at the time and he became quite friendly.

 

[babyspice35]

Also, my other friend acquired her cat this way... but instead of the other accelerated way, she started feeding her, getting more and more friendly, letting her into her house and finally keeping her in the house. It was a slow process however, It took I think at least 4 months.

 

[kezabel]

Yes my Dad did tame a wild cat. It was a manx cat(no tail) and he found her and the other kittens living in a log. He took her home and she became tame but not very friendly with us kids( but we were only young) She would only go to my father but she had kittens and her young were so affectionate

 

[Livinzoo]

I caught and tamed a wild kitten. He was about 10 weeks old. Looked like a strawberry point Siamese, wasn't pure. I told my boyfriend I was going to go catch the kitten and if he heard me pounding on the door with my head to let me in. I sat down cross-legged with a can of food at my knee. My head down watching him out of the corner of my eye. He came up looked at me. Tasted the food looked at me and went for the food again. I knew I had to be quick. So I grabbed his scruff and lifted him of the ground as I quickly stood up. I grabbed his hind legs with my other hand. Ran through the garage and beat on the door with my head. No answer. Beat again. Nothing. So I try to hit the garage door button with my elbow. Dropped the scruff accidentally. Luckily I had pants on so the bite and scratch left bruises only. Opened the door and grabbed the scruff again. Finally boyfriend shows up. I but the kitten in the bathroom where he lived for about 3 weeks. I brought him canned food several times a day and would attempt to pet him as he ate. Finally he tamed down.

Good luck with your stray.

 

[19sarah90]

I tamed a full-grown wild cat once though. He stayed outside and was free to come and go as he pleased, but he went from "I'll only eat that food once you go back inside your house and settle for watching me from your bedroom window" to "love me, pet me, i wanna play...". He loved my then-four-year-old sister and would curl up on her lap and give her kisses. It took him exactly two months to let us get close enough to touch him and maybe another couple weeks before he trusted us wholeheartedly. I think maybe he had a family once but had a rough life thereafter or something... he sure was a sweetheart! Lyle was his name... a beautiful (once he got some meat on his bones) gray tiger.

You sure can tame that kitten!

 

[gritsar]

Kitty was a 3 - 4 week old feral when some of my co-workers discovered her living under a storage shed at the group home where I worked. I used to work a 24 hr. shift and I spent all day trying to get her to come out from under that shed using every kind of delicacy I could find in the pantry with no luck.
After dark she ventured closer to the house, crying non-stop for her mom. I opened the door just a crack and stood behind it imitating a mama cat's cries - much to the amusement of the residents.

It took about an hour but she finally cautiously came inside the door, following the cries. When she did I slammed the door and grabbed her at the same time. I got a bit for my troubles.

I wrapped her in a towel and the residents took turns holding her. I got permission from my DH to bring her home the next day, just for a FEW days while I tried to find her a home. That was three years ago.
She lived outside at first and would only come to my DH. Now she's an inside cat, but still disappears when anyone comes to visit. She's gotten a little better about not freaking out around our grown daughters, but still prefers my DH over anyone else.
Great mouser, but still can't be trusted around my chickens.

 

[helmstead]

Our cat Ezra was a feral kitten, about 10 weeks old when we got her. She hid for several days, then started coming around. Now she's really sweet.

 

[Ducklove334]

MUCH easier to tame a tiny kitten.

I've NEVER had luck with feral adults, or older kittens, theres just NO trust usually, and even so if you do they stay simi-wild, very timid and can easily bite.

a friend had a "tame" cat he cought at about 4 months old, it lived in garage so it'd have space to itself but he sat with it every day, fed it, after a few months it would let him get within 10 feet, the next year the cat came into heat and got out of the garage...was gone for several weeks, my friend thought he'd lost her, 3 months later the cat came back to the house, 3 tiny little 8 week old kittens following her, she parked herself infront of the door and SCREAMED, until he opened it, she marched right in, the kittens followed, she was as tame as any human tamed cat you'll ever see after that, the kittens, never so much..

my cat, well he adopted our neighbors and lives over there, but he was born to my cat jasmine, he was a feral kitten about 8 weeks old when my mom cought him and brought him to me, and said "here, tame it", she was COVERED in scratches on her hands and arms LOL

he crawled up my should and parked himself, growling every time I moved. he's now 2 years old and is the SWEETEST cat.


if you can tame the kitten while it's young, it'll be easier

ETA: they say theres a window to tame feral kittens, it's usually between 10 days-about 6 weeks, thats when trust is built in kittens, thats the time they learn to fully trust their mothers, after that they know who they can trust, who they can't if they don't know, they don't trust.