Tips needed for taming semi-feral kittens

[Imp]

I have had several feral cats over the past 12 years. Took them in from 2 weeks to many years old. They all reached some level of tameness. The preceeding advice was all good. I think you have a good chance at success with these kittens. They are already semi tamed. Might take a few weeks to a few months.

Imp

 

[silkydragon]

dont stick youre hand in that crate without a glove.....ive learned the hard way after catching a few feral cats by hand....they dont like humans

 

[snowhorse]

My vet told me, their personality is genetically predisposed and there is only little we can do to change that.

I had to agree with him, I didn't at first because I thought with love and time you could change anything.

A cat had kitten's in my handicapped aunt's shed. And she asked to me to help her get them out of her shed. There was 5 kittens and the momma.

I caught all 5 kittens and havahart trapped the mom.

Mom was waaaaay too ferral to do anything with, so we had her spayed and let her go in the area where she had been living all these years just fine.

The kittens were maybe 4 or 5 weeks old and very very ferral. Now I thought for sure at this age it would be easy to turn them around. I was wrong.

2 out of the 5 seemed to be more friendly from the start. The other 3 were always terrified and one always hissed at you. And when anyone new came into the house, we no longer had 5 kittens until they were gone.

I took one of the 2 that seemed to be most friendly. He hid underneath my claw foot bathtub for 2 months. Came out to eat and night and that was it. He slowly came around as my other cats where very friendly and I think he played off of them. It probably took him 2 years to come fully around. He now is the most friendly cat I have, BUT only to me and my boyfriend and select few people he has decided are okay. He sits on my lap, comes into bed with us, and constantly will talk to you for attention and pats. He is awesome. But when someone new comes in, he is gone and does not come out until he is sure they are gone. He screams all the way to the vet and shakes when we take him out, and I can not move him to another home even for an overnight, he gets diarhea he gets so out of sorts.

He is the best out of all 5.

The other one that was somewhat friendly on his own, got out of the house. We saw him the next day, but after that he was gone and we never saw him again.

I found a home for one, and she does okay with her owner but its similar to the one I kept, but seems to be even nervous with her at times if she gets up to fast or moves too quickly.

The other 2 are still at my dad. One of them is somewhat friendly and will let my and I and occasionally my boyfriend pat her, and she sees us on a daily basis.

The other one is still ferral. Will not let anyone pat him and our vet had to catch him with a rabies pole the day we brought him to get nuetered.

My suggestions for you would be to spay or neuter as soon as possible. The boy will start to spray the house! And if you have more than one that is ferral, they seem to play off each other. We had better luck with the cats that we seperated from the litter. They do better on their own, and better with someone that has a cat that is friendly towards people.

 

[RiverOtter]

I do mine a little different, and they always come out very lovey.
First, a few days of lunch meat won't hurt them. Get a comfy chair with arms and a back (no gaps) and some sliced turkey. If you have food in the cage all the time, take it out, you're going to do at least 2 meals a day, 3 is better. So 2/3 times a day you are going to scruff the cat, get in the comfy chair and stick your butt way over to the side so the cat can sit on the chair next to and kind of behind you (promptly unscruff, lol). Put a slice of turkey right in front of kitty's face. Hold it, don't put it down, food comes from your hand.

Just hang out. Move very little. Keep one hand, full of turkey (or hotdogs, or similar) in front of the cat's face to keep it from bolting. It may take a half hour or more for the cat to relax enough to eat. YOU just stay relaxed and as still as possible while not letting kitty bolt. Talk if you want to. Once kitty has eaten, pick it up (gently as possible, firmly as necessary) and put it back in the cage.

After kitty has relaxed with this routine enough to begin to eat promptly (usually 2 or 3 meals) what you're going to do is feed with one hand, pet with the other. Remember, all kitty's food has come while snuggled next to you in the chair, surrounded by your body, your breathing, your scent. You are going to slowly feed and gently pet kitty until she starts to purr. Even the most nervous cat will purr in less then an hour, to release tension if nothing else. Let kitty purr for a minute, then back to the cage.

After a week of this, most cats will begin to purr as soon as they see you. This gets cats very tame very quickly. It seems to me, that when you try the slow method, where you talk to the cat for 10 minutes at a time, you just scare them for 10 minutes at a time, then go away. They take forever to go past that fear and realize that even though you've frightened them 10 times a day for 10 minutes at a time, nothing bad has happened.
With this, while the cat is petrified a couple of times, they have the time they need to relax, realize that not only does nothing bad happen, but you always bring good things.

btw, I've done this with cats so feral that when caught they screamed, bit, clawed and released picky glands. One such cat is the first to greet people at my house and rides around on my shoulders like a live scarf. Another was adopted into a lively household and is the ruler of 3 boys who adore her. When they get over the fear, they do it completely.

edited; Picky glands?? LOL the filter. In other words, did you know a cat can stink like a skunk if they freak enough? 'Cause they can.

 

[Imp]

btw, I've done this with cats so feral that when caught they screamed, bit, clawed and released picky glands. One such cat is the first to greet people at my house and rides around on my shoulders like a live scarf. Another was adopted into a lively household and is the ruler of 3 boys who adore her. When they get over the fear, they do it completely.

So True!


The first feral I took in was like this. I spent a few months coaxing it out from under the neighbors deck. I said "It's OK" so often that it's name became OK. It slowly came out from under, then sat on the deck, then came a few feet towards me, then came up to the fence, then came into my yard, then would eat food, then would eat at my feet, then woulds let me touch it, Then one night in September I was in bed and I heard it crying in the dark, so I got up and opened the door- It didn't hesitate a second- ran inside to the guest bedroom and hid under the bed. My dad was visiting at the time, but wasn't home. I left a note on the bed saying "OK is under the bed- good luck"

. The next morning OK was a lap cat. The smartest cat I've ever known. Unfortuanately he only lived a few years, I still miss him.

Imp​

 

[gritsar]

The first thing Kitty did when I caught her, which took all day and required lots of tempting foods, was to take a chunk out of my thumb with her little baby needle teeth.

Little twerp will still bite me if I try to love on her when she doesn't want me to.

 

[hollyclyff]

RiverOtter - your method sounds interesting, but I can't work out how I can do that in my barn - no comfy furniture - it doesn't even have electricity. And I can't bring these kittens in the house because my husband has severe cat allergies and they're meant to be barn cats.

Snowhorse - they're both girls and they're already spayed, so no worries there.

I put some tuna on a plate today and put it in the crate with them and went to the other side of the tack room and sat on the floor reading a book for a half hour this afternoon. They never moved - just looked at the tuna, but made no move to eat it. Finally I had to leave to go pick up my daughter from school. I took the tuna with me.

I'll keep working on it. They just look so scared - poor things. I'm no cat expert, so all the advice from you guys is most welcome.

 

[RiverOtter]

Hollyclyff - anywhere you can kind of corner the cat with your body. Hmmm, don't know if I'm describing it well. When I sit in the chair, if the cat wants to retreat from my hand, it presses into my side or behind my back, if it wants to retreat from my body, the only place it can move is towards my hand.
It should be easy to set up a couple of haybales.
I once did this the first time with a very scared, undersized 12 week barn kitty by shoving it in my coat very quickly. She could only get away from my hand by pressing into my body, that and the sausage I was going to have for lunch and she was all over me purring in 20 minutes. She only took a couple of sessions before she was a total mush.

Basically, they are terrified of you, You are totally immersing them in you for a long enough time that they begin to calm down and look around and only good things happen. Nothing can maintain that state of terror forever. The kitten above went from freezing and starving to warm and fed. If I had tossed her some food and went away, in her mind it would have been
"Here's that scary giant!! I smell food, I'm so hungry, but that scary giant will eat me! Wait, it's going away, is it far enough that I can grab it?"

When I pick her up and shove her in my coat, she was terrified, in her mind, the worst has happened, I've eaten her. And slowly it dawns on them that they're not hurt at all. And they're warm. And there's a scary hand, but it's holding out ... FOOD!!!
And they start to think, what on earth was I scared of? This ROCKS!

 

[Imp]

That's such a great description River Otter.

Imp