Trapping and taming feral kittens

[Akane]

Alot of humane societies or other rescues and even some veterinarians will have live traps they can loan you. For cats it's uncommon to have to build or buy your own trap. Lots of people are more than willing to loan you one in the interest of lessening the problem of overpopulation.

good Purina kitty food

Purina and good food do not go in the same sentence. Midgrade brands are also way overpriced. Wellness is 10 times the quality at a little over $2/lb which is the same if not cheaper than purina one depending exactly which formula and it's pretty common in petstores. We've also used 2 grain free dry foods which cost less than either of those by up to a $1/lb, Taste of the wild and Before Grain. It's becoming easier and easier to find good quality foods at reasonable prices so long as you shop somewhere other than a grocery store.


If you turn them back outside it's pretty much guranteed they will never be tame enough to find a home unless you have an extreme amount of time on your hands to sit there with them. I haven't seen a kitten yet (even the shyest and hardest to catch) that couldn't be 100% tamed by a week or so indoors with people. We've even tamed a few adult ferals well enough that they didn't mind being around people and some didn't mind being touched. You have to give them no option though. Letting them continue to avoid you outside and get the food after you've left will only ensure that nothing but the boldest get very tame. After they've been caught once they'll also be even more wary and if you don't know what your doing you could end up going backward and making cats that avoid people at all costs. Bringing them indoors where they can't avoid you and you don't have to coax them to you every day makes it a whole lot less time consuming and fool proof.​

 

[aubreynoramarie]

i adopted my first feral kitten when i was 18 years old and living in my first apartment. he would hide all day and cry ALL night, i didnt sleep for weeks. finally i woke up one morning to find him no wheer. the screen on my living room window was missing. i went to investigate to find him being eaten by pigeons four stories below on the sidewalk. He tried to jump out...obviously... i cried for months. feral cats are hard to tame and should be left as barn cats unless they have someone who can dedicate the time to tame them.

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[nop169]

Around 12 years ago in our community, the county still used "green boxes" for trash collection at points around the county. The feral cat population was absolutely appalling.... we were active in our local humane society & decided to try & trap, spay/neuter & place as many as possible.... the kittens responded well but adults did not & after 1 month we had euthanized over 80 cats - which really depressed us... so we decided to trap/spay or neuter & re-release the adult feral cats back to their respective areas. There were mixed feelings about this for several reasons such as health of these animals, automobile casulties & injuries, Felv (leukemia) & FIP outbreaks in these wild colonies which infected local pets & the effect of the feral cats on the environment (killers of birds/bugs/rabbits).... but we could not handle the grief of euthanizing any more since these animals were "free" & used to their feral lifestyle - who's to say they are not happy living the only way they could? So we altered & re-release but often carried a cat to the vet who had previously been altered (due to several volunteers monitoring traps rather than one person knowing the cats in a specific area). Our solution? We began having the vet "notch" the right ear of an altered animal while under anesthetic. It made it easy to identify which animals were altered already. Within one year we had stabilized the population & within 3 years we began to see a decrease in numbers (natural selection due to automobiles, disease). THANK GOD the county replaced those "green boxes" with manned convienance centers so people no longer dump kittens as severe as before! Of course education & making our local county run shelter more user friendly & astetically pleasing helped also.
We personally took 5 of the feral cats to be house or barn cats. Most were semi-adults but one was a beautiful adult- albiet dirty & unkept -a siamese marked seal point with odd sized blotches of sable coloring in her body coat. She was so freaked by being trapped that she literally "froze" when approached by a human. She did not try to bite or scratch but would run & hide.... We took her home after testing & spaying & simply turned her loose in the house with the dogs & one housecat. In the 9 years she lived with us - she only came to us a few times for petting.... but she was a clean animal who used the litter pan & never tore anything up. She loved sleeping in the big basket with the dogs & napping in the window alcove. She was a shy, gentle creature who demanded little attention from us - but lots of attention from our australian shepherd (her best friend!). We lost her after 9 years one winter night - she simply died while asleep with her buddies. She was the most unusual feral cat because she never offered to bite, scratch or misbehave - just froze. Two of the others we adopted took about 2 years to totally tame down - both neutered boys who started out around 5 lbs each & after neutering & becoming house cats grew to 19 & 22 lbs respectively. One lived to be 14 the other 18 years. The barn cats were a couple we could not tame. Unfortunately we lost one to FIP after a few years & the other to a FIP related illness soon after.
SO my advice is to get a trap (on loan) from your local spca, have the kittens tested for FELV/FIP & altered if you are keeping one as a pet & at least alter the ones you re-release.... In my experience it is often cheaper to buy the trap, trap the cats & have them altered out of pocket than to deal with the damage a feral colony can inflict on your property not to mention the humane aspect. You may also have a local group who will pay for the altering. Talk with your local shelter, rescue or animal control for information on who to contact for help

 

[bock]

I will try my best to tame them, but if it doesn't work out I will get them fixed and release them. If I do manage to get one pretty tame, I will probably keep that one. Do you think it would help them to see my other two tame cats with me? I would only do that once the kittens had been taken to the vet of course, because I don't know how healthy they are. Oh yeah, and what is the temperament of the kittens who turn out to be really great pets when they were still feral? I want to make sure I pick a good one!

 

[RiverOtter]

Bock, I have tamed many feral kittens and haven't failed one yet. I had one kitten who was so freaked when I caught her that she hissed, spit, clawed, bit and released her picky glands. If you come to my house now she will jump in your lap and give you nose-rub kisses

Keep the kittens in a crate or enclosed area. Separate crates might help. Keep them right in the middle of the living room or kitchen, where they can see everything. Feed them several times a day like this.
Pull the screaming, hissing kitten out of the crate. I try to sit in an easy chair, or someplace that the only way that the kitten can get away from my hand is by cuddling into my body.
Sit in the easy chair with the kitten next to you and feed it by hand.
Do NOT try to correct any bad manners such as growling or grabbing, These are fear based and will fade in time.
Feed it plenty, then offer it some water from a small dish in your hand.
Cuddle it and love on it. It may take an hour the first time, but it will start to purr, for stress release if nothing else.
Do NOT put the kitten back until it purrs.

This is pretty kitty intensive, but I swear it will only be a couple of days before they very quickly purr for you, and maybe a week before they are all over you, loving and purring and they come out of the crates.

 

[cassie]

I have tamed feral kittens by holding them on my lap and hand feeding them tiny bits of goodies like tuna fish. Tamed down in no time at all. Just move slow and take care not to startle them.

 

[RachelFromTheBlackLagoon]

I also disagree with releasing the kittens once fixed. At that age you will have no problems taming them. Working for a vet and now animal control, I've worked with dozens and dozens of feral litters. I've even been successful in taming ferals that were several months old, it just takes a little longer. My grandfather takes care of a feral colony and has befriended and can handle several feral adults, granted that took a couple of years! But at six weeks old, it should only take you a week or two. The last litter I fostered, one of the four 5-6 week old babies was purring and rubbing all over me by the end of the first day. By the end of the second day I couldn't get away from her! If she saw me walk by she'd start screaming and climbing the crate door until I let her out and she's seek me out for attention. You'll have no problems with the taming part.

The trapping might be a bit tougher but if the kittens are coming out to eat with mom, the big drop trap might be your best option. That's what we use, too. If they're wary of it, leave the trap up for a few feedings. Let them eat under it until they're comfortable enough with its presence. Wait until the feeding when mom and kittens are all under there together and THEN drop it. Make it heavy enough so they can't tip it, because once theyre trapped and escape they'll most likely never fall for it again. In ours, we have a sliding trap door on one side so we can put a humane trap or carrier to the opening to safely contain each cat once you've caught them. If you could rig something like that it would make it easier to get the momma cat to the vet for her spay.

 

[bock]

Sometime this week I am going to try and catch them. I still have to finish the drop trap though. I will talk to my neighbors and see when I can come over. Wish me luck!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

When I tamed our feral kitten, I used a wand toy. Kittens have a very strong play/prey drive. She found the wiggling toy irresistible, even though she was afraid of me at first. The wand extended the toy far enough away from me that she decided she would try to grab it. Once she got involved playing, she would forget about me. It didn't take long for her to decide that all this food, water and play time made me a good thing. She chose to accept me, without me having to force myself on her. She's an old kitty now, in her teens. Sweeter and more loving than ever.

 

[woodmort]

We currently have 5 cats--3 came from the SPCA and were turned in by their owners as kittens while the other 2 were feral--the last I pulled out of the wood pile on Halloween 3 years ago. While all are big babies and lap cats the two ferals are the most devoted. The older one--he's about 14--will drive me nuts when we have been away for a few days--he's like velcro, I can't get rid of him. The other is my wife's cat--she is still ticked at me for hauling her to the vets for those first shots--and follows my wife every place in the house. They both tamed fairly well, just takes time. Remember your in the cat's world; it isn't in yours. No one ever owns a cat.