Feral teen-age kitten

I adopted a feral kitten at about 5 mo. My daughter had been feeding her and her mom outside. She has now been spayed, had shots etc. is about 7 mo. old now. I have a rescued female cat who is about 16 mo. old. She and a kitten about the same age as my feral baby were left in a lidded box in 90 degree heat this summer. The kitten has been adopted and I've had the mom spayed and all shots. She's a wonderful cat. She has adopted the feral kitten as her baby and vice-versa. I thought this was good until I realized the feral will never bond with me. I didn't know that they should be kept separate. The feral cat will sleep on my bed but only if the older cat is with her. They are both inside cats. I want to hold her and pet her but fat chance, she just runs away and hides. Heaven forbid if she gets sick. I could never administer her meds. It is too late to keep the cats apart as I live in a small apt. and they would just cry for each other. Any advice or thoughts on how to bond with her. She's so beautiful but now she gets all her affection from her adopted mom cat. I would never even think about giving her up even if she never likes me.

Just wondering but if a person like yourself cant give your cat meds if it got sick because it runs away, how would it get it's medication? If you cant catch it then bringing it to the vet to get its meds would probably be hard, and costly.

The reason I ask is #1 because you brought it up, and #2 one of my cats is very hard, almost impossible to give meds too, so i'm curious how that is taken care of too?

I would not automatically assume that your feral wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t bond with you because the new cat- it actually may work to your advantage! I found my teenage ferals came around much faster if they bonded with one of my more confident cats because they started to follow them everywhere and mimic their behavior. During this time I would not try to force petting and they would come by me because they wanted to be by the cat they bonded with. This helped them become comfortable around me and eventually I would start slipping in petting if the two cats were sitting together. Playing with a wand toy and bribery with moist food really helped them think better of me as well. It does take time, but even my most feral two ask for petting on their own now…so donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t give up hope

The funniest feral I ever tried this with was a two year old female that took about a year to come around. She desperately wanted to cuddle with the other cats, but perhaps because she was older they didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t accept her as fast and refused to groom her. Oddly enough SHE started approaching me because she found that when I would lean down all the other cats would run over and start rubbing against and grooming each other because they thought they were getting attention and petting! So in other words….she used me to get to my catsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] attention, but ended up really enjoying me too!

Originally Posted by keith p

Just wondering but if a person like yourself cant give your cat meds if it got sick because it runs away, how would it get it's medication? If you cant catch it then bringing it to the vet to get its meds would probably be hard, and costly.

The reason I ask is #1 because you brought it up, and #2 one of my cats is very hard, almost impossible to give meds too, so i'm curious how that is taken care of too?

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This is a good question, my daughter has been catching her when necessary, such as taking to the vet for spaying, but to administer daily meds would be a problem. We'll work it out somehow.

Originally Posted by keith p

Just wondering but if a person like yourself cant give your cat meds if it got sick because it runs away, how would it get it's medication? If you cant catch it then bringing it to the vet to get its meds would probably be hard, and costly.

The reason I ask is #1 because you brought it up, and #2 one of my cats is very hard, almost impossible to give meds too, so i'm curious how that is taken care of too?

Click to expand...

Some vets are really willing to work with you if you talk to them about the situation. My vet and I just had this discussion again the other day, and he we have discussed what we would do should one of my ferals become ill. For more severe problems it would depend on how much the cat would handle, if it would affect their quality of life and how much you can do with them… but curing a more basic problem could be as easy as crushing an antibiotic pill and hiding it in their moist food for a URI.

If they won’t or can’t take medicine in their food (some pills cannot be crushed), but I can only handle the cat to a minimal degree I find it easiest to keep the cat confined to a small room or crate for the duration of the medication, which makes it much less stressful on the cat than trying to chase them down.

I totally agree with Yorda. Learning from the older ferals was definitely part of the socialization process!

While you can definitely attempt to engage your little feral with wand toys and food from time-to-time, the most important part of bonding is trust, and to build that trust, time is the main ingredient. Two months is not long for a 5 month old feral!!!!!

I'd recommend ignoring her most of the time. Pretend she's not even there. Love on and play with your older female. Do your best to not even look at the little feral! If you're in a room with her, talk out loud. Talk to her even - but don't look at her.

Get a t-shirt or something really sweaty. And leave treats out from time to time on your shirt. This will help her come to associate you with "good" things.

We've found that the more you ignore them, the more comfortable they get. Then they get curious.... and THEN it's time to hold food out to them, set it down and step back, or play with a want toy for a few minutes. But when not specifically trying to engage them in interaction, continue to ignore them.

As her confidence in the fact that you're no threat to her grows, she'll get more and more confident. And she'll learn from watching you interact with your older female kitty that pets are good, and that play is fun....

Here's a good read on socialization. Not all of it applies, but it may help you understand the process. http://straypetadvocacy.org/html/soc...feral_cat.html

And don't worry - that she's bonded with your older kitty won't be any obstacle. !!!

Thank you for rescuing these cats!