Need advice on taming a feral cat - Page 3

I bet the fan did it! Anything new will be a big event for her. As more trust comes so will her confidence. Now Magilla comes directly to me when she is unsure about something. I am now her safety Love the updates and hope you have a nice evening

It can mean two things- they are nauseated and soon to throw up, or they are stressed. I haven't read all your posts, just the last few, but hiding is perfectly normal. You can help her out with the hot weather by going out and buying a extra large chopping board- they make them out of anything these days. I was lucky enough to find a marble one years ago at Home Depot that I could afford. You want something like tile or some of the plastic ones so she can use that to lie on when it gets so hot.

Also if you can- measure the door to the room and see if you can install a screen door with pet-proof screen. That way, you can leave the solid door open and she can get used to the house and the rhythms quicker. My husband built these screen doors of our rooms out of PVC pipe and small mesh chicken wire. They work great and are pretty cheap to make.

Also recommend www.harpofhope.com and Diane's CD to help calm her. You don't want to play it continuously (like I first thought you had to) just once or twice in the day to help them relax and calm down. Enter the room on a strict schedule and always bring treats with you. Let her know that when that door opens, good things happen. No one is going to pull her out of hiding, but after you leave, she can come out and find tasty things in the room for her to eat. Keep to the schedule faithfully and she will relax quicker. If she comes out, avoid making eye contact- just ignore her- they hate to be ignored. But talk all the time you are in there, in soft tones just tell her about your day.

Go in the room all the time either barefoot or with sweaty socks. This leaves your scent all around the room and she will adjust quicker. Also give her two litter pans not just one and be sure the pans are far away from the food and water as litter sure can fly.

Good luck!

I would make one addition to your schedule and visit her right before bedtime with either www.nekoflies.com or Da Bird in hand. Give her 15 minutes of chasing, pausing, pouncing on the toy. Then let her chew on if for a few minutes before withdrawing the toy. Leave a nice, big tasty treat behind for her- her reward for catching the prey.

Make this supervised only as cats will snatch both toys quickly if you let go and take them off and eat the whole thing-string and all. Talk about an expensive vet bill! make sure the toy is locked up somewhere that she can't get to.

This will help her sleep through the night and will also bond the two of you together quicker.

If you can, 10-11pm might be good time, as cats are nocturnal and I have found out with my cats that it is now around 10pm where they start to be enough courage for little play, but 7pm is still too early, they will just hide, of course even they hide they keep still eye on me, but without me seeing it.

When I have no early wakeup, I can visit them even at 1-2am, but best seem to be that 10-11pm, it is around darkest time as darkness comes around 7pm now and darkness goes away around 5-6 am here.

I don't know about daytime visits, well if I take nap during the day that seem to help them be more relaxed at night when I visit again, but other than that, I don't really know, there seem to be less effect from daytime visits, maybe it is even better to let cats sleep during the day, don't know.

Good for you making Luna's room more comfortable for both of you. I think making room to play on the floor at her level is a great idea.

You go girl with the DH I wish we had a HISS smiley icon. How funny, my hubby also knows that hiss look. Just yesterday, he was stomping around upstairs (well walking, but it sounds like stomping) right when I feed the cats their morning wet meal. And Perla, gets scared and frightened when there is noise upstairs and then runs off and won't eat. So I go up the stairs, calmly, and walk over to my DH and give him the hiss look.. He goes....... "WHAT" I calmly say, for the hundreth time, please no noise up here when I am feeding. The poor guy

A hiss smiley!

I suspect Luna won't hold hubby's transgression against you, and will figure out all the noise was just for her.

You might actually want to post in the Cats & Other Animals (or behavior?) forum about the introduction to Jazz. The only thing I know about it is that the dog needs to be controlled during the initial introductions. I know there's an article on it.... here, found it!

http://www.thecatsite.com/Behavior/5...s-to-Dogs.html

But really... sounds like they've already met.

Maybe she actually likes hiding her toys.

I guess it'll take her a few days to get used to the new arrangement.

Aw poor Luna. I would not even attempt to bring the dog in that room anytime soon. To me, Luna sounds just a little more insecure (Magilla was this way too with new things) and a real scaredy cat and it might just be her personality. Then you know you have to take things extra, extra slow with her. I say this only because when you move something or add something new she takes an extra day or so to come back around. And as time goes on she might get more confident and less worried, but might always have that tendency. Some cats, feral or not, just have a more skittish personality in general. My Perla is like that. She gets her "feathers" ruffled very easily and she is one cat who puts her hair on end for almost everything she doesn't understand. Just a worry wart. Luna, on top of being feral, might have that type of personality as well.

I have dogs too. They are older though and so used to cats that a new cat to them really isn't anything to get all worked up about anymore. I don't know your Jazz, but if Jazz has a b-line for the cat, that will not be good. Even if she is leashed (and she should be, when you first introduce) and is pulling or staring down where the cat is, that is not good for Luna. Jazz sounds like a very sweet dog, especially loving a ferret. Jazz will love Luna too, but Luna doesn't know this, yet...... So Jazz, just needs to be taught to be calm and just sit (yeah right) by you when you eventually allow the dog in Luna's room. But I would wait quite awhile. Not until Luna totally trusts you, do you have a chance at Luna accepting Jazz. That is what I did too for Magilla's room. I made it so she could run back to her room for safety and the dogs couldn't even go into her room. That is a great idea to make it so Jazz can't get into her room, once you open up that room that is....

Keep up the great reports and you are on the right path for a wonderful friendship with Luna...

If it has any help, my mother cat does use her claws and attacks with incredible strength and speed when playing, but kittens are bit more cautious, they do play first without claws, but when getting more excited they do get also claws into play.

Growling and hissing, batting just to push toy away would be what cat does when she would not want to play.

But when she grabs / stops the toy without hissing it is more of play.

That is what I think at least.

Did you see her tail? Was tail's tip moving? Tip of tail moves when they get interested of something / playing. If whole tail is swinging from side to side, then it is better to back off as it is annoyed/dislike gesture as far as I know.

Cat does not require much of light, amount of 1 candle is plenty for a cat, they have also other senses, one being whiskers, they can feel disturbances of air currents so small that they can make a picture of room with their whiskers to their mind, also their sight even being very good at low light is not very accurate and cat can't see things that are very close too well, they use whiskers and smell for things very close to them, of course hearing too.

Try to play so that Luna have to come bit away from hiding, it can take few times without much of gain, but she will eventually come to play even it might be very briefly first.
Proceeding by cat's pace is also letting cat decide to come and play, putting toy to front of cat's nose at cat's hiding place might not be best way, however they probably are not much irritated if thing is very interesting to them and there is already some trust between Luna and you, so I don't think even that would be really harmful.

Remember that she is still very scared, she might not be yet enough brave to play and it was a new thing, it might just take little time to get used to it, so I would say keep playing 3-6 foot from her hiding place so that she can see the toy and when she gets used to this new interesting looking ritual, she might decide to come and play.

With mother cat it took over 6 months to get her to play (even she saw me playing with kittens) and it was really only few seconds at first, it is still bit uncertain if she will play or hide, but of course as mother cat has full freedom to leave too so cat captured indoors should come and play quicker. It took months to have mother cat stay at warehouse when I gave them food, even kittens did eat from hand, mother cat did run off, but eventually she found out it is ok to stay at warehouse when I put food into bowl, it can take a really long time with cat that is afraid, so hang in there and let time do the work, even there would be no progress or even visible signs of cat, things are still proceeding, every time when cat sees humans, cat is learning to trust more as she is not getting hurt or eaten.

Well, I might be of course wrong too about these things, but my current understanding is like that.

I'm pretty sure she was playing, it takes few times until they really grasp concept of playing, but I really think you should do same thing tomorrow too, so that she learns.

Oh YAY she attacked the wand toy!

You SO have not let her down! She's obviously having fun - you can hear her. None of us is perfect, and not everything goes perfectly smoothly. You've got the most important thing going for you - YOU.

Oh don't feel sad!!! Your Luna is beautiful inside and out and so are you for doing what you are doing for her. Just knowing how much you care for Luna is so heartwarming. And Luna knows, believe me, how much you love her. Really, she does. This takes a very very long time, and some cats are quicker to socialize than others. Just put away the clock (as LDG always says) and I agree with this as well. Just enjoy this process and keep your eye on that light at the end of the tunnel, you will reach it soon. Speaking of lights, I would leave a light on during the day and night light at night. You are doing just great

Oh it's the little "victories" that all add up over time!!!

Grooming, eating and playing in your presence are all signs of her trusting. It is happening, her starting to trust

That sounds great

I find it funny when they start grooming, then all of sudden stop, completely freezing at middle of lick and sometimes they just stay there for 10 seconds or even more, ears turning and eyes moving, but rest of cat is like a statue, then continue like nothing had happened

If cat turns her back to you, then I think it is also sign of trust, but maybe also tells something else too?