Initial feral indoor reactions?

Hi all, I was wondering in that initial phase when you bring an outdoor feral indoors for socialization in either a small room or a crate, how likely are they to howl non-stop?   To flail about and try to destroy things?    I know this can happen because it did to me in the past and I gave up - perhaps too soon and let the cat back out.    If they do go nuts, do they tend to eventually calm down?  how long?      I'm not about to do anything right away so this is more of a general question to help me in the future or others who might read this later.

Good question.  The most common is they are shy and hide.  These case are "easy" to work out, if you have time, patience and knowledge.

Howling, or even getting desperate and hurling and destroying about - yes, more difficult.  I suspect most do as you, give up.   Of course, a real feral is used to manage outside, so that is really no big deal to let him out again. Preferably after neutering and so on...

Lets proceed to accumulate knowledge on these intensively protesting, aggressively non cooperating.

Many of mine went bonkers at first, trying to climb the walls and jump through windows. But they didn't howl much. And once they figured out that walls aren't climb-able and windows are solid, they stopped flailing around. Maybe 5-10 minutes and they calmed down.

I have brought in 2 ferals and the process takes TIME.

Mine hated the crate/carrier more than being indoors.  Once inside, I let them out and both hid.  These were done years apart, but the process was very similar.  One took nearly a year to begin to socialize with people, and she ended up being the best cat ever.  The other became friendly more quickly, but is still a bit of a spazz sometimes.

I always tried to give the ferals respect and space.  Let them hide, but check on them and talk to them.  They will probably eat/go to the bathroom on their own, but may need encouragement.  Don't chase them down or try to touch/hold if they don't want it.  Eventually they will.  

Thanks everybody this is very helpful  -  collectively this board has so much experience!   I wish I had been on here when I tried with that cat a while back - she just went so crazy it really frightened me and I was worried about the neighbors too being as it was an apartment.   My indoor feral Patches has a different story because she was a reverted feral and had actually grown up indoors and was later abandoned so she accepted being inside without a problem.    My guess is even a fully socialized cat who has never been indoors might find it a tough adjustment at first.

Our remedicum Feliway, does it works also on these highly agitated cats, thrashing about?

I know it is difficult to know, because if it works, they wont  thrash about...

In the cases an already before set up adapter or spray doesnt work, we cant know if it is because it doesnt work, or because it doesnt work at once with this actual individual....

The only real way to know is some scientific try out...  Or at least, coordinated taking notes on big scale by the rescuers.

Anyway, if you suspect your rescuee may be such a defensively aggressive one, do have Feliway and calming soft music prepared beforehand.

Cant hurt, may help.   

Each cat is so different.  Our little feral, who has now been inside almost a year, never tried to escape, or go crazy.  She was more afraid than anything.  The biggest help for her was our older cat who has been a great big brother.  Patience is also important. 

The 5 month old we tried to tame was a cage climber and would hiss at me and escaped her cage into my room so i had to pick her up in a coat and get her back into a carrier. We let her back out to her mother and she watches us froma distance now.

Lucy is about 2 years old and never acted agressive to us, just timid and shy. She has free range of the house and after spending most of her time in the basement, will now come up and hang out in the living room near us (we've had her inside for 5 months now) and even came up and touched me and slept 5 feet away from me. Having the other cats is a HUGE help! We talk to her, make sure to talk to the other cats and pet them/feed them/cuddle them so she sees we're ok.

Felt bad giving up on Heather like that, but if we hadn't Lucy wouldn't be in here and we know she's going to be an amazing cat when she comes around!

The ones I have had were all crated and all but 2 were calm.  NONE howled.  My husband did not even notice one till he saw the cat out of the upside down box and commented that it was not OUR cat(he knows to not touch any cat in a cage....there for a reason)

If working with a male put up some shower curtain or something around or near cage as spraying may be an issue for a little bit after neuter.  What I do is put a towel then the curtain...figure the smell makes them spray less, not sure how much it works. One cat decided to attack the shower curtain, never saw that before.  He was older so maybe just more pent of anger about the whole thing.

We trapped a very feral female cat July 7, 2011 roaming our neighborhood for over a year. We had started feeding her and she from then on was waiting for her meals out back of our house. One day I noticed she was pregnant and she was ready to drop them at any time. It was imperative I trap her as we had our home up for sale in Fl. I borrowed a trap and took her to our vet to abort the pregnancy and get her fixed and chipped. What we did after we got her back from the vet was put her in our half bath and she had a window to look out. She cried for about 2 weeks and finally stopped. I spent a lot of time with her and she was very afraid of us but Ii wanted her to get used to us. We were very patient and tried not to upset her anymore than necessary. We sold our home in Nov. 2011 and she travelled across country to NV. with us and our other 4 felines. She did so well on the trip and no trouble at all. Now we have had her almost 2 years and she now has the run of our house and is no longer afraid of us. She mingles well with our other guys/gals and is out in full sight all the time. She doesn't hide from us and is not agressive at all. Quite amazing considering she had no human contact until we got her.

Be patient with the feral and spoil her/him and it will pay off. By the way all of our felines are indoor only. We call her Sox and she has all kinds of windows to look out and lays in the sun during the day. She doesn't want us touching her but we feel good taking her off the streets and now she has a realy comfy, cozy life and all the kindness and food she wants. She follow me around to see what I am up too like she might miss something.