Ferals becoming pets

I was wondering if anyone has, or has tried to convert a feral cat to a pet that is not fearful of people. I hear that after 8 weeks cats usually can't be tamed to be social with people, but with hard work and patience its possible.

I have a former feral as a pet and you'd never know she used to be a street cat.

When I first saw her she was thin and took off at the slightest glare. I started feeding her but she would only eat at a very far distance. When I went outside she would hiss and growl at me rather than run away, at one point I thought she'd actually run up at me and bite it was very bizzarre for a cat to behave.

Over a month I moved her food closer and closer, she approached me but I never could touch her only from a few feet.

Then next month she suddenly got friendly, she approached me and rubbed against me, I was shocked, but when I tried to touch her she growled and hissed so I stopped but she never tried to bite. Perhaps she was in heat?

Next month she started scratching at my back door meowing constantly, I open the door and she ran in and hid on our basement to sleep then went out when she wanted. I couldn't touch her but she was happy to come inside on her own, very strange.

Finally the time came she let me and family pet her, sometimes she hissed or growled but never did anything else, the more we did it the less and less she was nervous.

We took a chance and trapped her and brought her into the vet, she freaked out at first, but when the vets examined her not a hiss, growl, scratch, or bite, they had no idea she was feral! We got her spayed and took her home, she already knew to use a litterbox, and basically spent her first week sleeping on the couch and eating, it was incredible. She was 2 years old.

Now she is like any other house cat except a little nervous when too much company is over, but other than that anyone can pet her and give her treats and she loves sleeping on the bed with anyone.

Pretty incredible, whether she had human contact previously or not she overcame incredible social feats.

bugmankeith said:

I was wondering if anyone has, or has tried to convert a feral cat to a pet that is not fearful of people. I hear that after 8 weeks cats usually can't be tamed to be social with people, but with hard work and patience its possible.

Click to expand...

This is largery a myth, or rather a misunderstanding, often spread by folks in "Animal friends" organizations.  I think they do it to discourage these so so, to avoid halfheartd try´s by people who arent really interested nor determined. Who think it is enough to just "give a chance", or even "Im so charmful so even a ferale will immediately understand how really nice I´m".  Like it happens in some books for youth, where the hero just looks at a wild horse and says some soothing words, and whoa - the horse does behave like a pie.

And when the reality shows it is more difficult and takes time and patience, you need to put down some work AND love, to put up with both hissing and even growling - these halfhearted abort their try, and dump that poor animal. Or at very best, return it to the shelter.   And now it is not longer a young kitten, and now it is more difficult to find another try for it...

These half hearted "tries" de facto killing these semiferales...

For everybody involved, lets hope we avoid such halfhearted tries without any substance behind.

If you are half interested and want to help out, you can surely find other ways. Perhaps with money, perhaps with tipping about good adoptions homes.  Or do adopt an ex semiferale who is already fostered by someone else in the rescue group.

So dont even try if you arent in for it.   But IF you are in for it - either by skill and knowledge, OR just love and patience - yes, go for it.  You will success almost surely even if it may take time if they are 2+.  They will give you love sooner or later.

This forum is full of personal witnessess to it.  

The only "but" is.  They will be wonderful family pets not problem, but quite often they remain shy to foreigners, like visitors and guests.

Yours BugmanKeith, is one of the exceptions - she is not only a nice family pet, but also fully accepts visitors. 

Congrats!

Good luck!

Good job, BugmanKeith!  (Love your name BTW).

I suspect the spaying helped but I also suspect she was socialized at some point.  She's a lucky little kitty to have found you.  StephanZ is correct - it is a rare street cat/former feral who will not hide when company comes.  So you are lucky too!  Nice how things work out, isn't it?

The fact she seemed to pick us, and make the first move in everything, is amazing too.

Did I mention her estimated birthdate would be the same year we had to put our other cat to sleep, and he could have been her twin. Also she sat on the spot we buried him. If that's not a sign she was meant to be with us I don't know what is!

bugmankeith said:

The fact she seemed to pick us, and make the first move in everything, is amazing too.

Did I mention her estimated birthdate would be the same year we had to put our other cat to sleep, and he could have been her twin. Also she sat on the spot we buried him. If that's not a sign she was meant to be with us I don't know what is!

Click to expand...

Wow - I'd say so!  I love when the universe comes together to ensure things happen.

StefanZ said:

This is largery a myth, or rather a misunderstanding, often spread by folks in "Animal friends" organizations.  I think they do it to discourage these so so, to avoid halfheartd try´s by people who arent really interested nor determined. Who think it is enough to just "give a chance", or even "Im so charmful so even a ferale will immediately understand how really nice I´m".  Like it happens in some books for youth, where the hero just looks at a wild horse and says some soothing words, and whoa - the horse does behave like a pie.
And when the reality shows it is more difficult and takes time and patience, you need to put down some work AND love, to put up with both hissing and even growling - these halfhearted abort their try, and dump that poor animal. Or at very best, return it to the shelter.   And now it is not longer a young kitten, and now it is more difficult to find another try for it...
These half hearted "tries" de facto killing these semiferales...
For everybody involved, lets hope we avoid such halfhearted tries without any substance behind.

If you are half interested and want to help out, you can surely find other ways. Perhaps with money, perhaps with tipping about good adoptions homes.  Or do adopt an ex semiferale who is already fostered by someone else in the rescue group.

So dont even try if you arent in for it.   But IF you are in for it - either by skill and knowledge, OR just love and patience - yes, go for it.  You will success almost surely even if it may take time if they are 2+.  They will give you love sooner or later.
This forum is full of personal witnessess to it.  

The only "but" is.  They will be wonderful family pets not problem, but quite often they remain shy to foreigners, like visitors and guests.
Yours BugmanKeith, is one of the exceptions - she is not only a nice family pet, but also fully accepts visitors. 

Congrats!

Good luck!

Click to expand...

I have been wonder if it is because it becomes financially impossible for almost any organization?

As time needed might increase up to several years it might be impossible for them, but if one has not such strict financial limits per cat, more can be done.

Of course there are such cats that have too many generations of feral genes in them to really make them 'tame', they might never be ok with touching, I'm not sure about indoor element, that might be a myth too, it might be that it takes years for some to just accept being indoors, they might be freaked panic for months and months, but I really think that any cat can learn to be indoors if enough time is given, but human contact is something not all can tolerate and even sharing space with human might be impossible, but own separate room at indoors might be possible for all.

Like my Mauku (she was around 5 years old, now around 8 years old), she spend month hiding in other room, but now she comes to door when I enter the room and calmly walks past me, still touching is an issue, but at times little bit is ok, but it has taken really long time and for her to learn to be not afraid at all might be impossible, same with my Mouku, even he leeps on my legs every night he still is so afraid during the day that he often stays in other room and if I have different clothing he stays far away, but his brother Miuku is not afraid, different father, different genes, both of them are sons of Mauku.

Proper mindset might be such that one is willing to give roof for cat to sleep under, also food and care, but does not except anything from the cat, cat is just something that happens to live in the house, but especially at the beginning, might be many months that ignoring the cat is best, so cat just happens to live in same place, but is not a pet, is not a friend, has full autonomy and private space, one should be ready to accept that it is like one would not have cat, except providing food, water and cleaning litter box.

Feral cat might destroy things, walls, flooring, might keep lot of noise, all of those one would need to tolerate and mostly ignore, well more of accept, cat might then eventually come around, some with less feral genes come around faster. They need to see human activity, but they need to have their own safety, that they can call their own.

With adult ferals things are in such way demanding, but if there is no challenge for mind, then where is the fun?

Currently that silly Mauku is sleeping under my legs as I like to lift my legs onto bar of computer table, there is something satisfying when one have been able to show the cat that she can be safe, how her basic fears are slowly overcome. After cat starts to come around and learns to be not constantly afraid, one can start playing with cat, but even that is something that might be just one or two catches at first, might take months until one can really play with cat using that specific toy, another toy is another learning curve and still it is very easy to make cat afraid by being too forward, still feral and cat needs to be read to see where this moment's limits are, never crossing that thin line of trust by going too far, always leaving bit of hunger for playing instead of playing until cat is tired, again months.

It took more than a month from Mauku after she started to visit the room where I'm with rest of the cats mostly, to actually be anywhere in the room. Took week to move next to door to one cat length deeper into room. Any sudden move or getting up from seat and she disappeared. Progress can be that slow and painful, where one needs to control every sound and move he makes so not to scare the cat, it could be even slower I guess. Very different from one that has less of those wild animal genes, I don't think that cage would work at all with such, but I don't know all, I know very little.

That might give however some idea of what it might be and why Stefan mentions that only if one is ready for it, it requires large changes to life, also if there are often visitors and lot of life in the house, it might be not possible to take such task, poor cat might be overwhelmed and not progressing at all in such case. Certainly I would still not change any day of it.

The first month my cat did destroy a few things: ( one side of couch with nails, ripped my sisters prom dress entirely with her teeth (very dog-like!), but after spraying with water never did it again or any other destruction, I guess she was just feeling energetic now that she got to relax finally.

I seem to have good luck with socializing cats, I have 3 strays that will come in my house, took over a year to get them used to people but they can be petted by anyone and one even picked up by strangers! Play, food, and catnip seem to entice any cat!

bugmankeith said:

The fact she seemed to pick us, and make the first move in everything, is amazing too.

Did I mention her estimated birthdate would be the same year we had to put our other cat to sleep, and he could have been her twin. Also she sat on the spot we buried him. If that's not a sign she was meant to be with us I don't know what is!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I do believe more than in half in such incidents.  My favorite is, take mark when your loved cat went on. Held your eyes open, be ready: look at kittens born at that time, born up to typically in two weeks after but up to 30 days after, or a week before...   Chance is good the kitten or cat you find, will also resemble your late friend in other things too.   It is often the other way around: you find another cat soul mate. And the analysis shows she was born then and then.

I had seen quite a few such examples, the owners not always conscious about it.

bugmankeith said:

The first month my cat did destroy a few things: ( one side of couch with nails, ripped my sisters prom dress entirely with her teeth (very dog-like!), but after spraying with water never did it again or any other destruction, I guess she was just feeling energetic now that she got to relax finally.

I seem to have good luck with socializing cats, I have 3 strays that will come in my house, took over a year to get them used to people but they can be petted by anyone and one even picked up by strangers! Play, food, and catnip seem to entice any cat!

Click to expand...

Cardboard boxes are good, throw them upside down, cut hole to side, they do lot of chewing on those if feeling overly energetic I guess, but it does save more expensive bits from damage.

I gave them new box yesterday evening, this morning I found half the box being small pieces on floor. Did not see who it was, but I know the culprint, he has a 'thing' with paper and cardboard.

Sometimes it is bit of a challenge to help them burn all the energy as with 3 being just 2yo and two being 3yo it can take quite many hours each day and still there might be some juice left in them. Most feral Mauku at least is easy in that regard, but she could play many hours a day too if there just would be more hours on the clock!

I brought a cat tower and sprinkled dry catnip and she slept on that. But she hasn't done any damage in 10 years she is a good girl