"Taming" feral kittens

Hello,

So today I took on two feral kittens. The pound was going to kill them because they cannot be adopted out. 

I have helped "feral" kittens before, but never THIS feral. Any tips will help. I have them separated in dog crates with their litter boxes, hard food and water (and soft blankets obviously). 

I also have music playing in their room. I have the light on in there but it dimmed down so they can relax. 

You cannot touch these kittens without gloves, they will bite you and scratch you big time. The female is terrified but not as aggressive as the male. She hisses at me but allows touch (I had to touch her to get her in to the crate). I held her in a blanket and stroked her head for a few minutes, she just sat there terrified. 

The male is a different story, you cannot get near him. I will be taking my time with both of these two, I don't expect dramatic improvements overnight. I am willing to take my time and do whatever it takes to make them come around... they deserve homes, not death.

I plan to start wet food tomorrow. I will sit with them while they eat it. I won't touch them but allow them to eat it while I am next to them. I doubt they will eat it while I am in there, but I will try. Do you recommend taking the food away if they will not eat it if I am in the room? I know I may need to stand back quite a bit, but I don't see any benefit in leaving it down and not being in the room...

Please give me any advice you have. 

Thank you!

We have several articles about working with ferals, and plenty of advisors in that forum with lots of experience as well.  Here's one article to get you started.  You can find more by clicking on ARTICLES in the brown bar at the top of the page.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/handling-feral-cats

It will be a little better after a couple of days, when they had landed and calmed down some.  Yes, food is a potent helper, so it is probably wise to get them to connect you with the food.    And the strongest signal will be: you there, food there...    Food there, friendly you there.

Also, a Feliway diffuser in the room may be useful.

Also, use your voice a lot.  Friendly sounds, talking softly, singing softly if you can and wish.  Its a language cats do understand.  Moms use it with her kittens. and friendly courting toms use it to court the ladies.   Dominant, territorial toms dont use these sounds, so cats do know very well who is friendly and who is not.

I suppose you know the body language signs, like dont look directly in the eyes, look a little aside instead. 

Blink slowly.  Yawn. Strech on yourself - these three are all friendly greetings among friends.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the advice! Just wanted to update the thread and say the little girl is doing SO well. I can hold her without gloves and she started purring today when I held her! I didn't have to wrap her like I normally do, she just sat on the towel on my lap. She will meow to me when I enter the room as if she is happy I am there. 

Her brother is a different story. You cannot get near his cage without him swatting at you, if you put your hand in there he will bite you and scratch you (we still use gloves with him). 

He was in the same room as his sister, just different crates (one on top of the other they could not see each other but could hear each other). Today I moved the brother to a busier room, my brother is always in the room he is in now so there is more noise and he will see someone all day. I am hoping this will help him. I have told everyone to now let him settle in to this new room, not to bother him today, but feel free to talk all you want and let him see you.

Tomorrow I will probably try reaching in the cage again. I know some people recommend holding them in a towel five minutes a few times each day but I don't feel he is ready for that. At the moment the only time I reach in his cage is to clean his litter box and to get him more water and food. So hopefully he will start to realize I only bring good things. They are both just terrified. 

Will give those articles more reading. I have read some pretty negative things on other sites, like some just can't be tamed because they have a "wild gene". I don't really believe this, they are only 7-8 weeks old. Maybe he won't ever be a cuddly cat but I believe he will come around eventually. How do you all feel about this? I am not willing to give up because the shelter will kill him if he can't be "tamed". I don't care how long it takes, I just need to believe there is hope for him... He hasn't changed at all since he has been here but then he hasn't been here but a few days! Not giving up  

Hi

It amazes me that you have got so far with the little girl'

We rescued our feral kittens,(one male,one female) last Christmas (they were older,about 16 weeks)and it took about 3 months before Tony(he is the feeder )

was able to stroke the kittens---no way we could pick them up.

Now they will allow a lot of stroking with lots of purring but still no lifting allowed.

Sound to us that you are making a lot of headway--patience is the big secret here.

Best regards

Tony and Kat(owned by ex-feral kittens ,Shadow and Muse)

tdiving said:

 
Hi

It amazes me that you have got so far with the little girl'

We rescued our feral kittens,(one male,one female) last Christmas (they were older,about 16 weeks)and it took about 3 months before Tony(he is the feeder )

was able to stroke the kittens---no way we could pick them up.

Now they will allow a lot of stroking with lots of purring but still no lifting allowed.

Sound to us that you are making a lot of headway--patience is the big secret here.

Best regards

Tony and Kat(owned by ex-feral kittens ,Shadow and Muse)

Click to expand...

I think the girl was just really terrified. No progress has been made with the male at this point. Although he responds to my slow blinking, he will give me a slow blink back. Still will bite and lash out at you if you get too close. Will not eat if I am near him so I will try wet food again today and sit further back. 

Yup, we will give him all the time he needs! No need to die for being scared! 

Thanks for saving some feral kitties, they are worth it as I am sure you very much know!

Great news for the little girl! The boy may have had a bad experience. Usually kittens that young warm up pretty quickly. Have you tried Gerber chicken baby food? Don't get the kind with onions or onion flavoring. Anyway, most cats, feral or not, can not resist it. I had a 12 week old licking it off my fingers after weeks of his spitting at me every time he saw me.

They will eventually learn that you mean good things and will calm down. Like you said, he may never be a lap cat but he will calm down. Thank you so much for helping them.

And BTW - that's a crock of "poo" about a wild gene. Utter nonsense!

Thank you! I have some so I will try that! 

I was looking for advice on another side and was being yelled at for crating them and also for separating them. What do you think? The problem with them being together is she is playing off her brother. She is much more aggressive around him because she sees his energy. He left a big bite mark on her side that had to be taken care of because he lashed out on her because humans were around. I just don't feel it is in either of their best interest... And about the crates, if I let this two loose in a room, I would never find them! 

Seems like you can't do right by everyone...

Do you think I am wrong for separating them and crating them? Just not sure what else I could do about that.

Here is the little girl in my lap:

I think crating and separating them is probably the best approach for now.

She looks about nine weeks old, so you might be facing a bit of a challenge.  If the boy is in the room with your brother 24/7, he will probably come a long way pretty quickly.  Just make sure your brother doesn't make any sudden or loud moves and is always gentle with his voice and actions.

I give a small dollop of baby food as a treat.  Work your way from the dish at the back of the crate, to closer and closer to you.  You will finally be able to put it on a spoon and then your finger.

Ondine said:

 
I think crating and separating them is probably the best approach for now.

She looks about nine weeks old, so you might be facing a bit of a challenge.  If the boy is in the room with your brother 24/7, he will probably come a long way pretty quickly.  Just make sure your brother doesn't make any sudden or loud moves and is always gentle with his voice and actions.

I give a small dollop of baby food as a treat.  Work your way from the dish at the back of the crate, to closer and closer to you.  You will finally be able to put it on a spoon and then your finger.

Click to expand...

That is what I did today He surprisingly did pretty well. I still use gloves around him but he allowed my hand to be right next to his face while he ate as long as I didn't try to touch him or move my hand.

That's progress  

The little girl is still coming around amazingly! She laid on my lap tonight and I decided I would try to touch her belly, she rolled over on her back and let me rub her tummy!! She was also purring and kneading on my legs, I noticed she has only three toes on each front foot... it is very weird! 

Hi

We were also given that nonsense about wild genes etc--but we decided to go ahead anyway and if they remained basically wild--at least they were alive--

We feel that one of the attractive things about our feral kittens is their independence  --

But as it turns out,with a lot of love ,attention and allowing them to do things at their own speed,we have 2 beautiful and healthy kittens

Best regards

Tony and Kat (owned by ex feral kittens,Shadow and Muse)

Thank you for trying to help these kittens. Don't believe what you hear about feral genes, nearly all cats will come round with enough love and attention. If they are only nine weeks you've got a huge head start on me, the last lot of feral kittens I took in were at least four months old.

In some cases it takes a long time, especially if something happened to scare one of them. My two year old former feral, Marley, has only just started letting me pick him up. I still have the scars from when he first arrived, he used to swat at us too.

You sound like you're making great progress with the girl. After you've been playing with her give her brother a treat and let him smell her scent on you. Your smell will start to mix with her's and he'll start to see you as "family" rather than something to be feared.

Good luck, keep us updated on how it goes.

What a beautiful little girl kitten! I took in two feral cats last summer. One was 3-4 months old and I socialized him to be picked up, petted and cuddled within a few days. His papa cat, a feral I care for outside, taught him to not be afraid of me, even though his mama was trying to teach him to be afraid of humans. He is still very affection with me, though he has a definite feral streak of skittishness, wild running around the house,. a tendency to  boss the other cats, and fear around other people. Getting him to a vet next month for his booster shots will be an adventure!  The other feral I took in was 10 months old and has some lameness in one of her legs from getting shot, and is also a bit mentally slow. She is perfectly content to be inside and enjoys eating all day and playing with me and the wand toy. She will allow me to pet her, but does not purr, and freaks out when I have to pick her up or approach her without ample warning. I was hoping to have made more progress since it's been a year, but this is simply who she is, and I enjoy her.  Each feral cat is different, and it annoys me that vet techs and other feral "experts" continually tell the public that after 8 weeks you can't socialize a feral. I wish there were more people like you who had the patience and selflessness to adopt a feral kitten or cat who can be socialized to live safely indoors, but who may never been a cuddly lap cat. I personally find feral cats to be the most interesting cats there are!

There's a lot of advice out there about whether to crate new feral kittens, or give them free run of a room, and whether to keep siblings together or not. I really think it depends on the particular cat and situation. You should go with your gut, because you know the cats better than anyone else, and your intuition will be the most accurate. I've used different strategies for the different cats I've taken in over the years. Several years ago there was a white Siamese cat who had been hanging around on my block for a year--I think his owner moved away and left him. One day he approached me and meowed, so I fed him. A week later, I opened my door and he walked in and immediately made himself at home with me and my 3 other cats. I took him to the vet the following day, he was deemed healthy, and then it was as though he'd always lived with us. On the other hand, last summer I had to keep the feral with the lame leg confined to my study with a baby gate for a month because she was so afraid of the other cats. So it just depends.

Just don't push them. They aren't true ferals- or you would have never gotten so far with the little girl so fast. I call them strays with feral tendencies, but basically they have been neglected and are unfamiliar with human touch. Is the boy neutered? If I missed the fact that he was in skimming this post forgive me, but if not, getting him neutered immediately will help but it will still take time. Reduce your expectations and throw away your time table. Take your cues from the cats themselves and don't push contact with the boy until he headbumps you first.

I socialize feral cats and strays with feral tendencies all the time. I never tame them- can't be done. They will still be afraid of things retain triggers from their past and not act like purr-fect pets, but it doesn;t matter the ages. It matters what led up to them becoming the way that they are and how patient you are with them in their new life.

I recently got involved with a hoarder who had 83 cats- it was quite sad and I took 15 of her cats (mostly her seniors) but there was one kitten. Sadly, this 7 month old beautiful boy had to be euthanized after months of working with him. His terror of what happened to him while under this hoarder's care could not be undone. My vet said for his age, he was wired wrong. It was heartbreaking because he was so young. Sometimes you can't step into their terror and reduce it- again it depends on what they have witnessed or lived through.

UPDATE  

For past feral kittens (I tend to get 2 or 3 at a time) and there always seems to be that one that has a harder time coming around. So the nicer ones get adopted and that one is always left behind. When the others are gone, that kitty has to depend on me for companionship so they normally come around so much faster. I took that approach from the start with these two but have to admit, it wasn't the right approach for them (I still believe it can work for some, I suppose you just need to get a feel for your kitties and I should have waited to see!)

Anyway, I put them back together after the female cried for 15 minutes straight after I moved the male from her room. (I'm a sucker for cats crying, I can't handle it, it makes me want to cry.)

So I put them back together in a crate and left them alone for about 24 hours (besides obvious cleaning, changing water and feeding them). Today I have made progress! This morning I could leave my hand right next to the males face while he ate. I touched his face a few times without any fear shown, however, the back and sides are still a no go. Which is fine, we have all the time in the world. Tonight I decided to go spend some more time with them both. I sat there for about 30 minutes while the two of them fell asleep. I took this as a sign of comfort, there is no way when I first got them they would close their eyes when I was there. So I decided to take it a step further and once again attempt to touch the male. I slowly moved my hand inch by inch closer to him, he would throw in the occasional swat but there was no spitting and the swats were not nearly as hard as they used to be! He used to also bite when he would swat and they would go through my gloves (not enough to break the skin but you could feel it). So I stroked his sister who fully allows body strokes and I think he is starting to catch on! It's still going to be a while, but he has come around so much in the past few days.

Anyway... I have had "feral" kittens in the past but I haven't worked with kittens that were as fearful and "aggressive" as these two (I don't like to call it aggression as they are clearly terrified). Can't wait to post a photo of me finally holding the male kitty! That may never happen, he may never like to be held but we will give it a go eventually 

The photo is the two of them cuddled up sleeping while I was sitting right in front of their opened crate. I think I may require they be adopted together. They are so bonded, that may change as they both start to enjoy human companionship but I haven't met kittens as bonded as these two even including some past "feral" litters. Alright, done with my long post. Hope you enjoy their adorableness  

Oh, they are just gorgeous!

Sweet little things, they are so lucky to have found you.

Just a thought...as they are both white.... could they be deaf?

That might be why the male gets freaked out if you try to touch him in areas where he can't see you coming. He might not be able to hear you coming either?

Hi

Your experiences with your kittens are a scary duplicate of ours,although our feral kittens were older and bigger when we rescued them.

.Ours are siblings as well,1 male,1 female and the female was also the first to react positively to attention..

Now,they will both allow Tony(who feeds and cleans) to stroke them ,in fact they will fall asleep on their backs while their stomachs are being stroked..

If he is working at the computor,the little boy will sit on the floor near him and look up for attention--if it is not forthcoming,he will stand up on the chair and pat Tonys leg or arm to let Tony know he is there.

This all took a long time,at least 3 months for the first noticable progress ,but we decided to let them move at their own pace as they were basically young wild creatures.

Now the progress seems much faster with them even allowing Kat to stroke them for short periods now.

We are so happy  to have 2 healthy ,beautiful kittens and the patience we gave them to reach the stage we are at now..

We intend to keep the kittens but can confirm that if we were to find them a new home we would also insist that they go togeather as they are completely devoted to each other,playing ,eating and sleeping 

togeather.

Best regards

Tony and Kat (lucky to be owed by ex-feral kittens Shadow and Muse)

Oh my, they are beautiful! Norachan may be right - have you had their hearing checked yet? That might be the real problem!

In any event, you are doing great. I cannot believe these two gorgeous cats were destined for death! It shows how overwhelmed the shelter is if they never gave them a chance.