Help with 16 week old

Hi

We have a 16 week old cat, had him for 2 days now.

He is extremely nervous and has spent most of his time hiding out. It seems to me that the person I got him off has not socialized him very well. When I try to pick him up he seems petrified......all claws out. He has already managed to get his head stuck in the back of the fridge and the only way to remove him was to grab him at the scruff.

I have food out for him, water and a littler box but he has not really been eating much at all. We are entering day 3 and I am just concerned about how much he has eaten.

Yesterday he spent the whole day hiding out under the couch sleeping. I did manage to give him a few temptation treats which he ate. I tried to encourage him out with a catnip mouse on a string but he does not appear very interested.  We even had the guinea pigs running around in the adjoining room and he was not phased at all.

At night he goes into the spare bedroom and seems to have found his own little spot at the bottom of the wardrobe. I put a little hot pack in there for him last night as it was quite cold.

He has used his littler box but just for pees I have not seen anything else yet.

I have read that we should just let him be and he will come out when he is ready. He has only seen 2 rooms in the house which I had read was a good thing. Should I be doing anything else?

Can anybody offer any advice?

He is such a sweet little chap and still young I just want to get it right.

Two days is a short time for a cat to get used to a new home. Do not worry. He will come out of his shell soon 

I agree; 2 days isnt much for a kitty.  Just be sure he has easy access to his food/water/litter box and he should come around.  Keep them near wherever his "safe" spot is.  You can move them to a more preferable location later.  You can try sitting on the floor and talk to him softly.  Or just read something in a calm, soft voice to help him get used to you.  

Thanks for the help really appreciate it. I have had cats before but never such a nervious one, it's almost as if he has never been socialize. He came from a breeder and I have a feeling it was very money based as there were loads of different breeds of cats there. Poor little chap.
Should I be trying to smooth him yet? I did try earlier today and was hissed at but he did net me touch him gentally on his side. He seemed to relax a bit.

Question...was he in a cage at the breeder's home or did he have free roam of the house? If in a cage, he may feel more secure in a smalle space.

He may have been in a cage but was brought out when I visited. She was filling huge tubs with cat food I noticed as I left. Probually why he seems to love it in the spare room wardrobe. Not good I guess.

It took our rescue cat Bonnie 2 weeks before she came out of hiding  - if we were not there then she would come out and explore and disappear back into her safe place as soon as entered

We just kept talking to her and she eventually came round

Her first rooms were the kitchen and living room and we found that she was fascinated by the TV - so if we went out we left it on

Hang in there - it will get better 

Ooooo we have some progress! He ventured out of the wardrobe and was looking at us through the door while we were watching the TV. Could just see his little super hero mask in the darkness. He looked so cute!
Small steps but progress.

Excellent! 

He's gorgeous..

I'm wondering if you could just quietly go into the room he's in - take a book and just be there without approaching him or expecting anything from him.  Some cats actually respond to being read to, if you feel like doing that after a while. 

Well progress seems very slow. Still have not been able to touch him yet, did try yesterday but got hissed at.
He comes in to see us every night and plays with his toys but still won't come that close. If we get up to move he runs back into his room.
I've tried to interact with him and can see he's interested but he can't bring himself to take that step.
I ready to him every evening and visit his room to talk to him constantly.
Just wondering how long this takes, it will be 2 weeks on wednesday?
Felt a bit disheartened yesterday when i got hissed at, been doing everything i can.
Really hope he will come around.

I would definitely try a Feliway diffuser and/or the sprays.

Did you do the thing where you just sit in the room with him?

I know it sounds odd, but some music helps too...we had a thread on it.    I'll see if I can find out more

@Mani  thought I might be able to offer some advice.

First of all, this happens with kittens who are caged and get very minimal interactions with humans, maybe once a day they have their cage opened up and clean the box, change the water, add some food.

This is the result of a poor breeder, sorry to say.

They produce shy, frightened kittens who need time and work to adjust.

The thing I would do is to lessen the height of fear by containing in one small space or area.

The house is foreign at this point still, so a wide open space is a bit overwhelming now. You are new, the home, smells, sounds, everything is new, so baby steps are the way to go, from his view at least.

I know how you must feel anxious about him adapting, and he will, but it will take some time for this. It is just like taking in a semi-feral kitten from outdoors basically. 

Simply caused by lack of interaction during early kittenhood.

When a litter is handled and kissed and carried, and fussed over, it creates a very person friendly cat and for life. 

Your kitten will adjust to you fine in time, but will likely stay quite shy and hidden with strangers.

Once time is given to get acquainted with his surroundings, you will want to begin to establish a relationship yourself.

The main thing to start is down on his level. Talk to him, sing to him, have a conversation with him even.

Offer special foods from your hand, and when he takes them the other hand should pet him.

If this is not possible fairly soon then I suggest starting from scratch, cage him. 

I'm happy to walk you through doing this. 

I feel quite angry towards the person i purchased him off. Thinking back there were some tell tale signs that she was just in it for the money. What she's doing is just cruel.
I am talking to him and spending time in his room as well as singing.....mind you that's probually making him more scared!!
Don't really want to do the cage thing it seems un-natural.
I did think of asking my vets for something that might chill him out.
How long does it usually take...weeks or months?
He's such a sweet little thing it seems painful seeing him like this he must feel so lonely.

While I know you don't particularly like the idea of crating him, doing so is likely to help him progress more quickly. You can crate him in an area that you spend a lot of time (like a den or family room.) Since he was crated before, you would simply be providing him a familiar setup to what he is familiar with. Purchase the largest crate/cage you can afford to give him space to move about and play.

If you choose not to crate him, confine him to one room. There should not be any places for him to hide that you do not have access to (i.e. under the bed...do this by either removing the bed or placing the mattress/box springs directly on the floor.) You can use boxes to provide him a place to hide if he chooses.

Catpack nailed it, exactly why I mentioned crating him is a good thing, and not cruel at all, it will actually feel safe and secure, a relief of sorts. The familiarity of it, and the close encounters you will be able to have with him are so important now, and progress does go faster.

It is of course your decision, it's just advisable if you are willing/able.

If so, your best bet is to elevate it on a table and cover the back half with a sheet or towel.

This gives added security.

I agree with your feelings about the breeder, there are many like this too. Sad but true.

I agree with catwoman and CatPack, while the crate seems unnatural, it can be very good for a scared cat. Mine was younger, maybe 8-10 weeks, but she was born to a feral mama.

We kept the crate in the living room, elevated a couple feet. By the time we started letting her out she would actually go into it on her own to sleep. For us not having places to hide and only giving her access to one room was important.

We used A Feliway diffuser and composure treats also.

We also used chicken and gravy baby food to get her to come to us.

Ours took a month in a crate, then another month outside the crate before she was really friendly. Some cats may never be super friendly. I only have one experience with a scared cat, but I find she was worth the trouble.

I hear you on the breeder. We got a dog before we knew about puppy mills and back yard breeders, 30 years ago. She came to us with loads of health issues.

Keep up the good work.

Here is datagrrls thread.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/276583/help-with-feral-kitten/90

It might be helpful.

Thanks for all the advice.

Well I thought I would feed back on progress so far.

I decided not to go with the crate thing as he started to make a bit of progress.  I am using the Feilway spray but not 100% sure it is doing that much.

He still has his safe room with food etc.  But we now leave the door open for him so he can go in there if he gets really frightened.

He seems to spend most of his time in the room with us......just watching.  We have a big play session every evening which he totally loves; he has even taken to lying on the carpet in front of us when he gets worn out, plus his tails goes mad when he is playing.  He is very funny.

I also feed him in the room with us when we are having our dinner which he seems to have taken to.  I've made a bit of progress with the hand treat feeding but that's developing slowly.

Sadly I have not managed to get a smooth yet as he is still very scared when he sees a second hand coming towards him.  I guess I just wait till he is ready.

Overall he is getting better.  I only got hissed at twice last week.  The first time I'm not sure he recognized me as I had a towel around my hair and it was quite dark!

Fingers crossed he will develop even more over the next couple of weeks.

When I rescued our 4 feral kittens (who are about 16 or so weeks now) they were in a crate at first.  If I would have let them loose in my house, I know I wouldn't have made progress as fast as I did (and the progress was slow-going as it was).  Now they are kept in our sunroom loose but that is enclosed.  I let them out to explore the house before breakfast and before dinner (the food makes it easy to get them back to the sunroom).  I notice when they are in the sunroom (or in a crate) they are easy to go in and pet or pick up.  When they come out for exploring time, they always run from me. 

The smaller/safer space relaxes them. 
Above you can see the hammock I made them out of a piece of stretchy terry fabric.  I kept food and water in there with them and a small litter box.  Keeping them in the small space let me get close to them.  Also they love turkey or chicken baby food (check ingredients so there are no onions in it - I use those small jars by Gerber). 

@wijody  exactly my point of crating them, thank you!

It speeds up taming progress dramatically.