I TNR'ed a 4 month old feral. Now I want to make friends with him. What do I do?

I found a 4 month old kitten living in my bush. There had been two, one black and one a silver tabby, but the black one disappeared. I guess he was killed by a raccoon. 

The tabby I named Gus. The day before I caught him, he was playing in a very cute way in my front yard in broad daylight. I TNR'ed him, and he's been living back in my bush ever since. But that was three weeks ago, and I haven't seen him leave the bush, day or night, since.  

I feed him. He appears on my porch like clockwork every night at 7:45pm, but at the first sound of anything he runs back into the bush. If he gets too scared, he just won't eat that night. 

He's very sweet, and handsome, too. He's not angry or vicious. He's just a scaredy cat. I regret not releasing him into my bathroom and socializing him, but I wonder if trapping him again might scare him too much.

I'm completely new to TNR and to cats. What do I do next? 

Thanks! 

Kris

Hi Kris,

Thank you for trying to help this little guy. You absolutely did the right thing by TNRing him, his chances of survival are much higher now he's been fixed.

You could try trapping him again and keeping him indoors. I tend to use the coaxing method with feral kittens. I used to have a lot of feral cats that lived in the fields behind my house and I'd open a window and feed them on the window sill. Could you try the same thing by opening your door and coaxing him inside that way? It would usually take me a couple of months to get the kittens comfortable with coming indoors to eat and then hang out and play for a while. If you think your neighbourhood is too dangerous for him to be outside that long then trapping is your best option.

Does he stay on the porch to eat while you are there? Sit down a little way away from him while he eats and talk to him softly. Getting him used to your voice is the first step in getting him socialised.A wand toy is a useful way of getting him to come closer to you too. You can also get this stuff called Feliway, that comes as either a spray or a diffuser. The smell of it helps to keep cats calm and contended. I used to spray the stuff on my hands and clothes when I was trying to get the feral cats to trust me. It mimics the hormones mother cats give off when they have kittens and seems to work with younger cats really well.

Keep us posted on how it goes.