- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #21
ShadowesRescue, thanks for the advise. I will put the piece of cardboard in the doorway. I was also wondering, was Marvin a 100% feral when you took him in?
I also made a small progress. I watched some awesome videos of taming the feral kittens - http://urbancatleague.org/TamingFerals (there is a link there Tough Love, Socializing Feral Kittens). So I contacted the site owner, Mike and he responded very quickly. He gave me great tips.
Here is a part of the email I wanted to share with all of you, because I found these tips very valuable:
"Salem will get used to the new situation in time and eventually probably even become somewhat of a lap cat. It happens organically very slowly with adult cats but you can speed up the process if you control every bite of food and make him make tiny efforts gradually. If he won't come down to eat, take the food away when you leave. He will quickly realize there is only food there when you are there. You can start with the food across the room near his cat tree and gradually move it across the room closer and closer to you.
(...) The key is controlling every bite of food and that creates the incentive for him to suck up to you to get what he wants. Don't square off to him when you offer the food but turn sideways and ignore him for the most part to disarm his fight or flight instinct. Being in the one room, if you stare at him even encouragingly, he is forced to worry what you want and won't feel free to come down to eat. Just read a book, your mail or whatever and ignore him and he'll probably start approaching again in short order. If he's stubborn cut to feeding once a day and that will really get the message across. When you give him the run of the place you can set the dish at your feet (or as near as he dares) while you watch TV or are sitting on the couch. The usual favorite place where big strides are made is when you are in bed covered up to the shoulders. I don't know if it's that we appear smaller or less threatening but feral cats seem to feel particularly confident to approach when you are in bed. Interactive play with a wand toy and hiding it under a newspaper seems particularly captivating for them or a laser light. Careful not to make your feet part of the games. Not knowing it's a part of you, cats often attach and can bite as if you are a toy or part of the game."
So I just tried Mike's method of controlling the food. Wow, what a difference. I brought food and sit on the floor. As usual, Salem was waiting for me to leave. So I stayed there maybe 20 min. and nothing happened. He knew that eventually I would leave and he could come down to eat. So he was the one controlling me, not the other way around. But this time I left, taking the food away. I came back 10 minutes later with my laptop and brought back the food. I put it 3 feet away from me. I started working without paying any attention to him. Within 3 min. he jumped down from the cat tree and came to eat. I'm impressed!
I will continue doing it today and tomorrow and then, when I come back from vacation. I'm really excited. I think that this may be the key to our progress. I realized how different dogs are from cats. I have two dogs I adopted from high-kill shelters. At first, they were scared and not trusting, but dogs are different than cats. They want your attention and want to work with you. They always play along. With cats it's a power struggle. And I realized that in order to succeed, we need to stay in control. And hopefuly through food we eventually win the cat's heart.
I also made a small progress. I watched some awesome videos of taming the feral kittens - http://urbancatleague.org/TamingFerals (there is a link there Tough Love, Socializing Feral Kittens). So I contacted the site owner, Mike and he responded very quickly. He gave me great tips.
Here is a part of the email I wanted to share with all of you, because I found these tips very valuable:
"Salem will get used to the new situation in time and eventually probably even become somewhat of a lap cat. It happens organically very slowly with adult cats but you can speed up the process if you control every bite of food and make him make tiny efforts gradually. If he won't come down to eat, take the food away when you leave. He will quickly realize there is only food there when you are there. You can start with the food across the room near his cat tree and gradually move it across the room closer and closer to you.
(...) The key is controlling every bite of food and that creates the incentive for him to suck up to you to get what he wants. Don't square off to him when you offer the food but turn sideways and ignore him for the most part to disarm his fight or flight instinct. Being in the one room, if you stare at him even encouragingly, he is forced to worry what you want and won't feel free to come down to eat. Just read a book, your mail or whatever and ignore him and he'll probably start approaching again in short order. If he's stubborn cut to feeding once a day and that will really get the message across. When you give him the run of the place you can set the dish at your feet (or as near as he dares) while you watch TV or are sitting on the couch. The usual favorite place where big strides are made is when you are in bed covered up to the shoulders. I don't know if it's that we appear smaller or less threatening but feral cats seem to feel particularly confident to approach when you are in bed. Interactive play with a wand toy and hiding it under a newspaper seems particularly captivating for them or a laser light. Careful not to make your feet part of the games. Not knowing it's a part of you, cats often attach and can bite as if you are a toy or part of the game."
So I just tried Mike's method of controlling the food. Wow, what a difference. I brought food and sit on the floor. As usual, Salem was waiting for me to leave. So I stayed there maybe 20 min. and nothing happened. He knew that eventually I would leave and he could come down to eat. So he was the one controlling me, not the other way around. But this time I left, taking the food away. I came back 10 minutes later with my laptop and brought back the food. I put it 3 feet away from me. I started working without paying any attention to him. Within 3 min. he jumped down from the cat tree and came to eat. I'm impressed!
I will continue doing it today and tomorrow and then, when I come back from vacation. I'm really excited. I think that this may be the key to our progress. I realized how different dogs are from cats. I have two dogs I adopted from high-kill shelters. At first, they were scared and not trusting, but dogs are different than cats. They want your attention and want to work with you. They always play along. With cats it's a power struggle. And I realized that in order to succeed, we need to stay in control. And hopefuly through food we eventually win the cat's heart.