Advice for taming 7/8 week old feral kittens

Hi all, very glad to have found this site! Lots of awesome advice.

A Mum cat with 4 babies came out from under a friend's house last week - we managed to trap 2 but the Mum and other 2 seemed to have wised up about the trap. The two I have now have made really good progress but it seems to have stalled now.

They're in my room, which I've kitten proofed, and I've given them 2 cubby spaces to hide and feel safe in. When I first brought them home they wouldn't even look at my flatmates or I and hid, and we've worked on them to the point that they will eat their food right next to us as we sit on the floor, take treats from our hands, sleep and clean themselves out in the 'open' unhidden with us 1.5m or so away, play with toys we have and run under our legs as we sit on the floor playing with them and play freely by themselves with people around. They are only allowed to eat their food with us sitting on the floor right next to the plates. Occasionally one of them will come right up to an outstretched hand, or jump up onto my bed unbribed by treats. We've not been shy about talking, laughing, moving our arms and legs around as we sit in the room with them so they are quite fine with noise and movement unless it's within the 1.5m range of them. We've avoided extended eye contact, and 'smize'/squint when we do.

This is day 5, I'm very proud of them! Especially as they've used the litter box from day 1. The past 4 feedings (they get fed 3-4 times a day and then get hand fed treats) we've been stroking them gently from behind/the side as they eat. They growl at this, and now when I bring the food in and go to sit cross legged with the plates right next to me they eat way faster than they used to (admittedly that was also very fast), growl a lot more, are jumpier and seem to know that food time = scary patting time. They aren't as jumpy when it isn't food time but still flee when someone enters the room. I spend about a few hours with them every morning before work and then post work I hang in my bedroom with them, one flatmate spends 30 mins with them in the late morning before she starts her job, and then other two flatmates are with them when I go out or work evenings. They pretty much always have someone around them 6pm - bedtime and then 5am-8am. They are very interested in us, will sit around watching us.

I was hoping for some advice on where to from here to get more into the handling/touching phase and overcoming the fear of hands. I've read various bits of advice on swaddling, but am not overly keen on taking away their free will. However it does make sense on a different level and I would try it if it came to it, they are overdue for defleaing, though not infested and will have to be handled for that anyway. Are we doing the right thing by continuing to pet them while they eat? They are still coming back to eat after jumping away, and will do 4-5 pats in a row before retreating and then eating again. We are also going to get kitten milk and put that on our fingers for them to lick off. Should we separate them at this point, or leave them seeing as they've made such huge progress in 5 days?

It's only been 5 days but I want to make sure we're going down the right path! Currently I'm sitting in my room and they are racing around post breakfast, play fighting, coming within 1 meter of me - very cute. Every now and them I talk to them, make brief friendly eye contact and move my body around so they stay used to me being in the room. The plan is to tame them, neuter & vax them then rehome. Unfortunately I've lost too many cats to cars on a nearby busy road so as a cat lover this is the next best thing to looking after my own personal cat.

Pic for age reference shows the little tab next to a box just over 10cm in height (sorry, from the southern hemisphere, 6-7 inches?), though they were underfed when I got them so could be older?  Second pic is a close up of tab straight after trapping (no individual pic of the black, they photograph shockingly!). The tabby is slightly bigger and more frightened of voices/noise and the black one watches us a lot and is more fine with voices/noise and being approached. Both are just as bad as each other with handling and touching.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me and my flatmates.



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Oh, sweet babies!  Yes, they look about 6-7 weeks old.  Plenty young enough to socialize, so you are on the right track.  If you have Gerber chicken baby food (just chicken - no onions), it is often irresistible to cats.  They will lick it off your fingers.

One thing you can try is sitting in the room and reading out loud to them.  Anything will do - it will get them used to your voice and presence.  It really sounds like you are pretty much on track.  At this age, they come around pretty quickly.

If you can, borrow a drop trap and get the mom and other kits.  Even if you fix them and return them, they will be so much better off.  If you can do it within the next week or so, the other kits may also be able to be socialized.

I wouldn't separate the two you have.  They seem to be making progress as is.

Blessings on you for helping them!

I think 5 days is great progress for them. For cats the hardest part is physical contact, and it's something you have to build up. If I were you I would also try to pet them when they play with you or at other times so they get more used to spontaneous touching.

Like Online said you can find a healthy substance for them to lick off your fingers. My Regent loves coconut oil.

How would you recommend I go about touching them without a food incentive? Just patting them as they come by be while playing, getting them to jump onto me while playing?

Thank you Ondine! I do have a trap that gets fresh fish put in it every morning but they have sussed it out and aren't falling for it anymore. Going to see if NZ supermarkets stock this Gerber chicken flavoured baby food - sounds like a good idea.

Play time gives you a great excuse to congratulate them when they pounce. Just a quick pat as you say "good job" or a game of hiding the toy behind your back.

Thank you so much for helping and working with these little ones.  Here is a video series that has some great suggestions on socializing feral kittens. 

http://www.urbancatleague.org/TamingVideo

I think you are doing great.  I started with my kittens from a feral at three weeks. It is great to stoke them at feeding time, they associate you with food.  I would not separate them. I had a kitten milk weaning formula. Every night at bed time they got that as their treat.  I had friends and family come in and sit with the kittens so they were socialized with other people as well as myself. The one thing I heard works is leaving a radio or TV on in the room so they get used to household noises.  My kittens are now 19 months old and loud noises will send them running. I also put them in a dog crate when I cleaned their room and brought them to the living room or kitchen to see daily household activities. I think exposure to strangers is key if you are planning to adopt them out.  I work with some ferals and they associate my husband and myself with food. If someone else comes out to feed them they disappear. They let us pet them, but when a stranger comes they revert back to wild cats.

I've found that play therapy is ideal for socializing feral kittens. Wand toys are the best because they're interactive between you and the kittens. They will associate fun play time with humans, and kittens love to play. If they're stressed out when getting petted while eating, I would encourage you to not pet them while they eat, but incorporate petting time with play time. Kittens that young need to eat often, so it would be a good idea to leave out a bowl of kitten chow, too, for them to nibble on during the day and night when hungry, and not make petting a condition for eating. Five days is not a long time at all, and you've made great progress. I don't think swaddling them is necessary --they are young enough to be socialized with more time and some patience. You don't want to do anything that makes them stressed out around you. I agree with others that talking to them helps with the process.

I hope you can catch and socialize the other kittens--now is the ideal time. After they're 3-4 months old, it becomes more difficult (though entirely possible). If you can trap and spay the mother cat, then it will be easier to catch the kittens.  If the kittens are 8 weeks or younger, they're likely too young to get neutered/spayed--most vets will not do the spay on kittens that young and small. The earliest that cats become sexually active is 4 months--so if you trap them now, there is time for the neuter/spay in another month or so, as long as they are kept indoors.  

Have you tried camouflaging the trap? Cover it with branches, grass, twigs, etc. Put it somewhere nearby, but in a different spot than usual. You can get them "addicted" to some tasty food like roast chicken or tuna fish, and then put it in the trap. The kittens may venture into the trap when mother cat isn't around--but that's the tricky part. Now that mama is savvy about the trap, she will try to keep her kittens away from it.  

Hi all just an update on the kittens:

They now sleep on the end of my bed, but won't let me touch them. They will play with fingers and climb all over our legs when they play, even lying down on us inbetween play time, but as soon as we try pat them they move away. They watch us very closely and are interested in what we're doing, and we can get right up close to them, walking right past them as well as sitting within a metre of them but as soon as a hand is reached out they flinch. They always come back closer though.

They don't growl when we pat them while we eat anymore, and the little tabby purrs if I play with her face to face, or on my lap which I think is a big deal! Any more tips on how to get them better at being touched? Thanks for all the advice so far. The Mum cat and the other 2 babies are long gone it seems, sadly.

Have you tried wearing gloves, as a kind of intermediary? Or petting them as they sleep??

Not yet, they are getting vaccinated tomorrow so I'll have to manhandle them unfortunately. Today one got into my cupboard and I had to pick him up to get him out, he hissed and I held him to my chest and tried to feed him a treat but no luck.

I am thinking of using gloves or the swaddling method nearer the end of the month if there's no major progress.

Hi guys, the Kittens were taken to the Vet today and vaccinated. They were frightened and didn't even fight being handled, but it's given them a huge knock back. When we got home they wouldn't let us get near them adn shied away when we got close during playing.

The little tabby tonight got a hair tie stuck down its throat and I had to grab her and pull it out. She squealed, almost screaming and now they are both refusing to come out of their hiding space.

The vet put them at 10 weeks, so 7 weeks or so when we got them. It's been nearly 3 weeks and I am worried they will never become tamer than this and I won't be able to rehome them once desexed. The tabby is back to hissing and swatting, and neither of them have purred as we played with them today.

What advice can you guys give? Thanks so much in advance.