Hello everyone,
It's my first time attempting to socializing a feral kitten and I need help. I have decided to take in a feral kitten into my life; my friend found him in her dumpster with 4 other kittens. Sadly out of the five kittens, only two survived. According to my friend, the Mama cat is also nowhere to be found after eating off my friends porch consistently for the past year. There was one boy and one girl kitten, I took the boy. My friend says he was about 10 weeks old when he was given to me.
I've had him for two full weeks now, so he's probably no more than 3-months old. I've already got him checked out by a vet. He went on medication for fleas and de-worming, and I was also told he also had a URI. They gave him Claravox drops for the URI and he also received some sort of topical for the worms and fleas. He had a follow-up vet visit a few days ago where they said his URI had gone away, but I was a little skeptical as the doc didn't even do **** other than shine the light in his eyes. Regardless, the discharge from his eyes is clear now, rather than mucus'ey like before though. With all that being said, he's currently scheduled to get neutered in 3 weeks.
Now for my socializing questions:
For the first week with me, he was confined to my bathroom. He was trusting of me enough to not need to be kept in a carrier, but my bathroom is very small. 4-5 days in, he figured out that whenever I open the bathroom door is his chance to escape. Occasionally, he'd cry at the door, but usually he was very good about chillin in the sink and would rarely attempt to flee the room. He would let me pet him to sleep and would initiate contact with me whenever I went into the bathroom, hopefully because he associated me with feeding and or petting. Whenever he escaped into the nearby bedroom though, he would be completely scared of me. After a week and a half (10 days) of being confined to my small bathroom, I opened up the door to my bedroom.
This essentially quadrupled his available space. The rest of my apartment is separated from the bedroom and bathroom. It's been four days since he's been exposed to this bigger space, and I feel like I may have moved him too soon. We had such good chemistry and I felt things were going so great when he was confined to the bathroom, however, he was only really trusting of me in the bathroom. He also knows that just like the bathroom door, the bedroom door is now his key to escape. He constantly sits by the bedroom door (to where I can't open the door without him feeling the door move in towards him) and then sprints out any and every time I try to enter the bedroom.
To get him back in the bedroom, I have to dangle his favorite toy in front of him and bait him back into the room. This is truly the only way to get him back into the cat proofed bedroom/bathroom otherwise he simply runs and hides from me. He did have a follow-up/check-up with the vet visit two days ago and ever since then, I feel like he's lost his trust in me - he won't let me anywhere near him. How do I go about getting his trust back? I was not aware that socializing ferals was this difficult. I am definitely willing to put in the time, but sometimes it's just so draining spending so much effort just to have him be so scared of me. What did I do wrong? Should I move him back into the bathroom? If so, how long do I keep him confined to the bathroom only? His crying, his desire to leave, and what I thought was his trusting me, is what initially prompted me to move him to the bigger area.
Last question for you guys for now...within the past two days (after his recent vet visit) he seems extremely stressed out. Like I mentioned above, I feel like he's lost his trust in me. Any time I do manage to get close to him, I hear what appears to be a purr, but it sounds different. Almost a defensive purr, perhaps? He also has started to stick his tongue out of his mouth, almost like he's out of air or he's hot or something. I've never seen him do this and it's only been happening for the past two days, again, after his vet visit where they told me his URI had disappeared and that everything looked good.
With all that being said, thank you to anyone that is still reading. Over the past few weeks, we've had so many small moments where it made everything so worth it...so I'm still willing to keep my promise to my little guy, it's just extremely hard. I've never socialized a feral kitten before and it's been extremely draining on me, I just want him to feel safe and secure...
It's my first time attempting to socializing a feral kitten and I need help. I have decided to take in a feral kitten into my life; my friend found him in her dumpster with 4 other kittens. Sadly out of the five kittens, only two survived. According to my friend, the Mama cat is also nowhere to be found after eating off my friends porch consistently for the past year. There was one boy and one girl kitten, I took the boy. My friend says he was about 10 weeks old when he was given to me.
I've had him for two full weeks now, so he's probably no more than 3-months old. I've already got him checked out by a vet. He went on medication for fleas and de-worming, and I was also told he also had a URI. They gave him Claravox drops for the URI and he also received some sort of topical for the worms and fleas. He had a follow-up vet visit a few days ago where they said his URI had gone away, but I was a little skeptical as the doc didn't even do **** other than shine the light in his eyes. Regardless, the discharge from his eyes is clear now, rather than mucus'ey like before though. With all that being said, he's currently scheduled to get neutered in 3 weeks.
Now for my socializing questions:
For the first week with me, he was confined to my bathroom. He was trusting of me enough to not need to be kept in a carrier, but my bathroom is very small. 4-5 days in, he figured out that whenever I open the bathroom door is his chance to escape. Occasionally, he'd cry at the door, but usually he was very good about chillin in the sink and would rarely attempt to flee the room. He would let me pet him to sleep and would initiate contact with me whenever I went into the bathroom, hopefully because he associated me with feeding and or petting. Whenever he escaped into the nearby bedroom though, he would be completely scared of me. After a week and a half (10 days) of being confined to my small bathroom, I opened up the door to my bedroom.
This essentially quadrupled his available space. The rest of my apartment is separated from the bedroom and bathroom. It's been four days since he's been exposed to this bigger space, and I feel like I may have moved him too soon. We had such good chemistry and I felt things were going so great when he was confined to the bathroom, however, he was only really trusting of me in the bathroom. He also knows that just like the bathroom door, the bedroom door is now his key to escape. He constantly sits by the bedroom door (to where I can't open the door without him feeling the door move in towards him) and then sprints out any and every time I try to enter the bedroom.
To get him back in the bedroom, I have to dangle his favorite toy in front of him and bait him back into the room. This is truly the only way to get him back into the cat proofed bedroom/bathroom otherwise he simply runs and hides from me. He did have a follow-up/check-up with the vet visit two days ago and ever since then, I feel like he's lost his trust in me - he won't let me anywhere near him. How do I go about getting his trust back? I was not aware that socializing ferals was this difficult. I am definitely willing to put in the time, but sometimes it's just so draining spending so much effort just to have him be so scared of me. What did I do wrong? Should I move him back into the bathroom? If so, how long do I keep him confined to the bathroom only? His crying, his desire to leave, and what I thought was his trusting me, is what initially prompted me to move him to the bigger area.
Last question for you guys for now...within the past two days (after his recent vet visit) he seems extremely stressed out. Like I mentioned above, I feel like he's lost his trust in me. Any time I do manage to get close to him, I hear what appears to be a purr, but it sounds different. Almost a defensive purr, perhaps? He also has started to stick his tongue out of his mouth, almost like he's out of air or he's hot or something. I've never seen him do this and it's only been happening for the past two days, again, after his vet visit where they told me his URI had disappeared and that everything looked good.
With all that being said, thank you to anyone that is still reading. Over the past few weeks, we've had so many small moments where it made everything so worth it...so I'm still willing to keep my promise to my little guy, it's just extremely hard. I've never socialized a feral kitten before and it's been extremely draining on me, I just want him to feel safe and secure...
