Cat terrified of objects approaching him

Hi... I got a feral kitten 4 weeks ago (now 5 months old) from a rescue centre. He was the least friendly from his litter. When I got him home he quite quickly was comfortable to eat near me and play with a wand toy. Within a couple of weeks he'd even rest his paws on my leg while eating. Having said this I seem to have come to a bit of a standstill now or even going backwards.

Recently he has become more aggressive when I approach him. He has always hissed and growled but now spits as well and will swat away any attempts to touch him with wands. I'm feeling a bit stuck as to how to continue socialising him as I presumed the next stage would be physical contact (albeit by proxy with a wand!). Or am I just being impatient? Any advice would be fantastic.

It's better to approach him from BEHIND. Cats absolutely hate hands coming towards their face. Move your hand slowly behind his back & then stroke him that way.

You can also try extending your fist towards him.  It looks like another cat, asking for a head bump.  Once he touches his cheek to your fist, you can slowly open you hand and begin petting him.

He sounds like he may be getting comfortable with you, which is actually a good sign.

Well I have been trying to train him to see my hand as friendly by holding treats in my fist and bringing it toward him then dropping the treat. This has resulted in quite a few scratches on my hand! He seems trainable tho as he always searches for food after seeing my fist (treat or not).

As for approaching from behind, he has all round detection and shoots off as soon as anything approaches him. I have been doing a bit of research and have started feeding a spoonful of baby food, then stroking him with a catnip filled sock on a wand. He has to be cornered for this to work and I'm concerned I'm scaring him doing this as he is spitting and hissing usually when we do this. He gets a reward at the end (only a few strokes) and is happy to take it. Having said that he will still come and eat right next to me so maybe it's not making him all that unhappy?

By the way I've never owned a feral cat and this is my first cat in over 20 years so I'm not overly familiar with cat behaviour.

If nothing has changed from the time he would eat next to you with a paw on your leg till he started being aggressive I.e. Do you have other cats in the neighborhood or around your place he can see? Have you handled other cats at a friends? Have any strangers entered his house recently (people)? He is trying to find his place in this new world so I suspect if your answer is no to the above you may be moving too fast for him.

I would bet he has gotten comfortable enough to move around,explore and looking out the window he has found something threatening like seeing another cat.

Do you always approach him or vice versa when food is not involved? You might try just finding at what distance he feels threatened, back off a few inches, get a pillow, sit down and read a book. See what he does without food for a motive...move away or stay?

Since he still comes to you for food and does not move away when you just sit close you might just be moving a little too fast for him.

Just some thoughts...be patient...it will come

The only thing I can think of that has changed since he's been more aggressive is I started giving him the odd whole chick as a treat. He'd take it off to a corner, beat it up for a while, then eat it. I would have thought that's unlikely to affect his behaviour is it?

I'm definitely doing more approaching than him when I think about it... not something I'd really noticed but obviously freaking him out. I'll back off and give him some space and see how that goes. He has made some approaches without food, but I guess I'm expecting more than him to jump on the bed for a nanosecond!

Just thought I'd give an update. Things are improving slowly, but do vary day to day. Some days he's been in a terrible mood, tends to be on days after I've spent more time with him, the following day if he's alone more he's not as happy.

I've tried training him with dreamies which he loves but I kind of lack focus in getting something specific in terms of behaviour from him. One thing I've just found that seems to work well is playing using foam balls... he becomes almost hypnotised if I bounce them around him and I managed to quickly pet him on the head at one point. He also seems to enjoy passing the ball back to me if I roll it to him and I have been able to get much nearer to him doing this.

It sounds like things are going well.  Sometimes the worst part is the patience we have to  have with them.  But that always pays off.  Just remember he may never be a lap cat.  He has  a good life.  That's the key thing.