2 stray kitties one very shy- suggestions?

zak&rocky · Oct 10, 2005

My co-worker and I have been on a mission to capture some stray kittens by her house for the last 2 weeks. She finally succeeded Saturday and brought them over my house b/c I have more room. We have a boy and a girl and I think they are between 8 and 12 weeks old. I know that they both have ear mites and someone threw up last night. There are definitely some worms between the two of them. They are going to the vet tomorrow. The boy is pretty friendly. He plays w/ toys and doesn't mind being handled. The girl is much smaller than the boy and very skittish. She hisses if you approach her and spends a lot of time hiding. She did play with the cat teaser a bit last night so I have hope for her progress. She will watch carefully when we play with the other cat. I am trying to give her some space and try not to scare her. If you pick her up she will growl but she doesn't bite. Does anyone have ideas about how to help her come out of her shell?
The other question I have is that the boy may have a home- a friend is looking for a male kitten. How long should I wait before separating the two? I may end of up keeping the girl- I have two male cats and the boy would go to a home with a female cat.

StefanZ · Oct 10, 2005

Good they are together. The boy is already almost domesticized, and his example will draw his sister (girl-pal) with him. I think it will go fairly soon. Ask the friend to wait for the boy so you all together can help the girl-cat.

You know of the classical tip not to look directly at her (=stare). Look only a second at her. Othervise look a little at the side. And look much at her with half closed eyes - like friendly cats do. Careful with your hands - for feral cats hands is threat.
Do sit down in the room on the floor, and perhaps read for yourselv showing you not dangerous.
Give her many small meals so she goes to you and eats from you/near you. You may then stroke her carefully at the back and the chins and under the mouth. NOT above the head. Not yet.

Very good you play and handle the boy - and she looks at - and sees you friendly and not dangerous! This excellent!
She is shy and careful, but not aggressive. And brothers good example... yes, I do guess it will go fairly quick.
It may be she is the shy type, and in this case she will always be a little shy - but domesticized none the less...

Good if you have a grown up friendly cat at home? It will be good in the future.

Good luck!

zak&rocky · Oct 10, 2005

StefanZ said:
Good they are together. The boy is already almost domesticized, and his example will draw his sister (girl-pal) with him. I think it will go fairly soon. Ask the friend to wait for the boy so you all together can help the girl-cat."

I'm thinking I will wait at least a week.

"You know of the classical tip not to look directly at her (=stare). Look only a second at her. Othervise look a little at the side. And look much at her with half closed eyes - like friendly cats do. Careful with your hands - for feral cats hands is threat."

I've tried that and made some progress. I've gotten her to tolerate me- she isn't hiding right away

and she pays close attention to what I'm doing with her brother. I also just tried the 'blinkies' I had her close her eyes just now! Her brother also seems afraid of the hands- he still flinches a bit right before I pet him, but then he relaxes and has fun!

"Give her many small meals so she goes to you and eats from you/near you. You may then stroke her carefully at the back and the chins and under the mouth. NOT above the head. Not yet."

I didn't know this! I will give them a midnight snack and be careful if I try to pet her. She just started to play with the toys by herself tonight- I think she is learning from her bro. They are also play fighting. Just as I started to reply to this post I felt a little claw on my foot and noticed her touching me and looking up! As I looked down she ran away.
I do have two cats at home that are pretty social. I had them in the room for a minute each- the girl hissed at them and I immediately took the big boys out of the room. The little boy didn't even pay attention to them. Now that I know that they have worms, not to mention the ear mites I am going to keep mine away for awhile. They are going to the vet tommorow for this and I'm worried about undoing any trust I have built with the girl. Thanks for the suggestions- any more will be appreciated.

StefanZ · Oct 11, 2005

Thanks for telling how it is going and you and she making small progress whole time, small steps but many. Nice you do understand my rather bad english, I do lack suitable words sometimes ("under the mouth").

Im more and more convinced a BIG part of domestication is to learn humans are funny people who do stare and uses hands without it being a threat... Hands being friendly.

In the cats world staring and rised paws IS threatening. And hostile people also do stare and rises the arms before beating or throwing stones at them...

decadenz · Oct 11, 2005

Aww... that part about her touching your foot and looking up at you was so sweet. I think she's definitely beginning to trust you, and her curiosity might be getting the better of her

Don't expect rocket progress, it'll be a slow build up of trust. Ultimately, I think you'll do fine with her with lots of patience and love. I think her bro is her security blanket, so try to keep them together for as long as she's still skittish. That said, she should still be encouraged to get used to human contact and not be allowed to hide in brother's shadow. It's good that she's curious enough to want to get to know you

She's definitely got potential to be a really sweet kitty

millyanddaisy · Oct 11, 2005

I have a shy cat, who took a while to trust us. I think it's important that you don't put any pressure on her, make sure she has plenty of safe places to go if she feels threatened, lots of yummy food! I bet she'll be an affectionate little thing once she trusts that you're not going to hurt her. Good luck,

Sue

zak&rocky · Oct 11, 2005

Thanks for the suggestions! Not much new to report except her bro has a home, but I told my friend that I wanted to wait about a week b/c of our shyness issues. We went to the vet today (I snuck out of work

). They are about 12 weeks old. We do have fleas and worms and were treated. They behaved well.
When I got home from work they were both hiding on the keyboard tray. (

) She likes to hide behind the computer desk and we do have a cat play house out that she has been hanging out in. Her brother is now named Jelly (friend has a cat named Peanut),and I am calling her Suzie for now.

2 stray kitties one very shy- suggestions?

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