Hi there,
I foster for a local cat rescue and last Tuesday picked up my new foster(Tuxie). Tuxie is a 2 year old feral male that was neutered the same day I picked him up. He is currently in a three level cage in my bathroom while he recovers from his neuter. In his previous foster he was aggressive, lunging and spitting at the lady that was taking care of him. He always hisses when I go in the cage to scoop litter and feed and yesterday I was unable to go in at all because he kept lunging and spitting at me.
I do have previous experience socializing ferals. I once socialized a litter of feral kittens but there were only 3 months old so it only took 2-4 weeks. My current cat Skandar is 14 and is also a previous feral. We trapped him when he was about a year. We had been feeding him at our front door and trapped him after we saw his eye was injured. He was different than Tuxie is that he was not aggressive and would allow us to administer medication although he would basically flatten himself into a corner. It took him at least a year to finally become more social(coming over for pets) and stop hiding. It took several more years to get him to where he is today.
I worry that Tuxie may never come around to a level where someone might adopt him. And if he does would his socialization be reset once he is placed in his new home? I know it is still very early days and he is not even free of his tomcat hormones.
Has anyone had any success socializing a feral at his age? Did you end up keeping them yourself or were you fostering like me?
Thank you for reading my very long post lol
Katie
I foster for a local cat rescue and last Tuesday picked up my new foster(Tuxie). Tuxie is a 2 year old feral male that was neutered the same day I picked him up. He is currently in a three level cage in my bathroom while he recovers from his neuter. In his previous foster he was aggressive, lunging and spitting at the lady that was taking care of him. He always hisses when I go in the cage to scoop litter and feed and yesterday I was unable to go in at all because he kept lunging and spitting at me.
I do have previous experience socializing ferals. I once socialized a litter of feral kittens but there were only 3 months old so it only took 2-4 weeks. My current cat Skandar is 14 and is also a previous feral. We trapped him when he was about a year. We had been feeding him at our front door and trapped him after we saw his eye was injured. He was different than Tuxie is that he was not aggressive and would allow us to administer medication although he would basically flatten himself into a corner. It took him at least a year to finally become more social(coming over for pets) and stop hiding. It took several more years to get him to where he is today.
I worry that Tuxie may never come around to a level where someone might adopt him. And if he does would his socialization be reset once he is placed in his new home? I know it is still very early days and he is not even free of his tomcat hormones.
Has anyone had any success socializing a feral at his age? Did you end up keeping them yourself or were you fostering like me?
Thank you for reading my very long post lol
Katie