Hello!
I am the happy owner of three senior house cats (ages 13, 13 and 10), and last Friday, I trapped two feral kittens that had been hanging around our neighborhood. I know they are feral as mom had given birth to them in my yard back in late August, which puts the kittens at about 12 weeks now. They are in a room to themselves, and they have now been taken to the vet and are FiV/FLeuk negative (yay!), and in good health. I am trying to get them to come around and introduce them to my other kitties, but I don't want to do anything that will set me back, like introducing them too soon, or scaring them off. I seem to come across this site pretty frequently in my google searches, so I thought it might be time to set up an account.
So, where am I at? Well, as mentioned above, the two kittens are in their own space, and over the last week I have tried to spend at least two hours a day with them. We've named them Margaret Scratcher (aka Maggie) and Cindy Clawford. I've been leaving dry kitten food and water in the room when I am not in there, and when I go in, I bring chicken baby food and feed it to them off a spoon. They will both come out from under the side table and eat it pretty easily, and I can pet Maggie as she's eating, and occasionally Cindy will let me do so as well, but she is much more timid. Still, I think this is pretty good progress for just over a week in the house. I managed to pick up Maggie last night and hold her to my chest for about a minute and a half, I probably could have held her longer but didn't want to freak her out too much.
I guess the question now is, I don't want to stall the progress but similarly, I don't want to rush it and cause them to get freaked out by me. I've read a couple of websites where it is suggested to pick them up, even with a towel, and hold them to me so they become more acclimated to human touch/smell, but I don't want to force the issue if this progress is considered good. I'm pretty happy with where I'm at but at this point I would love a more experienced person to chime in.
In addition, I don't want to introduce my other kitties too early, or too late, for fear of them not getting along. So... anything you all can recommend would be appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to read... Here they are, for those of you who are curious:
I am the happy owner of three senior house cats (ages 13, 13 and 10), and last Friday, I trapped two feral kittens that had been hanging around our neighborhood. I know they are feral as mom had given birth to them in my yard back in late August, which puts the kittens at about 12 weeks now. They are in a room to themselves, and they have now been taken to the vet and are FiV/FLeuk negative (yay!), and in good health. I am trying to get them to come around and introduce them to my other kitties, but I don't want to do anything that will set me back, like introducing them too soon, or scaring them off. I seem to come across this site pretty frequently in my google searches, so I thought it might be time to set up an account.
So, where am I at? Well, as mentioned above, the two kittens are in their own space, and over the last week I have tried to spend at least two hours a day with them. We've named them Margaret Scratcher (aka Maggie) and Cindy Clawford. I've been leaving dry kitten food and water in the room when I am not in there, and when I go in, I bring chicken baby food and feed it to them off a spoon. They will both come out from under the side table and eat it pretty easily, and I can pet Maggie as she's eating, and occasionally Cindy will let me do so as well, but she is much more timid. Still, I think this is pretty good progress for just over a week in the house. I managed to pick up Maggie last night and hold her to my chest for about a minute and a half, I probably could have held her longer but didn't want to freak her out too much.
I guess the question now is, I don't want to stall the progress but similarly, I don't want to rush it and cause them to get freaked out by me. I've read a couple of websites where it is suggested to pick them up, even with a towel, and hold them to me so they become more acclimated to human touch/smell, but I don't want to force the issue if this progress is considered good. I'm pretty happy with where I'm at but at this point I would love a more experienced person to chime in.
In addition, I don't want to introduce my other kitties too early, or too late, for fear of them not getting along. So... anything you all can recommend would be appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to read... Here they are, for those of you who are curious: