New to socialising feral cats.

[Emmyroslyn]

Hi, about a week and a half ago I adopted a 2 year old white feral colony kitty named Jasmine. She is very timid but in her crate has fallen asleep when patting her eventually. My question is how long should I keep her in the crate? And should I move her to a bedroom as at the moment she is in our loungeroom where she can see my husband and I moving around. I had her in our spare bedroom at first but all she did was hide under the spare bed. We also have a another white kitty named John Snow who at first was pretty territorial with her but has seemed to have settled down. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for me that has experience with socialising older feral cats? I know it will be a long but rewarding road. I just find that with all the research on the internet I have done so many say don’t bother but she can’t go back to her colony as I don’t want her to get skin cancer plus I live in Australia and the area was being bated.

 

[catsknowme]

Welcome to TCS and may Heaven reward you for rescuing your beautiful white princess! Since she is hiding in her litterbox, I would leave her in the crate and partially cover the crate so she won't feel overwhelmed. Ideally, she will have a cave-like setting to establish her "base camp". You can move her crate to different rooms so that she can hear, see and smell the routines and goings-on of the household.

 

[molly92]

With enough patience, you can absolutely socialize her! That you're already able to pet her is huge.

This guide has every step for socialization in detail. You can use the parts that make the most sense for your cat.

For moving to the next step (letting her out of the cage, into the rest of the house, etc), the key is to pay attention to where she's at. If she seems curious about the next big thing, and add a little incentive like food or toys. If she's not ready, you can always go back a step or two and try again later. And keep it gradual, starting with just a few minutes of something new and slowly increasing over time.

There are not enough resources to socialize all of the feral cats that could be safer and happier as pets. It takes a lot of time and effort. Thank you for being one of those people willing to invest that and make this cat's life so much better!

 

[fionasmom]

Thank you for helping her. I just took in two feral females myself, one my avatar, and they adjusted surprisingly well and quickly. Just take it a step at a time.