Socializing older feral kitten (9-11 wks)

[cmw]

Hello, I am looking for some advice on socializing an older feral kitten.

We just trapped two feral kittens a week ago, and we estimate now that they are in the range of 9-11 weeks old. One kitten was progressing and getting a little comfortable during the time we have had them, but the other was not. Today we separated them using a humane trap to focus on socializing the one, and getting the other a check up and possible spay/neuter (if he weighs enough) before releasing him.

These kittens have had pretty much no human contact before we trapped them. The one we are focusing on now is calm for a feral kitten, and does not feel the need to hide/run in the room he is in, but is still very cautious and sometimes hisses when we approach him. With feeding, we only feed him whilst we are in the room and sit about a meter away with a spoon attached to a long stick to draw him to a plate of food closer to us. We are progressing slowly towards feeding him with just a spoon.

We have not tried to pick him up/handle him, however we are slowly being able to touch him. We started petting him with a spoon during feeding which he seems to enjoy a bit, and just today we have cautiously stroked him a little for the first time and he was alert but tolerating it. He is very cautious, but is also calm and does not try to run. We can sit about a meter away from him, but we haven't pushed him much further because we don't want to agitate him.

The room we have him in is a unique situation: he is basically in a sunroom surrounded on all four sides by windows/clear doors, one of which leads into our house. He is pretty comfortable seeing us through the door; he will explore and mess around and use his litterbox. When we go in the room however, he pretty much just stays on the corner of a bench and doesn't explore or really walk around at all except to his food a few inches away on the bench.

One thing we have not worked on yet is playtime. We tried introducing some toys, namely some catnip mouse toys and a fishing rod toy, but he seems too cautious/scared to want to play.

Advice on how to make him more comfortable around us is much appreciated.

Main questions:
1. How should we proceed with practicing handling/making the kitten comfortable with us petting and picking him up?
2. When and how should we go about introducing playtime?
3. Getting him to the vet for a checkup is also a priority: should we wait until he is handleable or take him as soon as possible even if we have to trap him in a humane trap to take him?

Sorry this post is so long; just wanted to provide enough context for my questions. Thank you in advance for your advice.

 

[Kieka]

9 to 11 weeks is a pretty manageable range, it's past 12 weeks that it gets more challenging. It sounds like you are doing good, just keep pushing the boundaries a little at a time, take your cue from the kittens comfort level and introduce new sounds and sights if possible. Your basically trying to teach the kitten what is safe so you push a little more, let them realize they are still safe and repeat until they aren't scared by whatever.

Kitten Lady has some good tips on her website How to Socialize Feral Kittens<br/> — Kitten Lady

Playtime will come on its own. The toys themselves are another new thing so leave them where the kitten can see before moving them around. My former feral is partial to real feather and real fur mice toy's over synthetic materials. She also was a late catnip bloomer but eventually picked it up. Of my three cats, she's middle on reaction to toy's but real feather wand toys get her everytime.

As for the vet, because they are still learning the world I would go ahead with the vet now. Introduce it as another experience while young so that it won't be such a shock later. Plus vet checks are always a good idea with feral.