Anybody tamed a feral kitten?

[nextdoorscatwantstomovein]

A few days ago dd1 and her friend found what appears to be an abandoned feral kitten(from the look of it just couple of months old max). On the advice of loca! rescues have been putting food down but have not yet been able to catch it. We now have a trap down but it seems to be too light to trigger it so we're going to see if we can get a smaller one from the rescue.

Dd1 and dd2(aka the cat whisperer as she seems to have a knack with cats) want to keep it if we catch it, I've not definitely said yes or no, I had cats growing up and as a teenager tamed a feral adult who turned into one of the most affectionate cats I've known.

Just wondering if anyone else had experience with feral kittens

Our childhood cat was a rescued feral kitten - found in a barn. She was a massively grumpy bugger but she loved my mum (and only my mum!).

If it's a kitten it'll adapt very easily. It's the ten year old pensioners who need more careful and respectful treatment!

I'm not sure about trapping etc. Our latest cat was feral from a farm and we got her at six weeks before the farmer would have "got rid" but the farm was miles away so once rescued the cat didn't have a choice but to adapt to us and the house. I've no idea how you persuade a feral to stay.

She's a perfectly affectionate girl and incredibly smart.

I have tamed feral 4 weeks of been shredded and keeping her quiet she is now a clever funny affectionate cat

The trap is more because it is so small, it's living under some bushes in a ditch by a main road. The concern is that it doesn't seem to have any proper shelterand it is gettting cold at night or that it may get run over on the busy road

We raised a feral kitten but by the vet's estimation she was less than 2 weeks old. Her eyes were open but only just. There was a colony of ferral cats in an empty building behind our garden and one cat had chosen to give birth on the other side of our fence. This little one kept wandering off. Ove the course of twenty four hours we put her back with the litter but then the mother took the rest of the litter and left the one.

We bottle fed her with goats milk, cleaned her, had her sleep with us etc and she grew into the grumpiest bossiest animal we've ever known. She was fiercely independent and affection had to be on her terms but that may just be cat behaviour - I've never really been a cat person!

Not everyone’s idea but with our feral kitten a few years ago now we swaddled her for 10 mins a few times a day and just held her stroking her forehead gently.
After a couple of weeks she started closing her eyes at the head stroking.
Then purring then head butting
By the time she went in to be neutered she was affectionate.
She always loved being outside hunting but when she was in she was snuggly and lovely.
Sadly expired in a r t a but remembered with total joy

If she's looking vulnerable go and get her/him OP. Just get them indoors. Register her with a vet quite quickly though because ours did turn out to be riddled with fleas although they weren't visible on her. You can't get flea treatment for kittens normally other than via a vet.

Ferals bred under my grandparents' house when I was young, my brothers caught the cats (got badly bitten!) & we kept one kitten.

Small fluffy ginger... & extremely thick. I've never had such a dim cat, exceptionally stupid. Malnourishment caused that, we reckoned. I suppose about 6 weeks old when came to live with us. Always a bit high strung but pretty ordinary over all.

We had a rescue feral when I was young - she ended up being quite good with me but wouldn't let any other family member touch her and HATED being picked up. She was definitely very very different to our other (domestic) cat. She wouldn't fall asleep in the house unless she was able to totally hide herself away

Talit, we've been trying to catch it for the last three or four days but it keeps retreating deep.into the bushes or through a fence where we can't get to it. We have been in touch with local rescue and are following their advice, we don't want to.scare it into running out into the road. We've been checking the trap every couple of hours today and if we don't catch it overnight will be contacting the rescue again to see if they've had ny of the traps for smaller cats returned(they didn't have any today).

I would love to just go.and get it but if we get to close it just runs deeper into the.bushes or through the.fence.

We've had kittens in the past that became affectionate. One was climbing the walls when feral.

However also had a more recent one that is still half feral, although probably easier to explain her as just terrified of life. She will let me pick up and hold her, but no one else. Not even my mum and she loves my mum more than me. She doesn't like being held or touched, but she'll happily 'talk' to you for ages. Scared of the outside world too, won't leave the garden. I don't think she is an example to use for a reason why not to get the kitten, she's just quirky.

Yes - took lots of tuna and other tasty food, but she was quite easy to tame. She grew in to a very affectionate cat - to those she liked. She once jumped up and bit an (ex) boyfriend's throat when he shouted and threatened me.

One of our present cats is an elderly semi-feral. Took a few months of tlc but he is now the softest, snuggliest cat I've ever had who loves everyone in this family from our rambunctious young female kitten to our human baby. His turning point was when I suffered a MC - it was almost like he could sense I was sad, and started to sleep on our bed (was previously in another room, under a bed mainly and had been there for months), then started to purr and snuggle on me. He was lovely during my second MC and the pregnancy that resulted in my DD too. Only problem is, he tends to bring us rat babies as gifts if he senses we're sick or upset. Baby DD used to get given one weekly.

Play a youtube recording of a mother cat calling her kittens. Put the phone, or whatever device you're playing it from, in a box or cat box or something and see if she'll go in to it. Or at least grab her when she comes to investigate. We caught a wild kitten this way last year.

Flead could be a concern as both me and dd2:react badly( itchy red.lumps I have few scars on my legs from nextdoors' cats having fleas and getting.bitten when fussing them)

You could also try baiting the trap with smelly food like bits of KFC (bones removed) or tuna to make it enticing.

I was sold a feral kitten.
Obviously the person selling her didn’t tell me that!

She became a legend in her own right. An indoor cat (I lived in a flat so no choice) and only loved me. Nobody could break her for affection but she’d snuggle up to me and knead at me and purr. Goodness me I miss her so much

This is the feral kitten we found a year ago aged about 6 weeks in a ditch! He’s now on my lap 😃

We rescued our newest cat when he was 3, but he had previously been hand raised from 2 weeks as an orphaned feral. He's the friendliest we've ever had. I have no idea whether that would have been true had he been found at 2 months though.

Just been dowm to check trap, food has gone but it hasn't triggered the trap, we definitely going to have to try to get a trap for smaller cats.

We didn't see it this time, but could here something rustling in the bushes

**hear something rustling

I think you're bloody brilliant for caring! If he or she doesn't come then you've done what you can x

The funny thing is the bushes in the area are known for being used for drug drops and we've the police dtop and ask us what we're doing a couple of times!

We’ve caught feral kittens by rigging up a cat box with a piece of string tied to the door and threaded through the box and out one of the slits. Then bait it with smelly, tasty food and stand out of sight holding the string. You have to be sure that the box will hold steady, so wedge it in somehow, and keep tight hold of the string once she goes in and before you can close the door properly, as she will probably go mad trying to escape.

Good luck

A vet will be able to easily eliminate fleas for you.

Feral cats can and often do become tame over time. The level of tameness is hard to predict. Giving a cat a living home under these circumstances can be very rewarding if you have the time and inclination to do it.

Bear in mind that a cat's personality can be hard to predict even from a text book background with a great start to life. Many such cats turn out to be aloof and not very friendly- but are still much loved pets.

Personally I find them fascinating wonderful creatures. I've had many cats, but I'm not sure I've ever really owned any of them- they have kind of owned me.

My current boy was from a rescue background and I don't know much of his past. He was tiny and extremely timid when we got him.

He's now brave and affectionate on his own terms. I love his independent streak and appreciate his growing affection.

As for fleas, I use frontline spray, sprayed onto a cloth not directly onto the kitten, then rub it over her. She’ll also need to be wormed

(I’ve rescued dozens and dozens of cats and kittens from day old, bottle feeders, and currently have 15!)