Cat people - help me advise a friend please?

[Laiste]

In a nut shell: a good friend of mine has just taken home what sounds like a feral kitten (8 weeks ish) from a farm in the next village.

The seller didn't know the sex of the kitten and took ages to catch it from in a barn. I think the parents are just feral 'barn cats'.

It was all a bit awkward, a misunderstanding and friend was a bit railroaded at the time. Now kitten is home obviously and understandably terrified of everything and everyone. They are doing their best to settle it with patience and gentleness. It has a pen in a quiet place in the living room. It has not seen a vet yet. Appt. is booked. They need gloves to handle it and are realising the extent of the job at hand!

Does anyone here have experience and know what the chances are of them being able to actually socialise this kitten and end up with a happy pet?

They wanted a nice pet for their DD (12) to love but obvs this is not a good start.

No experience of this personally as i only have daft Ragdoll cats (who always arrive socialised and ready for anything at 13 weeks) and worry friend is heading for a lot of stress!

TIA

It needs time and patience.
Kind gentle words.
No rushing it.
Let it come to them.
Don’t force it or over crowd it.
Once it gets used to its new surroundings and feels safe and secure, it will start to trust them.

Absolutely. I wouldn’t cage a cat.

I adopted a cat that had been born on a farm and the cat rescue had rescued 50 cats from there. She never liked being picked up, but she was a very affectionate sweet cat and she’d jump on your lap or on your bed and was lovely - as long as she was in charge and could go if she wanted. I lost her two years ago aged 19 and still miss her.

re play, that’s why I say scrunched up paper - it’s quiet, you can throw it away from you so cat doesn’t have to approach you to play.

good luck to your friends

All our cats have come via farm barn cats and all have ended up being the friendliest soppy creatures you could imagine. All good strong healthy cats too. Cats are super intelligent and will take time to suss you out. Tasty food is the biggest motivator! I find putting a small amount of food down and walking away then repeating in a couple of hours means they soon start looking forward to seeing you. Once they make their decision you are friend it’s then moving on to letting them snifff you and slowly a stroke etc. it’s surprising how quickly the younger ones come round. Older ones take a lot more time but the kittens are usually quicker to trust you.

Thank you so much for all replies! 😸

For info the 'cage' is a v big hexagonal open top pen which i lent my friend. It's one you put on the lawn for rabbits/guinea pigs ect.

There's no one at home for the bulk of the day during the week so she didn't want the kitten hiding somewhere weird!

Anyway good news! She rang this morn and said she has had kitten on her lap (no gloves!) and kitten purred! 😍 She marched about on friends lap looking to jump away but no hissing.

Thats big progress!

I have passed on all advice. Well and gratefully received.

Vets tomorrow. Once she tells me how they got on i will update 👍

Here is a pic of kitty

Excellent update @Laiste. Now that kitten has invited herself to a lap, lick-e-lix are the gateway to repeat visits.

Never met a feral that doesn't like them. Including my own feral kitten who is now 16 years old (and loves a belly snuggle!) and the 14 week old feral Burmese I had to wear inside my sweater last year. Only thing he could eat to start with as he was so weak.