Helping shy scared kittens....

[Suzysuz]

We adopted 2 kittens via cats protection on Monday, they've been very shy and scared and stayed under the sofa.

They do come out and play at night, have been using litter tray (one wee accident last night from top of cat tree?!) and eating a little which is positive.

They're kept in our lounge/dining room safely as no holes/dangers.

We haven't been able to stroke or hold them yet, and am moving very much at their pace 😊 they have come out the last couple mornings and evenings to play, watch us, eat etc so Im hoping they're slowly getting more comfortable with us.

My worry is that they have to go back to the vet next Thursday for their 2nd vaccination, and whilst they may come on leaps and bounds by then, if they don't Im worried we'll scare them even more as we'd need to get them from under the sofa ☹️

Is there anything else we can do? Im doing gentle talking and sitting on floor, no direct eye contact or slow blinking, playing with feather/tail on stick and red pen, lay on floor etc

Or any tips for getting two shy kittens into the carrier....

And I can't do pics as am so focussed on all the above when they do come out!

This was progress on Tuesday evening 🤣

Carry on your day, have a radio or TV on so they get used to household sounds. Lots of play & treats every time they're out from under the sofa. Leave their carrier open nearby & regularly put treats in it so they associate it with treat time. They are scent orientated, so either put their current blankie in there or run a cloth over their face & head gently ( where their scent glands are) then wipe it on the blankie you put in the carrier so they smell it & it's familiar _, not scary. I use the scent gland trick to get my cat to sleep on blankies, not the bare sofa or duvet ( makes the fur easier to cope with)

We're making some baby steps progress but also reading up online I'm wondering if they weren't socialised properly in that window.... we got them at 11weeks, they'd been in a cattery not inside a home and the foster carer mentioned they had been the only handler (which I only now see the significance of).

There are positives. They're better used to our background living noise, they'll come out when want to eat etc but they're definitely scared of people.they're very playful and owning the room on their dusk and dawn plays, providing we don't move to fast or close.

I've been continuing sitting on the floor, talking, slow blinking, using distance toys and it feels like they're getting a teeny bit better, they both separately came and sniffed me tonight and I kept statue still as know and flinch of finger would have them running but felt that was progress.

With the feather stick toy, boy cat is now fine if that touches top of head or back, but girl cat immediately flinches when it touches her and runs.

I'm hoping with baby steps we get there ❤️

We adopted two kittens two weeks ago. One was very confident but the other extremely nervous and hissed if we got anywhere near her. The last two days she had stopped hissing and is now so affectionate. It’s an incredible transformation! I was so worried she would always hiss and hide from us but she was just very scared. We found sachets called lick-e-Lix which have made a big difference as we could hold them at arms length and she would lick the food from them. We could gradually get closer and then she would eventually lick food off our fingers. It’s helped her to trust us. We have also used a Feliway plug in. Our kittens also missed out on early socialisation but are now doing so well. It’s hard to be patient when you want to cuddle them so much but they will settle.

Thank you @Amaretto21 that gives me such hope!
We're definitely being patient but I just feel for them as they're so scared around us that it can't be a nice home for them right now. Don't get me wrong they're loving the house, toys and cat tower!
I sat near today's food while they ate and just looked elsewhere and they did eat.
I will definitely order some of those! They weren't at all fussed with the dreamies (only a couple but they weren't bothered 🤣)

@Suzysuz how have your kittens settled in now? Im picking up 2 from the CPL on Friday and it sounds like they had the same start in life.

@ShakespearesSisters they're absolutely fine now ❤️ they just needed time and patience, they'll both come on our laps and fine with strokes now so they luffs us all 😊

They're 5 months now, I'd say it took about 2 weeks for them to be more around us and another 2 to be more comfortable around us and strokes.

We did use the feather on stick toy to help encourage them out under the sofa for play which may have helped, or maybe not and they just decided we might be alright 😆