Our feral kitten is spicey, can we tame him!

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We got a feral kitten yesterday and he's a spicey one! He was 1 of 8 kittens brought to a stables by his mum. They've had some interaction with humans and they have been stroked lightly while they have been eating before he came to us. At the moment he's in our downstairs loo (fairly roomy) with litter tray, food, carrier etc all in with him. He is petrified and hiding in his carrier. He hasn't eaten or been in his litter tray and its been 20 hours. I'm borrowing a dog crate and going to put him in there in our main lounge so he gets used to us but feels safe in there for now. Any tips on how to win him round or try to reassure him we'll be nice to him! Or have we made a massive mistake 🤔

I thought it looked like a mouse too. You could call him Mickey.

To be honest, he seems to be doing more than fine. One thing that's very important is to avoid staring at him. Make sure you look away or close your eyes regularly. Then, just give him time

Here he is, he's definitely a boy abd his name is Teddy! I can't believe I've got a feral cat sat on me in less than a week! I'm besotted 😻😻😻

Oh my word, he is absolutely gorgeous 😍

Too adorable, god I love cats. Thankfully I have my own, or I'd be on my way to catnap.

He is too sweet! This is my little feral girl, Judy. I've had her 3 weeks, and she thinks everyone else is pointless but fell in love with me on day 2. She follows me everywhere, squeals at me if I've left her alone for 10 minutes, pats my face and is generally perched on my shoulder at all times.

She's claiming my big cats bed as her own in the pic.

I love her! She's my second feral, the first took a year to come out of her shell, but once she did, she was a darling.

Gorgeous cats 😍

As everyone has said, just time, time, time.

And tuna!

We had a feral Tom cat arrive when I was a kid, it was so spicy the RSPCA officer couldn’t catch him, but he’d let a 9 year old me stroke his head (the cat, not the RSPCA officer lol) so with us he stayed.

He went from a gangly, matted young cat (about 6 months when he arrived) to a magnificent, long haired behemoth of a beast. Friendly, loving, comical, utterly loopy.

Ginger lived until he was about 17, he’d go out & sun himself on our neighbour’s window ledge. Until one day he stretched out, fell asleep, and rolled, stiff as a board, into her flower bed.

Taming him took a lot of time, patience & love. And the smellier food the better! A little stroke here & there turned into tentative sitting on laps, to being able to stroke him whilst on your lap (at first, you daren’t move if he sat on you for fear of losing your eyes), to snuggling in the evening watching telly.

Teddy is gorgeous, love his heart on his head! Good luck with the future, it’ll be spicy, frustrating, but brilliant!

11 ex ferals here, all tamed as adults. It is absolutely doable and very rewarding!

My feral cat spent his first week living in the shower cubicle. As previously mentioned food, food and more food is the way. I used to get hissed at every time I walked in the room but once he realised I was bringing him his dinner he stopped. Turned into a loving cat and a brilliant moùser, also rabbits and even a stoat once. He died aged 16, he was about 5 weeks old when I rescued him.