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Taming Feral Cats and Kittens

By: Phyl Good  |  9 / 15 / 2008  |  17 Comments

Feral kittens, lurking on the street, hungry, fleeing human contact. To adopt such a ragged, half-wild cat would surely be madness. Yet many people are doing just that, to deal with feline overpopulation in cities. This was why I adopted my own feral kittens, Peaches (pictured left) and Pan (below, left), seven years ago.

Urban centers often try to solve feline overpopulation by eliminating feral cats. But remove one cat colony, and another replaces it. Some areas are attempting a new method: “Trap-Neuter-Release,” or TNR. Volunteer groups, such as Toronto’s Annex Cat Rescue, trap and neuter adult cats, then return them to the colony. So no new cats move in, but the population stabilizes and slowly decreases.

However, there are always existing kittens, so volunteers try to rescue and adopt them out. But these cats are nothing like Fluffy’s babies born in your closet, and start with difficulties domestic cats simply don’t face. Transforming wild kittens into pets takes work and patience, and attention from special people.

PanThe first of these are veterinarians who help the rescue organizations. Kittens diagnosed with diseases like Feline Leukemia, FIV (a virus similar to HIV), or herpes are treated just as domestics would be. Fortunately, there is no higher incidence of these diseases in feral cats than in tame ones. Kittens also usually come with parasites or ear mites, but no cat is adopted out until it’s healthy.

There may be problems stemming from the babies’ nursing from a malnourished mother (e.g. Peaches’ teeth were never strong, and most needed extraction), but since kittens are usually caught around six to eight weeks of age, the effects can be reversed with good nutrition. However, ferals seem on average to remain smaller than their domestic counterparts.

The next step in the process—fostering—requires people who are patient enough to handle cats who respond with fear and hostility, yet strong enough to let them go just when they become friendly. But most people want to do their very best for every cat, and if this requires personal sacrifice.

There are no guaranteed “quick fixes.” Karen Wigg, a volunteer with Annex Cat Rescue , chuckles when asked how long the taming generally takes. Some of her cats go from wild to tame in two days, yet one trio took several months. Those who foster use varying methods, but all require patience and time. Each person uses frequent touching to accustom the kittens to a human presence. Mike Milne, another Annex volunteer, believes in fact that touching is the primary taming factor, while offering food and talking are secondary.

Generally, the cat is first isolated from the rest of the household. A bathroom is small enough for it to feel secure, but large enough that the volunteer can visit. Both Karen and Mike mention that their kittens usually start by hiding behind the toilet. Mike makes as much contact as possible on the first day, even if the cat bites. Karen, as soon as she can, begins feeding her cat by hand. If it wants to eat, the hand will be there, so the animal gets used to being petted. This method accords with Mike’s caution that even when petting the cat, one should not initially hold or confine it.

Once the kitten is comfortable being visited and touched, the next step might be toys. Mike believes that even adults can be tamed if one works with them enough, but he admits that, when it comes to toys, “adult ferals tend to be harder to get interested in something they can’t eat.”

If the kitten takes a while to tame, it can be disheartening. Yet the moments of success make everything worth it. Karen had a black and white male that no one could touch, but one day as she was getting food ready, the little cat made a decision. He launched himself onto her pant leg and hung there. As Karen says, “He was like, ‘Hiiiii!’” From that moment on, he was a “crazy affectionate” lap cat.

Mike describes a sudden turnaround with a very wild kitten from a pair. “I started petting the wilder one, one day, and she went from hissing to purring to laying on her back wanting more attention all at once. It was very sudden and she never reverted.”

Once the kitten seems comfortable, the next step is to widen its boundaries. It meets other household members, one at a time. Food or a new toy may be placed to lure it a few steps outside the current comfort zone.

Gradually the kitten becomes relaxed and comfortable. And now it is ready for the final adventure: going to a new family and learning to be just as comfortable in a new home.

[This is the first part of a two part article. Find the second part here ]

Article Comments

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kitty

2

ya ferals can be as kind as any cat you could ever have!!!

By: toby66   1012
kitty

2

My beloved cat Earl Gray was born to a feral Mom. I found homes for his brothers and sisters, and he is my “house cat” now. He is the most wonderful companion my husband and I could ask for. I brought him in at four months old after “taming” him and the rest fo the litter. Given time and love, so called “feral” kittens can become loving lifelong comapnions.

By: careh   464
kitty

0

i kind of agree to what toby66 said. yes feral cats can be as nice as any other cat, but theyre usually not and they take alot of patience

By: johnisgood2   3196
kitty

0

theres a stray cat in my neighborhood, that i feed alot, but he/she only stays under my car! does anyone know how i can lure her/him out? oh, and its an adult, btw.

kitty

0

there is a cat that lives under the porch at my house
he was the cat of the people who used to live at
my house he ran from us when we looked at the house and still does. i try to lure him out with food and my tone
of voice. hes starting to slowly calm down and watch us.
hes quite interesting to watch when he meets my cats
at the food dish.they dont like him eating the food and
just growls at him.he growls back but other than that
hes nice.

kitty

0

We used to catch ferals. We would catch them and then bring them in to the pros. We rented traps from a store, completely harmless, just put food in and it closed behind the cats, we cleared the population out of our local park. They all lived in the woods.

By: miana_sp   224
kitty

0

yes thy can be kind yet confusing.
i have a kinda wildish kitty.
she just came up starved we fed her she is still with us.
but she is acting awkward..

o.O

it happens ha.
i love cats.

kitty

0

We have 4 indoor kitties that were wild. They still don’t like anybody but us. That’s OK. They are so loving to us. We have finly tamed their mamma. She is a great cat. I think ferals are better than the kitties that start tame. I guess they really like being taken care of.

By: szaro   1156
kitty

0

a wild male cat visits our back porch regularly. i have been giviing him food and water. he wo”nt let me touch him, but he will fall over onto his side and roll back and forth as though he is submitting to me. when i try to touch him he will stand up and hiss. he has biten me twice but
continues his visits and contues to show a need for caring. what is going on? what does it really mean when he rolls over and pulls himself over to me with his head..

kitty

0

Nice article, Phyl Good!!!!

By: kaylamae100   275
kitty

0

Thank you for this article! it is rather interesting!

By: arnold   3
kitty

1

About the wild male cat that visits your porch. He is begining to trust you. He wants your love and for you to make over him but he just isn’t all the way there yet. This is his way of telling you that. He will come around you just need to give him time. Once you are able to touch him even for a moment he may pull from you or run from your reach. But once he experiences it a few times and sees that it doen’t hurt he will come around. Until then I suggest you wear slightly thick gloves.

kitty

0

butterscotch, with your cat try not to be loud around it. also whenever you do see it, put food down on the ground a little ways away from the car and see if the cat comes out. if it doesnt try a cat trap. make sure that it doesnt hurt the cat though!

kitty

0

Garry, while I can’t prove that a cat rolling on its back is not submitting itself to you, it IS putting itself in its ultimate defensive posture. It gets attacked from the direction of the tail, the hind feet are ready to bunny kick the attackers bowels to shreds. And if attacked from the direction of the head, it is ready to bunny kick the eyes out of the attacker. It MAY be a sign of a female being in heat (and possibly receptive) and can be a sign of comfort or playfulness, but IS a serious defensive posture. One of my neighborhood outdoor cats does that (rolling and twisting on his back) when he is in a playful mood, wanting to bite and scratch. Other times he will just sit on my lap. Normal feral kittens play that way, attacking each other by biting the throat and defending themselves with the bunny kick if the biting is too hard or for too long (altho, their necks and tails normally seem immune to any pain caused by the biting).

By: jpete46   1403
kitty

0

Feline overpopulation is not only in the cities. I live in a little bitty town (my sister says large city) on the coast of OR (population about 1000). There are probably 700 dogs living with their owners, 4-500 cats living with the people they own, and another 300 stray or feral felines. Of course if you are a cougar, there is no overpopulation, just a plentiful source of food. Truly. Even with pets dying or disappearing on a daily basis, the caat and dog population remains pretty steady. It is the strays (or throw-aways) that suffer the most. Many don’t even know how to groom themselves, much less get a mouse for dinner. Most feral cats do end up with one or two ticks, but nothing like the strays killed by tick infestations. TNR does work. Two of my ferals have been spayed, and I am working on getting the other seven fixed - but it is difficult, living almost 30 miles from the nearest vets. Touching is the primary factor in taming a feral (though feeding is a close second). As a cat neophyte I did make one serious mistake. My first feral had gotten used to my petting and would frequently rub against my leg. One time she was soaking wet from the rain and I told her not to rub against my leg. She never forgave me for that. More than three years now. Though I am still the only human allowed to pet her.

By: jpete46   1403
kitty

0

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By:   0
kitty

0

my kittens father was feral i almost had him tamed buy putting out food for him and talking to him when ever he would stop in for lunch i got to pet him but i had to move so now he is all alone but my grandmaw still feeds him but he wont let her within 2 ft of him she not me and he knows it i miss him now i might try goin back to see if i can get him one more time

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