I recently fostered two feral females. They were about 10 weeks old when trapped, which is older than the shelter usually accepts, but they had been exposed to humans who fed them, so they trapped them, and fostered them to us. They were still shy when they went to the shelter for adoption, but we all hoped that some TLC at the shelter would help and being around multiple humans would prevent them from bonding only to my hubby and I. That was about 4 days ago.
Then we took in two females who are absolute loves, but need to gain weight. They've been here 3 days.
Meanwhile, I stopped to visit the ferals a couple of times. They were sitting on top of each other cowering in the back corner of a cage. Their charts said they weren't eating. I still could pick them up and they'd purr when I visited, but they hissed at anyone else. The shelter was trying to socialize them further, but it wasn't working.
The shelter (and a vet) had said when I first took them that if they could go to a home with friendly cats, they might learn from them. We don't have any other cats. But now we have the new fosters, who are VERY nice. So we're trying something unusual. The ferals came back with me. I put them in a large cat playpen in the kitchen. They immediately sat up and looked around and made themselves comfy -- no sitting on top of each other cowering in the back corner of a cage. I even got further purrs out of them and they started chowing down when they saw the food.
The friendly kittens, who were walking free in the area, walked up to the cage, hissed, then ran away. The friendlies spend the afternoon playing with us and sleeping on our laps while ferals watched from the cage in the kitchen.
Then we put the friendlies in the bathroom with the door closed and let the ferals have a run around.
Does anyone have any suggestions for making this a successful introduction? Both kittens are approximately the same age. The ferals, are about 12 weeks old and spayed. The friendlies are about 11 weeks old and not spayed yet.
We're doing scent swapping when we put the ferals in the bathroom and the friendlies in the playpen in the kitchen and then swap. But what about the actual face-to-face intro? Should we introduce one feral to the smaller friendlies? Or both ferals to the friendlies? Or one friendly to the ferals?
Then we took in two females who are absolute loves, but need to gain weight. They've been here 3 days.
Meanwhile, I stopped to visit the ferals a couple of times. They were sitting on top of each other cowering in the back corner of a cage. Their charts said they weren't eating. I still could pick them up and they'd purr when I visited, but they hissed at anyone else. The shelter was trying to socialize them further, but it wasn't working.
The shelter (and a vet) had said when I first took them that if they could go to a home with friendly cats, they might learn from them. We don't have any other cats. But now we have the new fosters, who are VERY nice. So we're trying something unusual. The ferals came back with me. I put them in a large cat playpen in the kitchen. They immediately sat up and looked around and made themselves comfy -- no sitting on top of each other cowering in the back corner of a cage. I even got further purrs out of them and they started chowing down when they saw the food.
The friendly kittens, who were walking free in the area, walked up to the cage, hissed, then ran away. The friendlies spend the afternoon playing with us and sleeping on our laps while ferals watched from the cage in the kitchen.
Then we put the friendlies in the bathroom with the door closed and let the ferals have a run around.
Does anyone have any suggestions for making this a successful introduction? Both kittens are approximately the same age. The ferals, are about 12 weeks old and spayed. The friendlies are about 11 weeks old and not spayed yet.
We're doing scent swapping when we put the ferals in the bathroom and the friendlies in the playpen in the kitchen and then swap. But what about the actual face-to-face intro? Should we introduce one feral to the smaller friendlies? Or both ferals to the friendlies? Or one friendly to the ferals?