If he has never once hissed at her, I think that is the right call. Not saying its a great situation, but if she is still eating, using the litterbox and not constantly hiding then its a pretty common level of "this cat that scares me a little wants to play" stress.
So the remaining issue is whether there is a realistic way to try and bond with a shy to humans cat undergoing this level of stress. Some of our most knowledgeable and helpful folks chimed in earlier, but I don't know whether any of us have done a lot of work integrating true feral rescues. My one adult rescue, for example, was probably a stray rather than a feral and while she had similar problems adjusting to the resident cat, she took to us quickly. Having a full house to allow true isolation made that much easier. Jcatbird has done some work with feral cats if I recall right, perhaps he can shed more light on this or at least kick this question to the right folks. To summarize, the OP is having trouble bonding with his young rescue cat Luci, who won't allow him to touch her 4 months in. Luci is also having a fairly standard level of stress because Zuko, another young, but much better adjusted rescue, wants to play with her, and it scares her. Luci does not seem to be adjusting quickly to Zuko at all -- Zuko was adopted 2 1/2 months ago. Unfortunately, this is all happening in a studio, and OP didn't have a lot of success isolating using the bathroom (understandable of course). My question is whether for you is whether you have found it possible to bond with a feral rescue in this situation and whether there are any tips you can offer the OP? Or do you think this might just be a non-starter in a studio until the inter-cat relationship improves?
So the remaining issue is whether there is a realistic way to try and bond with a shy to humans cat undergoing this level of stress. Some of our most knowledgeable and helpful folks chimed in earlier, but I don't know whether any of us have done a lot of work integrating true feral rescues. My one adult rescue, for example, was probably a stray rather than a feral and while she had similar problems adjusting to the resident cat, she took to us quickly. Having a full house to allow true isolation made that much easier. Jcatbird has done some work with feral cats if I recall right, perhaps he can shed more light on this or at least kick this question to the right folks. To summarize, the OP is having trouble bonding with his young rescue cat Luci, who won't allow him to touch her 4 months in. Luci is also having a fairly standard level of stress because Zuko, another young, but much better adjusted rescue, wants to play with her, and it scares her. Luci does not seem to be adjusting quickly to Zuko at all -- Zuko was adopted 2 1/2 months ago. Unfortunately, this is all happening in a studio, and OP didn't have a lot of success isolating using the bathroom (understandable of course). My question is whether for you is whether you have found it possible to bond with a feral rescue in this situation and whether there are any tips you can offer the OP? Or do you think this might just be a non-starter in a studio until the inter-cat relationship improves?