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- Jan 8, 2021
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Hello all, I just joined and this forum seemed to be the most logical place to ask my questions.
We had our last pair of cats for 20-22 years respectively, they passed on about two years ago. We moved out to the country just after the last one had died and we have decided it is time to finally open up our home again.
Over the Christmas holiday we adopted a brother sister tuxedo team from our local SPCA. They are kittens who apparently were found feral on the street at the end of the summer. They had been with a foster home for some period prior to our adopting them and according the records we have, they are 4 months old. They’ve been with us now for 3 weeks as of today.
The sister, who we are tentatively calling “Scout” is extremely adventurous and curious. She’s slowly coming around to allow us to pet her, on her terms. She’s cautious around us and still is very skittish but I can see light at the end of the tunnel for her and I think she’ll be a great friend in the coming years.
The brother however is a different story and that is where my questions start. We are tentatively calling him “Shadow” due to the fact that he lurks in the shadows and is extremely skittish, he seems terrified of people.
We want to give them both space and time to adapt to their new home but I’m concerned that if we don’t start to be a bit more aggressive in terms of getting him socialized, he is never going to come around.
Both animals are eating, drinking and taking care of their business. I have some cameras in the room where they have been staying at night and they are very active and playful with each other. With us, they will engage in play with cat dancers and such toys, but as soon as we get too close to him he is runs away and hides.
We initially started by feeding them by hand and only having food in the room when we were there. Both cats will come around to accept treats from our hands.
I’ve been watching some videos on Fatbush Cat’s YouTube channel (which is how I ended up here) on how he has gotten kittens to start accepting humans.
One technique he seems to have success with is wrapping the cat in a towel and feeding/stroking it, giving it attention and very desirable food to build up that positive association. However, he seems to do this with cats much younger than what I’m dealing with. Shadow is a ‘huge’ male IMHO. He is twice the size of his sister – to the point where I even wonder if they are in fact siblings.
Does anyone have any advice for us? Should we just stay the course and assume that in the coming months Scout will come around and lead by example, thus allowing Shadow to accept human interaction as well?
Should we separate them and start to focus more aggressively on engaging with Shadow on our terms and hope that he starts to get more comfortable? Controlling his feeding and forcing him to come out of his shell?
We’re trying really hard to be gentle with them for fear of setbacks, but I’m wondering if we might need to step things up a bit. Any thoughts on what we should be doing (if anything) to move this along would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
We had our last pair of cats for 20-22 years respectively, they passed on about two years ago. We moved out to the country just after the last one had died and we have decided it is time to finally open up our home again.
Over the Christmas holiday we adopted a brother sister tuxedo team from our local SPCA. They are kittens who apparently were found feral on the street at the end of the summer. They had been with a foster home for some period prior to our adopting them and according the records we have, they are 4 months old. They’ve been with us now for 3 weeks as of today.
The sister, who we are tentatively calling “Scout” is extremely adventurous and curious. She’s slowly coming around to allow us to pet her, on her terms. She’s cautious around us and still is very skittish but I can see light at the end of the tunnel for her and I think she’ll be a great friend in the coming years.
The brother however is a different story and that is where my questions start. We are tentatively calling him “Shadow” due to the fact that he lurks in the shadows and is extremely skittish, he seems terrified of people.
We want to give them both space and time to adapt to their new home but I’m concerned that if we don’t start to be a bit more aggressive in terms of getting him socialized, he is never going to come around.
Both animals are eating, drinking and taking care of their business. I have some cameras in the room where they have been staying at night and they are very active and playful with each other. With us, they will engage in play with cat dancers and such toys, but as soon as we get too close to him he is runs away and hides.
We initially started by feeding them by hand and only having food in the room when we were there. Both cats will come around to accept treats from our hands.
I’ve been watching some videos on Fatbush Cat’s YouTube channel (which is how I ended up here) on how he has gotten kittens to start accepting humans.
One technique he seems to have success with is wrapping the cat in a towel and feeding/stroking it, giving it attention and very desirable food to build up that positive association. However, he seems to do this with cats much younger than what I’m dealing with. Shadow is a ‘huge’ male IMHO. He is twice the size of his sister – to the point where I even wonder if they are in fact siblings.
Does anyone have any advice for us? Should we just stay the course and assume that in the coming months Scout will come around and lead by example, thus allowing Shadow to accept human interaction as well?
Should we separate them and start to focus more aggressively on engaging with Shadow on our terms and hope that he starts to get more comfortable? Controlling his feeding and forcing him to come out of his shell?
We’re trying really hard to be gentle with them for fear of setbacks, but I’m wondering if we might need to step things up a bit. Any thoughts on what we should be doing (if anything) to move this along would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
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