Cats are semi-feral and don't know how to approach them

[tarasgirl06]

Thank you guys once again! I have one question. So one of the cats, Stars, is now coming up to me while I have my hand on the floor. He sniffs it and stays near my hand. I then tried raising my hand to see if he wants to be petted, but he just turns his head away and walks away everytime I do it. Does it mean that he doesn't want me to touch him?

Only he knows for sure, but you might try waiting until he actually makes contact with you, not vice versa. Sounds like he wants to but isn't 100% sure. It also sounds like it won't be long until he does decide to rub against you!

 

[tarasgirl06]

These are couple more photos of them. They're much calmer now, but still hisses everytime we walk into the room on them if they're out. Actually, it's just Stars that hisses and not Moons. (Stars is the one with the white front)

They are so pretty and I love the photo of them together!

 

[dustydiamond1]

Hooray! Stars is coming around, you are doing a great job. They are great photos, just beautiful.

 

[maggie101]

Hello,

My husband and I have recently adopted two 8month old brothers and they are semi-feral. One is very hissy and the other one gets freightened easily.

We have gotten them about 3 weeks ago and they still hide underneath the bed. They never really come to us except for that one time when it was late at night and we were sleeping, and both of them decided to hop onto our bed to sleep. One of them slept on my legs and the other right beneath my husband. Then, the turner he is, my huband accidentally kicked one off the bed and both ended up going out and never came back up.

That was the only physical contact we were blessed with, unfortunately.

When we look online, some say to just ignore them until they come to us and some say to forcefully pet them little by little. I'm not sure which is right. Also, they were trapped and neutered at the age of 4 months. So I'm not sure why they are still afraid of humans.

We're just afraid that if we ignore them, then they'll never feel comfortable with us forever and always hide. I hope there are more successful stories.

I would be thankful to hear some of your stories and what you did to socialize your kitties. Also, could you share some stories about when visitors came over? How do you socialize cats with humans?

I took in a very scared cat. Outside I slowly got her to trust me. I would never walk up to her,moved her bowl closer and closer, put my hand on the bowl,scratch her cheeks. Lastly go over her head. When I brought her in by grabbing by the scruff of the neck she immediately started purring. She has been on trauma,scaredy cat, and self esteem spirit of essence

 

[maggie101]

So much better now. She is ready to be adopted!

 

[merstockgto]

Hello,

My husband and I have recently adopted two 8month old brothers and they are semi-feral. One is very hissy and the other one gets freightened easily.

We have gotten them about 3 weeks ago and they still hide underneath the bed. They never really come to us except for that one time when it was late at night and we were sleeping, and both of them decided to hop onto our bed to sleep. One of them slept on my legs and the other right beneath my husband. Then, the turner he is, my huband accidentally kicked one off the bed and both ended up going out and never came back up.

That was the only physical contact we were blessed with, unfortunately.

When we look online, some say to just ignore them until they come to us and some say to forcefully pet them little by little. I'm not sure which is right. Also, they were trapped and neutered at the age of 4 months. So I'm not sure why they are still afraid of humans.

We're just afraid that if we ignore them, then they'll never feel comfortable with us forever and always hide. I hope there are more successful stories.

I would be thankful to hear some of your stories and what you did to socialize your kitties. Also, could you share some stories about when visitors came over? How do you socialize cats with humans?

We

 

[merstockgto]

Hello,

My husband and I have recently adopted two 8month old brothers and they are semi-feral. One is very hissy and the other one gets freightened easily.

We have gotten them about 3 weeks ago and they still hide underneath the bed. They never really come to us except for that one time when it was late at night and we were sleeping, and both of them decided to hop onto our bed to sleep. One of them slept on my legs and the other right beneath my husband. Then, the turner he is, my huband accidentally kicked one off the bed and both ended up going out and never came bac
That was the only physical contact we were blessed with, unfortunately.

When we look online, some say to just ignore them until they come to us and some say to forcefully pet them little by little. I'm not sure which is right. Also, they were trapped and neutered at the age of 4 months. So I'm not sure why they are still afraid of humans.

We're just afraid that if we ignore them, then they'll never feel comfortable with us forever and always hide. I hope there are more successful stories.

I would be thankful to hear some of your stories and what you did to socialize your kitties. Also, could you share some stories about when visitors came over? How do you socialize cats with humans?

We trapped a feral kitty in July 2011 that had been roaming our neighborhood for over a year. One day we got to feeling sorry for her (Sox) so we started to feed her. We had our home up for sale in Fl. so we decided to trap her when we saw she was pregnant and looked as if she was going to have them any day. I was able to borrow a trap from a cat rescue and was able to get her and took her to our vet. We had the PG aborted and had her fixed, checked out, shots, micro chip. She was negative for any diseases. We brought her home that evening and she had a cone on her head. Sox was so upset and she did not know what was happening. The cone was bothering her so bad we took here back to the vet the next day to have the cone removed. It was obvious Sox had never had human contact before and she was terrified of humans. We kept her in our half bath for about 5 months where she had a window to look out and a condo to lay on. I
spent a lot of time every day trying to get her used to us. In Dec. '11 we moved out west and Sox and our other 4 kitties traveled so well. Here it is almost 6 yrs later and because of the patience and love we have showed her, she trusts us completely. She will get on her back and in vulnerable positions and as I talk to her she kneads with her paw showing that she likes me talking to her. She does not want us to touch her but I will sneak a pet in when she is not looking, lol. She makes no big deal out of my attempt. When we first moved into our home she hid under a dresser we have in the master bedroom closet but she slowly came out from under it and was testing the waters. I would say maybe a year or less she came around and realized she was safe with us. Time, patience and love is what it takes. Just don't push it.

 

[twosemiferalcat]

We trapped a feral kitty in July 2011 that had been roaming our neighborhood for over a year. One day we got to feeling sorry for her (Sox) so we started to feed her. We had our home up for sale in Fl. so we decided to trap her when we saw she was pregnant and looked as if she was going to have them any day. I was able to borrow a trap from a cat rescue and was able to get her and took her to our vet. We had the PG aborted and had her fixed, checked out, shots, micro chip. She was negative for any diseases. We brought her home that evening and she had a cone on her head. Sox was so upset and she did not know what was happening. The cone was bothering her so bad we took here back to the vet the next day to have the cone removed. It was obvious Sox had never had human contact before and she was terrified of humans. We kept her in our half bath for about 5 months where she had a window to look out and a condo to lay on. I
spent a lot of time every day trying to get her used to us. In Dec. '11 we moved out west and Sox and our other 4 kitties traveled so well. Here it is almost 6 yrs later and because of the patience and love we have showed her, she trusts us completely. She will get on her back and in vulnerable positions and as I talk to her she kneads with her paw showing that she likes me talking to her. She does not want us to touch her but I will sneak a pet in when she is not looking, lol. She makes no big deal out of my attempt. When we first moved into our home she hid under a dresser we have in the master bedroom closet but she slowly came out from under it and was testing the waters. I would say maybe a year or less she came around and realized she was safe with us. Time, patience and love is what it takes. Just don't push it.

Thank you so much. She still doesn't like getting pet? Cats are so tricky...I have had a dog in the past and they were quite easy to get along with. I didn't think it would take this long for a cat to come around. I thought maybe a week or so, but it's been about 2 months now and I'm not really sure how to approach them still. Thank you for your response, once again!

 

[twosemiferalcat]

View attachment 176767 So much better now. She is ready to be adopted!

Aww! She looks just like my Moons. She looks much more confident on that bed. My kitties aren't ready to come out yet...hopefully mine will become as confident and content as yours. Thanks for the response!

 

[twosemiferalcat]

I took in a very scared cat. Outside I slowly got her to trust me. I would never walk up to her,moved her bowl closer and closer, put my hand on the bowl,scratch her cheeks. Lastly go over her head. When I brought her in by grabbing by the scruff of the neck she immediately started purring. She has been on trauma,scaredy cat, and self esteem spirit of essence

By the way, how long has it taken you to get her socialized?

 

[maryah]

I adopted a shelter cat about 7 weeks ago, (Rani, about 10 months, shown in my avatar) and she was scared to death of everything, especially me. She hid in the bedroom for 3 weeks and I never even saw her, although she was always good with litter box, food and water. By following the tips and encouragement from the lovely cat folks here, she is now the queen of the house! As they've described above, the turning point, when she finally ventured to the living room, was getting down on the floor with her, encouraging her to eat treats out of my flat palm, eventually graduating to petting and later lap time on the sofa.

She even surprised me in the last week by coming out into the living room when visitors were here. My son-in-law played with her with her feather wand toy, and even was allowed to pet her head -- briefly! The last hurdle, which we're working toward, is to get her to stand her ground and not run away when I stand up, or she sees me walking around. LOL! Then hopefully she'll eventually allow me to pick her up from the floor also. She comes up on the bed for pets at bedtime and after I wake up, but sleeps wherever she pleases during most of the night.

My whole story is here: Need some new advice with new cat. Lots of great tips from the kind cat lovers here.

 

[maggie101]

By the way, how long has it taken you to get her socialized?

First couple of months CoCo would stay under my couch. Next, my bedroom staying under the bed whenever she sees my cats. Otherwise she sleeps on my bed or chair. She is afraid to leave my bedroom because of my cats. CoCo does not stand up for herself. It has been 6 months. My cats still do not like her. A few months ago she was adopted then brought back because she wouldn't eat and was always hiding. The lady was 75 yrs old and couldn't bend down. She thinks CoCo was traumatized which I think was true. She wants to be picked up but hides. Long story short. Her mom gave birth to her on my porch. She disappeared at 5 weeks then came back 2 yrs old. I did tnr on her. She became bff with another cat that also left her. I took her in a few weeks later.

 

[maggie101]

First couple of months CoCo would stay under my couch. Next, my bedroom staying under the bed whenever she sees my cats. Otherwise she sleeps on my bed or chair. She is afraid to leave my bedroom because of my cats. CoCo does not stand up for herself. It has been 6 months. My cats still do not like her. A few months ago she was adopted then brought back because she wouldn't eat and was always hiding. The lady was 75 yrs old and couldn't bend down. She thinks CoCo was traumatized which I think was true. She wants to be picked up but hides. Long story short. Her mom gave birth to her on my porch. She disappeared at 5 weeks then came back 2 yrs old. I did tnr on her. She became bff with another cat that also left her. I took her in a few weeks later.

When she was adopted, the owner had her relative pick her up so she could brush CoCo. When they brought her back, she wasn't in a carrier. They were holding her instead.

 

[maggie101]

When she was adopted, the owner had her relative pick her up so she could brush CoCo. When they brought her back, she wasn't in a carrier. They were holding her instead.

 

[twosemiferalcat]

So there's an update to our cats. I am going to start by saying that my cats have retreated back to hiding.

The other day, my husband thought it was time to start getting them acclimated to pets and to us. It was a good first attempt as the petting sessions seemed to sort of tell the cats that there was nothing to be afraid of. However, my husband decided to pet them even more to the point of overstimulating them and ended up getting scratched badly. After then, he decided to pet them even more just to get them used to us, but that only made Moons to hide into his litter box. Then, Stars hid in the litter box with Moons.

It seems that Stars and Moons just got overly stressed and stayed there for about a day. They then moved to another room to hide and still hasn't come out to eat.

I'm worried now that they'll never come to us and we've further traumatized them. Is there anything we can do?

I guess my husband got the notion that, after looking through many videos, that the way to socialize feral cats is to just pet them despite their reactions and to keep doing that until they get used to the sessions.

Stars used to come up on my bed at night and sleep on my butt when I'm laying on my side (but wouldn't come up to me when I'm not asleep). Now, he doesn't come up anymore and just stays away from me too. Is there anything we can do? Should we just ignore them or keep petting them?

 

[twosemiferalcat]

I've considered getting a cat behaviorist, but they're so expensive...

They're about $400 per session for 2 hours from where I live and I don't think I would have that kind of money to invest in. Please help! We're so lost as to how to approach our cats.

 

[ginny]

You don't need a pet behaviorist. You just simply need much more patience. I mean let THEM decide when they feel safe enough to approach you. Sit in the room with them on the floor and read a book, ignoring them. If they come up to investigate, don't do anything at first, just let them take things at their own pace. Then if they stay, offer a closed fist for them to either sniff or rub their face. I learned the hard way too with my feral kitties that THEY are the ones to decide when to approach you. If they were in the wild and in danger of being caught by Animal Control, that would be different. Since they are safely inside, you've got all the time in the world. It may take months. Don't be discouraged though, and they will reward you with their trust, eventually. But their trust has to be earned.

 

[ginny]

When my kitties were still outside and slowly learning to trust me, I made a mistake. My foot slipped and I stepped on Honey's paw. That innocent error set me back another week with her. She wouldn't even come on the porch while I was there for several days. Then she started coming back. She was the first one to let me pet her. Actually she rubbed herself against my legs while I was putting out their food. It wasn't long after that that she actually got in my lap and stayed there purring for a while! It will happen, but just not as quickly as you want it to.

 

[twosemiferalcat]

So what should I think of articles like this one?

How to Socialize Your Cat | Catster

Many sites say that we need to start petting them and get them used to handling.

 

[ginny]

I reread your first post and saw where you said you adopted them at 8 months and they were semi-feral. What was their backstory? Did you adopt from the city or county Shelter?