expanding territory of semi-feral kittens without fear

[julia123123]

I adopted two semi-feral kittens two weeks ago. They're now about 3 months old. For a week, I left them in one room. Then, I expanded their territory to two rooms. The runt of the litter, Frances, seems to have accepted us completely and has stopped running away...and loves to be held almost all the time! His brother Klaus, biggest of the litter, is more wild. He still runs when we move the baby gate to come into their area, although he comes back...purrs...lets me pick him up.

I'd like to start expanding their territory. I let them have the run of the house yesterday for about 15 minutes, supervised, just so they can start getting familiar with the smells. They loved it. They ran under couches, climbed in windows, etc. But when time came to scoop them up to go back to their space, it was more difficult. I easily caught Frances with no fear and no issues, but wild Klaus ran and dodged and hid. He clearly felt like he was being chased (well, he WAS being "followed closely"). I finally corralled him into his space and he hid under the bed. When my husband tried to check on him, Klaus hissed. He hid for an hour and was very wary of me the rest of the day, although he did let me pick him up and pet him later.

Any tips on how I can enlarge their world without this fear response? Also, I find it a bit odd that one kitten from a litter can be so sweet and tame, and the other so wild and untrusting. Any thoughts? Just personality differences? I think it's just going to take a lot of patience to wear Klaus down!

 

[Norachan]

Hi J julia123123 Cats don't like to be chased, but they do really like to do the chasing. When you want to move them back into their safe room use a wand toy or something like that to lure them back in. You can take a few minutes to play with them, letting them get engrossed in the game, as you gradually lead them back where you want them to be.

Don't forget to give them a treat at the end. After hunting down their toy and making it back to their room they'll be expecting something tasty as a reward.

 

[julia123123]

That's a great idea! I didn't even consider trying to end their exploration session with some play. I'll do that today!

 

[Norachan]

Hope that works. Let us know how it goes.

 

[julia123123]

Left the hallway unblocked and let them out for a longer period yesterday. They went back and forth, back and forth, and I simply closed off the hallway during one of the times when they were both back in their space. Hooray!