Help!!

[kjlavall]

We managed to trap a feral mom and her 3 kittens a couple of weeks ago that were living under our deck for a couple a weeks before then. My guess is the kittens are at least 8 weeks to 10 weeks in age. The Best Friends Animal Society paid to have them Spayed and neutered all has gone according to plan but we have hit a bump in the road. We have the kittens in a bed room and the mother in our closed in porch. We are waiting for the weather to warm some and give the mother time to heal, our plan is to release her tomorrow. We hope she sticks around, we built a small shelter for her with a indoor/outdoor heating pad.

The Kittens are the issue. All three are at various states of tameness. One enjoys being held and purrs when we hold her. The other is just starting to let us touch her when she eats and plays with us with a string. The third is the real problem. It is very frightened. It is difficult to get her to even come out of hiding to eat when we are in the room. The other issue is we have the under bed space blocked off but she keeps managing to find her way back under, then the others follow. This sets us back days because the whole process of getting them out is very traumatic for all.

We have been reluctant to remove the friendly one from the pack because he has been a positive influence on getting the others comfortable with us but we also feel they have been a negative influence on him when he sees how frightened they are of us.

My questions:
Should we remove the tame kitten from the situation?
Should we move the two kittens in a dog crate to force more contact with us but not allowing them to run and hide? or is a larger room better?
Are the kittens able to be tamed?
Should we release the two other kittens back outside with the mother?

Both my wife and I work demanding jobs and this whole ordeal has been very stressful on us and our house cats. We are hoping to at least get the two difficult kitties to a point where we could get them into an adoption clinic but it looks to be a lot harder than we anticipated.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kieka]

The tame and middle one can probably be left together. That third one though should probably be put in an area that is high traffic but separated from the siblings. The tame one may still help the middle one adapt to humans and model good behavior. But the wild one is probably bringing them both down in terms of socialization. I wouldn't say they are at the point of being released with Mom. That would be at 5-6 months old if they still are showing fear of humans.

 

[smurf]

It does take time taming feral cats, but they are young so it definitely can be done. I did tame three feral kittens in the hope they would go to a cat care group once they were adoptable. After spending time with them I just couldn't let them go, we kept them all. They were kept in their own room and a couple times a day when I brought them their meal I spent time with them and each one did come around all at their own pace. Playing with them helped a lot. I would think the ski-dish one would be better kept with the others. I wouldn't release the young ones with the mother because they will go directly back to their feral state. It is difficult and frustrating, but before you know it they will come around. You and your wife are doing a great service for these helpless animals, please don't ever give up.

 

[msaimee]

Please don't release any of the kittens back outside-- they are still very young and can be socialized fully! A few weeks of socialization is not long at all, it can take longer for some feral kittens. I'm not sure that I would separate the three at this point either, because it could be very stressful for them. Have you tried engaging them in interactive play by using a wand toy or laser toy? Play therapy is a wonderful way to break the ice and bond with feral kittens, because kittens can't resist play. If you could have a couple 10-minute play sessions with them a day, I think that would really help, at least that has worked for me, and I've socialized much older feral kittens who were 5 to 10 months old. You can also cuddle and play with the friendly kitten in front of the timid kitten. The timid kitten will see you interacting positively with the bold one, and will be less afraid. Food treats and catnip toys can also be helpful in winning over the kittens. I fully understand how stressful the socialization process can be. If you can adjust your expectations allow for the likelihood that this may take a few more weeks, and if you can let go of some of the stress, that may really help the process. Cats can pick up on our stress and they respond to it with stress, at least my cats do. They always seem to sense when a vet trip is going to occur that day because I'm stressing about it. I've never had to socialize more than one feral kitten at a time, so I can only imagine how overwhelming the task would be to socialize 3. It's wonderful that you are giving these kittens a chance to have a wonderful and safe life. Hang in there and keep up the good work!

 

[smurf]

Please post us any updates on your situation some of us have gone through taming ferals as you have and we are here for help and encouragement. I know how daunting the task is, but it will get better and you will have done a wonderful service for these animals.

 

[kjlavall]

Please post us any updates on your situation some of us have gone through taming ferals as you have and we are here for help and encouragement. I know how daunting the task is, but it will get better and you will have done a wonderful service for these animals.

We released the mother but have not seen her since. We have put food out and it gets eaten at night but we don't know if it is her or some other critter.

We decided to purchase a large dog crate capture the two kittens and move them down stairs. It was difficult to catch them and I am sure it set us back some but allowing them to continue to hide under the bed was getting us nowhere. We have a cat cube in there so they can still feel safe when needed but now they are closer to us and going to have a low more interaction. The third kitten....Scout, is our trooper. In all my years around cats I have never seen one so openly accept and trust. He loves being help and is bonding nicely with my wife and I. Starting to introduce to other 2 cats and allowing him to sleep in their beds to get used to the scent.

We are allowing him to hang out on the porch where we keep the other two in the crate. When they saw my petting him and heard the purring, they came out of the cube and right up to the cage and ate the food I had just put down. I know we still have a long way to go but Scout will play a key role with getting them to trust us as well.

 

[talkingpeanut]

Are you spaying and neutering these cats?

 

[kjlavall]

Yes, all were either spayed or neutered, shots, flea treated and the kittens tested negative for feline leukemia.

 

[orange&white]

Bless you for helping all these kitties!

The mom may come back. I took a wild one, pregnant, to the shelter in April. She had 4 kittens a few days later which the shelter kept with momma for 6 weeks of nursing. They fostered and adopted the kittens, but deemed momma too wild to be socialized so I picked her up and released her back to my yard. She disappeared for 14 days, then came around sporadically, then disappeared 10 days, then permanently took up residence on my patio/yard. Today she eats out of my hand, occasionally sits on my lap, and is coming in the house when the weather's cold.

I do think Scout is going to help you socialize the other two. They are young enough, they'll come around. I would give the 3 some open play sessions together a couple times a day to learn things only cats can teach cats.

 

[kjlavall]

This is the little trooper here enjoying a nap in his big sister's heated bed.

 

[orange&white]

Why do I have a feeling that Scout has found his forever home?

He's very cute!

 

[kjlavall]

Because he has.

 

[orange&white]

Yayyyy! Lucky kitty!

 

[kjlavall]

Bless you for helping all these kitties!

The mom may come back. I took a wild one, pregnant, to the shelter in April. She had 4 kittens a few days later which the shelter kept with momma for 6 weeks of nursing. They fostered and adopted the kittens, but deemed momma too wild to be socialized so I picked her up and released her back to my yard. She disappeared for 14 days, then came around sporadically, then disappeared 10 days, then permanently took up residence on my patio/yard. Today she eats out of my hand, occasionally sits on my lap, and is coming in the house when the weather's cold.

I do think Scout is going to help you socialize the other two. They are young enough, they'll come around. I would give the 3 some open play sessions together a couple times a day to learn things only cats can teach cats.

Made good progress today, had them playing with string, purring and eating baby food off of our fingers.

 

[smurf]

Wow, It looks like you and your family are doing an amazing job with these cats! Sounds like they are well on their way to complete socialization soon giving them the chance at having a forever home with the exception of little Scout who it appears has already found one! It isn't an easy task bringing these little ones around and anyone that accomplishes it is totally awesome in my book!

 

[kjlavall]

Thank you. We are making progress with the two kittins but having new concerns regarding our ability to integrate Scout with our other two cats. They are expressing the typical first exposure behavior by growling some a spitting but Scout seems to review to his wild instincts when he sees them and literally screams growls and spits. It is hard to believe all that sound is coming from such a little animal. So while he accepted us very quickly I fear the road ahead may be a long and hard one knowing how difficult it can be trying to get cats in an established household to get along. Perhaps Scout would be better off in a single cat environment.

 

[kjlavall]

Sorry for the spell check error. I meant to say "revert"

Also the mother cat showed up tonight to eat the food we have been putting out for her. I am happy she is doing OK. We will continue to feed her as long as she is willing to stick around.

 

[Sarthur2]

Over time your cat family should quit spitting and hissing. Good that mama kitty is doing well.

 

[kjlavall]

Update 12-27-17: Scout is doing well when exposed top the two older house cats. No blood was let so I consider that progress. Regarding the other two, progress is slow. We have them in a dog crate and interact with them frequently. They are still cautious and one will let my wife hold her for a short period of time, looks mostly scared when she does it. The other one (female) still will not allow it. We can pet both with our hands while feeding but that is about it. We are trying to get them to a cat adoption facility but one of the requirements is they must be friendly. I know keeping them caged up is not ideal but it does put them in an area where we can easily interact with them. If we let them go in a room, they will just hide all the time. We saw significant gains after we moved them from a bed room into the crate but things seems to have plateaued at the moment.

 

[kjlavall]

Update 12-28-17:
Going back to basics with the chick baby food on our fingers and being more assertive regarding touching including going partially into the cage so they can't move away from us and gently petting while feeding baby food. The boy allowed me to pick him up twice and ate food from my fingers while I held him. After that he did not mind me touching him at all. Still only likes being held for short periods. We don't fight them, if they start getting agitated we back off. The female requires more work..... surprise....surprise.... sorry, I had to say that. I leave talk radio on all day long as well so at least when they get out there into the world they will have a fair and balanced political views.