I took in a momma cat and her 6 kittens when they were 8 1/2 weeks old. Momma is friendly to me, but I had to trap and catch by hand the kittens from a shed they were living in. I covered my garage floor with plastic sheeting and put rugs on top of that. So that's where they've been living mostly. I have 4 cats of my own so I haven't been able to bring them inside as much as I wished. I have spent about 1-2 hours every day socializing them.
The good news is 3 have been adopted. 2 were no brainers because you couldn't differentiate them from kittens that had been handled by humans since birth. I assume the other adoption worked out fine because it's been 2 1/2 weeks and I haven't heard from the adopter. I told her to contact me if there were problems and I'd take the kitten back.
The bad news is because of my inexperience in this situation I'm not sure how much success I'm going to have finding the other 3 homes. They are now 3 1/2 months old. 2(boy and a girl) of the 3 are similar in behavior to 1 of the ones that was adopted. They love to play and will even climb on me during play, but always keep an eye on my hands. I also put baby chicken food on a finger and they will climb on me for that. If they are relaxed in their beds I can walk up to them and stroke them with no fear from them. The one thing that worries me is they don't like being picked up yet, though they appear to be less tense about it each day. They will run from me when I approach them unless they are right next to me. In that case, they reluctantly allow me to pick them up. The last one(a boy) has been the most afraid(by a long shot at first) from the start. In the last 2 days I've been able to lie down on the floor during play and when I took the toy away he lay down on my thighs and rested for 15-20 minutes. So I feel much better about his prospects. For the first several weeks I was very disillusioned about his situation.
I have been trying to adopt out the boy and girl with similar behavior(I know the last boy is not ready yet) for a week on craigslist. I have received several calls and one visit. I'm wondering if I'm being too paranoid due to my inexperience. To those with more experience, do these 2 seem like they will flourish once they are in a good home, away from their mother, and are handled frequently by their new owner? Or is my paranoia justified? Any advice is very much appreciated. I've thought of sleeping with them for a few days in a pet pen, but beyond that I can't think of much more I could do differently. Thank you for reading.
The good news is 3 have been adopted. 2 were no brainers because you couldn't differentiate them from kittens that had been handled by humans since birth. I assume the other adoption worked out fine because it's been 2 1/2 weeks and I haven't heard from the adopter. I told her to contact me if there were problems and I'd take the kitten back.
The bad news is because of my inexperience in this situation I'm not sure how much success I'm going to have finding the other 3 homes. They are now 3 1/2 months old. 2(boy and a girl) of the 3 are similar in behavior to 1 of the ones that was adopted. They love to play and will even climb on me during play, but always keep an eye on my hands. I also put baby chicken food on a finger and they will climb on me for that. If they are relaxed in their beds I can walk up to them and stroke them with no fear from them. The one thing that worries me is they don't like being picked up yet, though they appear to be less tense about it each day. They will run from me when I approach them unless they are right next to me. In that case, they reluctantly allow me to pick them up. The last one(a boy) has been the most afraid(by a long shot at first) from the start. In the last 2 days I've been able to lie down on the floor during play and when I took the toy away he lay down on my thighs and rested for 15-20 minutes. So I feel much better about his prospects. For the first several weeks I was very disillusioned about his situation.
I have been trying to adopt out the boy and girl with similar behavior(I know the last boy is not ready yet) for a week on craigslist. I have received several calls and one visit. I'm wondering if I'm being too paranoid due to my inexperience. To those with more experience, do these 2 seem like they will flourish once they are in a good home, away from their mother, and are handled frequently by their new owner? Or is my paranoia justified? Any advice is very much appreciated. I've thought of sleeping with them for a few days in a pet pen, but beyond that I can't think of much more I could do differently. Thank you for reading.