fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2350 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2350 ⌋

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Okay, so years ago I lived at these apartments that were being terrorized by an arsonist. (He was caught eventually.) The second time he burned down the laundry room, the firemen ended their work by pulling this half-drowned kitten (about a month old) from the remains of the room. Long story short, I ended up taking her in.

Most of the neighborhood strays have a particular physical trait (pretty sure from inbreeding) that the kitten shared. She also shared with them the personality trait of running away and hiding when humans were around. I figured she would eventually warm to me, or at least decide that only one human (who gives out food) wasn't worth getting worked up over.

Ha ha, no. Four years later, she hates/fears me. Always has. She lives indoors, eats the food, uses the litter box....but she is feral. And it would only be by dumb luck that I could ever catch her and give her claws a trim.

I got a cage for her. One of those big ones for her to live in. At the very least, I now have easy(er) access to her for claw trimming and vet trips. (I soooo need to get her spayed.)

But I would like to try and tame her if it's possible. Any ideas? Anyone with experience in this field?

Also, if anyone keeps a caged cat, what else should I put in the cage with her? She's got a litter box, food/water dishes (off the ground, so she doesn't kick litter into them), a cushion, and a scratching pad. The cage itself has a pair of shelves built in, so she has different heights to roam around on.

if you are willing to spend $10 USD on the internet, register here

http://forums.somethingawful.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=124

and start a thread

people there have tons of advice and experience there

I'm going to be honest - a cage really isn't the best for cats. I understand why you keep in her in one, but...yeah. Not the best [and yes! Get her spayed ASAP!] Keeping the cat in the cage is honestly going to make it harder for you to tame it since being trapped is going to make the cat that much more stressed.

That said, I've tamed ferals before and well...kittens are much, much easier than adults. I don't know what you've tried/not tried...but here are some basics I've learned over the years.

* Don't chase the cat, or corner it. That's going to make it scared and connect you with that fear.
* If the cat trusts you enough to eat in front of you, sit a safe distance away while it's eating. Even trying laying down if you can since it will help you seem less big, and thus less threatening. As it gets more comfortable with you, slowly start sitting closer while it eats.
* Once it's letting you close enough, try holding your hand out for the cat to sniff, but don't attempt to pet it unless the cat is comfortable with your hand being that close and watch for signs that it's not okay with being touched.
* Don't look at the cat directly before it's comfortable with you. Staring/eye contact is aggressive so you're sending off threatening signals to a cat that isn't comfortable with you when you do it. If you do want to look, close your eyes with a slow blink when it looks at you. It's a gesture of trust and will help let the cat know you aren't a threat.
* Don't expect anything to happen quickly, and be prepared for the possibility that she won't ever be tame/an affectionate cat. 4 years is a long time, so there's a chance that everything is too ingrained for it to change.

Yes to all of the above. I've tamed ferals before as well, both kittens and adults. The adults never ended up being cuddly house cats but some would eventually let me pet them and didn't run away or try to attack or anything.

All of above anons tips are great. I'd add that not only to sit with it while she's eating but maybe find a spot in your house that the cat seems to like - a space the cat seems to feel safe or somewhere she frequents. Go there and just chill. Sit on the ground or lay down on the floor, just chill and talk quietly and hang out with the cat.

I'd also really double on the opinion that a cage isn't a good idea for a cat. I also understand why you're doing it but I really disagree with it.

There's this show on Animal Planet called "My Cat From Hell". It's about a guy who goes to people's houses and helps them with their cats, sort of like the dog whisperer. In one episode he helped a couple tame their feral cat.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/fEgxy57IE34/

Here's the episode, it might help

Speaking from personal experience, I have no idea what to do. When I was in secondary school a stray cat with a leg injury started to hang about the house. One thing and another happened (my sister deciding to feed him cooked fish was the tipping point) and by the end of the year she started to live with us, hanging out on the beds and sitting beside us when we prayed.

I guess the first thing you can try to do is familiarize yourself with the cat by bringing him food and wait patiently (very patiently) for him/her to come to you. Other than that, I don't know.

I hope you have success taming your cat just as we did with ours. Good luck. :)

We used to have a half-feral cat as well. We rescued him when he was about 4-6 weeks old (?) after his mother had abandoned him.

At first, only fed him by giving him chunks of food with our hands (he was mainly scared, not vicious, so we didn't have to worry about getting bitten). I'm not really sure how much that helped, but I think he at least learned that humans might actually not hurt him. He was still scared of humans and liked hiding.

I think what really helped in his case was that we had three other cats, one of which he adored. He could relax around them, even if a human was there and eventually let us stroke him when he was lying next to another cat. I guess we were just lucky we had a bit of a pack of cats.

He was also willing to forget most things around him when he was eating (like I said, he had been abandoned by his mother and had gone hungry for at least a few days before we adopted him and probably even before that), so we could carefully touch him while he was eating (I know you're not supposed to do that, but we watched him closely and stopped if he got uncomfortable and I think it helped making him a bit tamer.)

Letting him sniff our hands (like another commenter suggested) also helped, as did only touching him very lightly and not on his head like other cats usually enjoy, he only flinched away from that. And of course, lots and lots of patience.

I'm afraid we never truely got him tame. Just when he was finally starting to get calmer and even start purring when we stroked him (still with his eyes tightly shut, probably so that he could imagine it was another cat) at about 4-5 years of age, he was shot by our neighbour who thought it was one of his own cats (DON'T get me started on that).

So I'm afraid I don't really have a lot of general advice, just the example of worked with our little guy. Perhaps look at which situations your cat is calmer in and try working with that. Good luck!

If it's been four years and he's feral enough that you don't feel safe with the cat outside of a cage I suggest finding a rescue place and giving them the cat. There are a lot of places where people will take in fixed/spayed cats to be barncats and the like. We've done that. Barn cats are super handy to have around, all you have to do is feed them (and we actually do have a litter box in the barn in the winter) and they don't need to be tame.

A lot of cats are not happy being indoor pets and it sounds like yours might be one of those.

[ SECRET POST #2350 ]

Taming a feral cat? and Keeping a caged cat?

Re: Taming a feral cat? and Keeping a caged cat?

Re: Taming a feral cat? and Keeping a caged cat?

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Re: Taming a feral cat? and Keeping a caged cat?

Re: Taming a feral cat? and Keeping a caged cat?

Re: Taming a feral cat? and Keeping a caged cat?

Re: Taming a feral cat? and Keeping a caged cat?