germanquilter

When we found our little Tigger, she was about 5 weeks old and I am amazed how friendly she is now at 6 month! We found her near a quilt shop in PA and I think people had been feeding her. When we first brought her home she was a little shy so we put her in a closed off room since we had two other cats at home. We added a soft cat bed, scratching post, food dish and water dish and several cat toys (balls, little fur mice) and a blanket that my other cats had been sleeping on. We would go in her room several times a day to sit on the bed, talk to her and let her come to us. We brought her home on a Saturday and I had her vet checked (she had mites and worms) on Monday. The vet said she was about 5 weeks old; she was eating soft baby cat food so we never had to bottle feed her. We knew we were keeping her at that point It took about a week but she got used to me, my husband and daughter. I think it helped that she was so young though. She apparently had not been weaned by her mom so she started suckling and kneading her cat bed. Never had a cat do that and we have had many in the last 28 years!

Geri B

Yes, these are excellent suggestions......I have astray calico that was "free" for about 6 weeks, then decided to follow me home..she was 6 weeks old at the time.....pretty much did as mentioned above..and now two yrs later she is my lap cat....but every now and again she gets this look in her eye and looks toward the ceiling! And still will occasionally find a "new" hidey-hole somewhere in the house..sometimes takes a few hours to find her.....looks out the windows on her perches provided and actually talks to whatever she is seeing out there......

MaggieLou

We got two feral kittens about 8 months ago. I'm still trying to tame them. One I can pick up and pet for maybe 15 seconds the other one still won't come to me. She looks like she wants to but hasn't gotten the courage yet. They love to play with the laser light and all I have to do is pick up the treat package and they come running. Hopefully it won't take years for them to tame up.

misseva

Haven't read all posts but I made a sling sorta like you would carry a baby in and carried my kitten around with me all day long for a while and that did it.

jrhboxers

The best way to tame a feral kitten is love and time - lots of both. Keep her in a cardboard box that is deeper than she can jump. Kittens cannot climb cardboard is they can't reach the top to grab hold. Put the box in the general living area of your house. Every time you walk past, talk to her. If you have a second, pick her up by the scruff, and hold her tight against your chest. You may want to use a hand towel the first couple of weeks - but don't use it to pick her up. While you are holding her, talk to her and rub her head and ears. She will make all kinds of spits and hisses and growls, but as long as you hold her close, she can't hurt you.
Ihave hand raised literally hundreds of kittens, orphans, ferals - everything. If you talk to her every time you walk past, have some kind of treat or something to give her. Then she will associated your voice and presence with good things. You will feel like it is no working, but you will notice - rather suddenly - that she will still growl and spit but will give up the fight. Good luck and be sure to post pictures.

tessagin

A friend of mine has had nothing but strays all her life. She said you just never know how traumatic mother cat's life was and what the area was like where she gave birth. You just have to let them come to you at their own pace as with any stray. Good Luck!

Roberta

I've had two feral cats in my lifetime. Patience and lots of love usually does the trick in bringing them around.

cr12cats

we had 5 feral kittens. my husband would get them and we would wrap them in a small soft baby blanket and give them pets. he held them inside the house coat he wore. they like the beat of your heart and it calms them. we would then put them down in front a bowl of kitty milk as there treat.oh yeah we had a enclosed patio we blocked off when they came to eat with mom. the mom was never able to be tamed but they liked to be talked to at a distance. 3 of the kittens had a covring on thier eyes so couldn't move very well which helped. we kept them and they lived to be about 10-12 years old and were great furbabies.I have also heard if they are real young some people put them in socks and hold them by their heart too. good luck. just be calm with them.By the way we still have one.she is the last one of that group and this week she is 18 years old.wonderful old girl.

Rose_P

There are some products on the market that you can try that have cat pheromones. We were dealing with a lot of hostility between our older cat Pogo and the new one, Lizzie, and calming collars have helped both of them relax. They give the animal a sense that they are in safe territory. I would leave a collar on her only when you can keep an eye on her because they're supposed to be worn loose around the neck, and the result is they can get their lower teeth under it and get stuck. This happened to one of my cats with a flea collar many years ago. We came home after a couple of hours away and found the poor kitty struggling. If she had been an outdoor cat in this situation who knows what might have happened!

Anyway, check with your vet before using the pheromone product, but my vet felt it was a good idea for helping Lizzie and Pogo adjust to each other. I bought the Sentry calming collars on Amazon, 3 in a package, and they're supposed to last about a month each, but I take them off when I can't be around, and store them in a sealed bag when they're not in use. Open this product over a trash can and not your kitchen table as I did. It has some white flaky material that immediately came off all over everything. They are available in pet supply stores, also, and there's at least one other brand, if you want to shop around.

There are mist devices, also, but a couple of the reviews said they shorted out and smoked (!) so I was leery of trying that. Also, they cover a limited area, whereas the collar goes wherever the cat goes.

Another item that we have tried, with a little temporary improvement in the cats' behavior was a paw paste. It's camomile and some other herbs in a chicken based gunk that you smear on their paws where they lick it off. The calming effect was good but wore off after a few hours, and Pogo jumped on our bed in the middle of the night and started a hissy fight with Lizzie - 2 nights in a row. That was a rude awakening, and that's when I decided to get the collars.

I don't know if they will make a feral cat into a lovey pet, but I'll bet it will make her calm down a bit and relieve some of the anxiety. It turns our meanie into a Stepford cat. We found out that Lizzie, from a local shelter, had a bad case of ear mites, and we think that possibly Pogo could smell something wrong and didn't want her around for that reason. We are keeping them in separate rooms until we have the follow-up with the vet confirming no more mites. Pogo has always had at least one cat buddy except for the last few months since we lost our beautiful KittyBee.

SherriB

Good luck and thank you for taking in the kitty. All of our kitties have been strays that were not wanted by others. We had one ferel kitty that DD managed to tame. Precious was a couple months old and DD would go out and pet her and hold her. After a bit, she was tame enough to bring home with us. Precious became the most loving and sweet lap kitty we ever had. Our hearts broke when she died last fall. She had been with us for almost 14 years.

We are now raising a newborn abandoned kitten. He is just about a 5 days old and such a strong fighter.