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Domesticating stray kittens?
LaCabra
MelbourneRegistered User regular
MelbourneRegistered User regular
I've been planning on getting a kitten for a couple of years - had a cat before, know how to look after 'em and everything. The correct financial time to get one has pretty much arrived. However, it turns out, I'm pretty sure there are now two extremely adorable stray kittens living under my house. I'm not sure how old they are, but not that young - probably won't be too long before they stop being obviously kittens rather than cats. I'm wondering how one would go about domesticating these little dudes or if it's even a good idea. Seems like going out and buying a cat and bringing it back here as I'd intended might result in some kind of cat conflict, which would be bad on top of trying to get the little guy used to a new environment.
My interactions with them so far have been mostly that when I walk into my back yard, unless I do it extremely quietly, they immediately stop lying in the sun being adorable and sprint into one of the holes in the side of my house (there's like a foot of space between the floors and the ground). They are extremely scaredy cats. Closest I've got to actual interaction is making friendly noises that made them stop mid-sprint, sit down and look at me suspiciously for a few minutes before sauntering over to the hole. My housemates have been leaving bowls of cat food and water out, and they consume it, but run off if anyone interrupts.
Anyone got any experience of situations like this? I'd love to make pets of these guys if I could but I dunno how old is too old, if that's a thing, or how to do it.
Thanks!
My interactions with them so far have been mostly that when I walk into my back yard, unless I do it extremely quietly, they immediately stop lying in the sun being adorable and sprint into one of the holes in the side of my house (there's like a foot of space between the floors and the ground). They are extremely scaredy cats. Closest I've got to actual interaction is making friendly noises that made them stop mid-sprint, sit down and look at me suspiciously for a few minutes before sauntering over to the hole. My housemates have been leaving bowls of cat food and water out, and they consume it, but run off if anyone interrupts.
Anyone got any experience of situations like this? I'd love to make pets of these guys if I could but I dunno how old is too old, if that's a thing, or how to do it.
Thanks!
LaCabra on
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In these parts you can just go to the pound, say 'strays are around my house' and they'll lend you cat traps. I'd look into that.
Yeah, it might not give the cat the best first impression of you, but it works. They get over it. You could lay out stuff like tuna and stay in the area as they eat it till they start to trust you, but the trap thing is a lot easier.
If they're young, it's very easy to socialize them. Spending a lot of time with them on your lap or around you or in your hands will acclimate them to human interaction very quickly. Whether or not they become a "lap cat" depends on the personality they develop(which will largely come into its own regardless of your actions), but you can at least condition them to not mind being handled or interacted with by humans.
If they're older, they can still be conditioned to not mind human contact, but it's going to take more work. In those situations you can't force it, and you just need to eventually work towards getting the cat used to you.
Keep in mind that kittens born to ferals or outdoor cats will tend to have a much more pronounced independent streak than kittens bred from indoor cats, so don't be surprised if they don't develop into the type of cat that you can just grab, put on your lap, and expect it to just settle in. Breed tends to play a large factor in this case too, but since most people don't bother with specific cat breeds like they do with dogs, it's not something that can be controlled in most cases.
For a stray, you may really, really want to consider giving them wormer once they get old enough, as worms are extremely common with stray and outdoor cats/kittens. Pay special attention to whether the kittens have rounded stomachs but everything else is thin, and if they have a particularly voracious appetite for a kitten, as those are usually signs it has worms. Usually it's best to give them the wormer anyway as it won't have any negative effects if they didn't have any, and it's better to be on the safe side.
Typically you're going to bring them to a vet to have them vaccinated anyway, so the vet can take care of giving them the wormer for you if you mention it.
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First of all, if you have other cats, once you catch the kittens bring them to the vet BEFORE you bring them into your home, because lord only knows what they might have. There's a charity organization near me called PAWS that does checkup, vaccination, and spay of strays for pretty cheap.
Ours had no problem whatsoever picking up litterbox habits, and though it took her a little while to get used to us, she was fairly friendly pretty quickly, and has turned out to be much, much more social than our other cat. In fact, the only problem we've had with her is that because she was a city cat, food was UFG no matter where it was and trash bags were not an obstacle. When we kept her from our food she would cry like she was starving. If she got really unbearable we closed her in the room with her litterbox until we were done eating. After about 4 months of having steady cat food, she's a lot more secure that she doesn't need to EAT EVERYTHING when there's some food around. That's not to say we can leave it unguarded like we always could with just our other cat.
She's adjusted, though, and she is such a sweet cat. Definitely a bit of a troublemaker, but she more than makes up for it.
But as soon as we got back and picked her up, we immediately fell in love with Cleo, and now she lives with us. She was about 2 months old, so she easily adapted, and she seems really grateful about being rescued from the street. Now she is best friends with Flick (who was just neutered) and started to get used to Akira (the dog, who wants to hang out with the cats).
We didn't have to do anything specific, thankfully, and she is absolutely sweet and loving and mischievous.
As for pics, here is one I managed to snap of one of them purely by chance as I glanced out my office window.
Looks a bit older, good luck and hopefully bringing it in works out.
I don't think it worked when the coyote did it in Road Runner but I'm convinced the theory is sound.
Cats are suckers for food, especially hungry ones, I hear.
Put some food in that box and it'll be easiness.
I think it's going to need to be a "manual trigger", if you understand my meaning. Otherwise the cat will probably just step over it, and you're probably more likely to catch something much clumsier(read: raccoon/possum).
Also, apparently my housemate put some food for it in the laundry, where we planned on keeping it for the first day or so to get it used to us, and it just walked straight past my trap and into the laundry to nom that food, then left again. Cool.
Anyways, for when you catch him, here are some friendly, affectionate cat cooing noises that you can try and mimic to help convince them that you are not out to torture them.
A string attached to the handle of the laundry has been rigged up. Probably should have done that initially, it's basically the same thing but with a much bigger box...
eventually fuzzy snugglin'
this is some roadrunner shit
I don't think he's going to be in any condition to interact tonight, he's scared shitless.
The trapping technique that eventually worked was rope tied to the handle of the laundry door with the other end inside the house, and a shitton of patience. I may have livetweeted the final confrontation (link in sig).
People who don't put collars on cats should understand that they are taking a big risk. Of course, the vet can scan for microchips if you want to make very sure they are not someone's pet.
Feral cats can often be surprisingly easy to tame, especially if caught young and neutered before they become fully adult.
Here is an image of him being scared shitless of me.
this
just let him come out in his own
And yeah, sometimes it just takes time. You can always sit in there for a while every so often and read a book or something.
I dunno about getting the other kitten, we'll have to see how it all goes with this guy. I have no way to trap him right now with the laundry occupied anyway, and he hasn't seemed as prone to investigating bowls of food. I'm not sure if he and the one I've caught are siblings/friends, it would be great to have them both if so.
Some folks are suggesting force-hugging him, but I am probably going to wait and see if he gets comfortable enough to do anything besides hiding first.
I would recommend sitting with them like Ceres says, though! Our cats liked to venture out at night when we were asleep; being near by but without smothering them seemed to allow them to adjust well.