Taming Feral Kitten for TNR

 The stray queen cat that took refuge in my garage had one small kitten. That kitten was orphaned at a young age and I took up the care of it and worked to tame it for TNR.

The kitten hid from me and meowed loudly. Clearly, it was traumatized at being abandoned. It took some time to corner the kitten but was able to grab it by the scruff to examine and since it had teeth my husband and I decided to feed it kitten kibble mixed with KMR replacement milk for kittens.

The kitten was very hungry and ate the food. So for the next 6 weeks, I fed the kitten daily at the same time and weaned it off the replacement milk.   I also read a book while sitting in a chair in the garage for several hours daily.

I wasn't sure if I could use the Feliway diffuser for such a young kitten so bought a boombox radio at a garage sale which enabled me to play low-volume classical music in the garage.   In the past, I have found that low-volume background classical music is soothing to feral cats.

Then one day the kitten jumped up on my lap and I knew that I had successfully tamed it and that it was dependant upon me.  However, I didn't immediately trap it for veterinarian care.  Instead, I waited until that kitten played with its toys on my lap. The feral kitten was tamed and would not be released after sterilization.  

Today I was able to pick up the kitten and put it in a cat carrier.  No problems picking up by the scruff, but once in the carrier, the kitten regressed into a wild feral cat.

The kitten was taken to the veterinarian's office immediately and they will do the combo test, give vaccines, worm, and spay. The veterinarian will keep it two days after the spay so the kitten will heal in comfort.

I am certain the kitten will need a refresher course on socialization and will need to learn to trust me again. If the kitten can be tamed again we will not release it but instead, seek adopters for a forever home.

Socializing a Traumatized Feral Kitten

Socializing a feral kitten that was traumatized at a young age is not easy because feral cats are terrified of humans.  If the trauma was due to human actions then the feral kitten will be hard to handle and socializing them may be impossible.  Even with these tough obstacles I took on the challenge to tame a traumatized feral kitten.

About The Feral Kitten "Charlie"

Charlie the feral kitten came into my life when his mother brought him to my old shed. The queen cat had been injured and I trapped for medical care.  Charlie was trapped for medical care and bottle feedings.  Charlie was traumatized when we took him away from his mother, the trauma escalated when we took him to the veterinarian for the flesh wound on his paw.

Charlie was admitted to the animal clinic for the wound to his paw.  He needed urgent care and was treated at the clinic for 21 days.   The feral kitten survived his flesh wound and infection however he was a traumatized and was all wound up from the medication, anxiety and pain that he had endured. .

Trapped Charlie is anxious and afraid

The attending veterinarian suggested that I turn him loose and watch him at the cat colony, but I thought it was not wise since he would always have problems with his foot. 

A cat that limps would not do well living outdoors.  I was determined to socialize this kitten.  Of course it would be difficult and I would have to stop my life to work with him for several hours every day, but I thought it was well worth the effort.  Since Charlie was handicapped.

 My husband said he would help and my one neighbor said she would feed the colony cats and so I started the socialization program with Charlie the traumatized kitten.  

Week One

  

This week I am concentrating on bonding with Charlie and to achieve this goal I am spending 8 hours a day with him.  Charlie is in the new cat room and I have a chair in there, a light and a book.  

As expected there is not much interaction going on.  Charlie is staring at me from the cat cube and when I get three feet from the house he hisses and spits at me, so I backed off because it is clear that Charlie is terrified of me. 

Week one was uneventful as the time was used for Charlie to get accustomed to my scent and to grow dependent upon me for food and water.

Week two

Charlie stared at me for a good week and then on the 14th day of his socialization we had a break through. I was read a book in the morning, ate my lunch in the cat room and gave Charlie some food too. After lunch I sat in the chair next to the  cat window seat and closed my eyes.  

I fell asleep and I suppose Charlie took a leap of faith because when I awoke Charlie was sitting on my chest staring at me.   When the feral kitten realized I was awake he turned quickly, leaped from the chair and ran to hide in his cat cube. 

This is a huge accomplishment because it indicates that Charlie wants to learn more about me.  He is letting down his guard and is taking steps to becoming a socialized feral kitten.  

 Presently Charlie has no stress.  He can learn about me and bond with me at his own speed.  I am taking baby steps with this traumatized feral kitten.

Tips: 

• To help calm Charlie so that he did not feel anxious or excess stress I sprayed his bed with feliway behavior modifier.

Feral Cats Deserve a Better Life

There are billions of feral cats worldwide because of human negligence. Feral is the cat that nobody wanted. These cats were abandoned by their owners and left to survive on their own.  

Some cats survived in areas close to a food source others perished. These cats are living a life much like the wild cats of Africa. They are competing for food water and shelter and just want to carve out space for themselves so they can live a peaceful life with humans.

I have been a colony caregiver since 1999 and in that time I have trapped, sterilized, and given the feral cats their vaccines, tape wormer, and treatment for fleas, ticks, and ear mites. 

 All of the feral and stray cats that I have trapped were either socialized for adoption or released to a controlled colony where they are safe from human traffic.

My husband and I care for feral and stray cats.  At the present date, we have 10 cats in our colony.  The colony where the cats reside is on a side of a mountain ridge that is located in a forest of 25 acres. The cats live in limestone cracks and crevices as well as large thicket dens or hollow trees. 

 All cats are fed twice a day and get fresh water at the feeding station.

In the winter the cats are welcome to sleep and get warm in my old shed.  It is a drafty shed, however, it is dry and it does provide the cats with a good wind block and straw-filled beds. 

Some feral cats will go where they go when the weather turns extremely cold or hot and these cats do suffer. They are too wild to realize that the shed has heat and an air conditioner.  

The feral cats are terrified of the noise that the heater or the air conditioner so these cats will burrow into the leaves or the brush in the forest. For these wild feral cats, we will hike out to them to provide them with food and water.  And when the snow is too deep we will make a path to them.   (see the path my husband created for us to get to the cats or for the cats to come to us.)

It is not easy to be a feral cat, most humans fear them and believe they are vicious and diseased.  Many humans think the best interest of the feral cat is to trap them and euthanize them, and this action is humane.  

I have trapped and taken the feral cats in for sterilization, tested for feline aids or leukemia, and out of the 298 cats there was 1 sick cat and that cat was a neighborhood stray cat, very people friendly. 

Feral cats did not ask for this life, they really had no choice as their human abandoned them long ago.  They are feral because of human neglect, a human error that can only be fixed by the caregivers that dedicate their service to trap, spay or neuter and then care for the cats in colonies.  

Feral cats deserve a better life, where they can co-exist with humans without being feared as dangerous animals, with no purpose on earth.