Has anyone successfully tamed a semi-feral cat?

[Lady Katherine]

We rescued a cat today from a friend's neighbor. It (she?) is seven months old, and was born and lived all her life under this family's back porch. The coyotes got the mother, two kittens were successfully adopted at a much younger age, and they were finally able to catch this one in a humane trap. She has been stalked by coyotes for the past several days and has spent a lot of time up trees, then was trapped and spent the night in the trap in the garage. So she is really spooked.

 

She is used to being around people and eating cat food. She used to come up to the window and put her face against this woman's hand (with the glass in between), but has never let anyone handle her.

 

I have her in a large cage -- the kind they use at pet stores. In six hours, she has not taken any food or water, or used the litter box. She has ignored a piece of fresh fish I put about an inch from her face. She is cowering in the back corner, clearly terrified. She won't meet anyone's eyes.

 

Since she is used to being around people, she's not completely feral, but what I've read on the internet doesn't give me a lot of hope for her. The shelters around here are all full. They will euthanize her, but none of them will accept her for possible adoption. She's really a beautiful cat, but I can't leave her caged for months, hoping she will calm down -- my kids will get attached and then we won't be able to keep her.

 

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

Yes, when I was about 9 years old, but he was a baby baby kitten. Weaned, but just. And he never quite lost all his wildness. I had him for about ten years.

[jacqui in mo]

We weren't the ones to catch her & begin the process of taming her though. Just to give you some hope though, she has turned into a very nice cat but it's been a long process for her. She was about 2 years old when captured & she was nurtured by a local lady whose passion was to save kitties. I wish she was still around so I could get some advice for you from her. She had a whole little area of her basement blocked off where she could keep cats (one at a time) she was rescuing. She'd had our cat for several months before she felt the cat was ready to be adopted. It also took several months for our cat to not be shy of us & even now 2 years later she is still improving her disposition but as I said she is a very nice cat.

 

I'm sure your cat is very spooked right now & will not eat till things quiet down. I would give her a couple of days at least to see if she'll come around to at least eating when she's left alone. Does it happen to be a calico? I've read that Calico's tend to be domesticated more easily. (Ours is a calico).

 

HTH

Jacqui

[mcconnellboys]

My vet has told me in past that after about the first 12 weeks without regular petting/contact from people, there is little hope that a feral cat will ever be truly tame. I adopted one that was a little over this age when I happened on it as it was being run over in traffic.

 

It did make a good companion for my older cat through the years when we worked and were away from home all day long. However, it was never really comfortable and secure in our home (and we didn't even let it out any).

 

It would hide whenever anyone was around, lots of times even when we were around if we were making any noise. Now, if one of us was watching tv late at night, it might come and get in our lap. It didn't mind being petted some, but it was always more a companion for my other cat than for us.

 

They are instilled by their parents to hide, and so will tend to just stay under a bed, under the couch, etc. most of the time. I sometimes wondered how he could be happy, but he did seem content so long as he was with my older cat.

 

He had eaten dried plant materials while he was out in the wild and he was never able to break himself of the temptation to do this, so I could not have dried flower arrangements in my home. If you take in a feral cat, you may find other bad habits that will be life-long reminders of his early training.

 

She'll eat when she gets thirsty/hungry enough. I'd leave the food/water where she can get to it when she's alone and it's dark. She's been super-traumatized, so I'd expect it to take some time for her to calm down and start to become more trusting of you.

 

Regena

[Julie in CA]

We have a dairy farm, and for some reason, people feel free to dump loads of kittens and pups here. My kids have tamed wild ones many times. They trap the critter (one way or another!). It sounds like you're a step ahead on that...

The kids keep the cat in a small enclosed space, usually my laundry room or our teeny extra bathroom. During the day they pop in there often, grab kitty with a bath towel, and sorta "snuggle" the cat in there for several minutes at a time, speaking softly and soothingly, and petting the animal gently around the ears. They feed it regular cat food (or kitten chow if the cat is very undernourished), but bring special treats each time they snuggle the cat, usually a teeny piece of meat or cheese. If it's a very small kitten, needing to be bottle fed, then they're usually not wild enough to need taming, but that's another story. It usually takes a couple of days for the cat to become a bit tamer, and usually after a week or so, the cat can start venturing from it's small area. My kids have successfully done this process more times than I can count, but in the end, some cats end up tamer than others. Most of the time they are a bit more "fraidy" than our regular housecats, but they've all been loving to one extent or another. Another benefit to semi-feral cats is that they usually (because of their tough life) are really great mousers!

Good luck!

~Julie~

p.s. As soon as possible, the cat should be brought to the vet for shots, deworming, and spaying/neutering.

[Doran]

We adopted two kittens from a feral colony back in the early 90's. They were our first cats, and our first "children". Like Pam's, ours never completely lost their wildness, and they were VERY young when we adopted them.

 

I think you might want to consider a few things now.

 

First, since you have the cat, you might consider having her (?) spayed. Then, if she were "mine", I would release her, and try to win her affections by feeding her outside, sitting on a porch or deck while enticing her to come nearer, winning her trust. I wouldn't necessarily try to "tame" her outright. It's not fair to her to expect her to come to understand you when all she's ever known is to fear humans - for the most part.

 

You may yet win her heart. A close friend of mine, who happens to be magical with cats, recently shared a story about a stray cat that finally allowed her to pet her, after months of trying. It takes a patient and caring soul to love the cat in whatever way it allows.

 

Doran

[Julie in CA]

I just read Doran's post, and now I feel a little bad about how mean our method sounds! A lot of the wild kitties we've tamed just didn't have the time for us to be gentle. Many were so undernourished and flea-ridden that we didn't have the luxury of just allowing them to come to us. I can say, though, that none of them have seemed miserable for more than a day or so. Doran's method sounds so loving--our method is more like "tough love", I guess, lol! :D

Good luck,

Julie

p.s. Isn't it funny how having the ongoing attention of 5 dc makes me pretty wild, but the ongoing attention of 5 dc makes a wild cat pretty tame?

[j.griff]

Would you put her outside with coyotes in the area? Just wondering. :)

[j.griff]

p.s. Isn't it funny how having the ongoing attention of 5 dc makes me pretty wild, but the ongoing attention of 5 dc makes a wild cat pretty tame?

 

ROFLOL

 

And I don't think your dc's cat "breaking" method is cruel, :) I think it's great that they invest themselves in the care of the cats/kittens in such a manner.

[Doran]

Would you put her outside with coyotes in the area? Just wondering. :)

 

Hmmm. Tricky. I sure don't want anyone thinking that I think my way is the only way. Or the right way, even. I love that Julie's method has worked. But, with OUR particular pets, I don't think it could have worked by the time the cats were seven month's old. This colony of cats was well fed, thanks to the local fishermen who gave them their fish scraps daily, though I'm sure they were also flea ridden. I was never able to get more than 20' from any of the adult cats. To be sure, most of the adults never lived past a few years, as far as we knew. Our cats were infected with feline AIDS (immune deficiency) which, we're positive, came from the birth mother. Life on the streets is hard. If a cat is "semi-feral", as is described in the OP, I think Julie's method is very worth considering. But, if a cat is really, truly feral and doesn't understand human contact or captivity, then yes, I would still put the cat outside even with coyotes in the area. Better to die as something else's prey than to perish in captivity.

 

FWIW, we trapped a feral cat once which was coming into our house and eating our cat's food. It had caused my neutered male cat to begin spraying all over the house. NOT pretty. We trapped the cat in a newer Hav-a-hart trap one night, having no idea how bad a decision this would be. By morning, the cat was so cut up from thrashing against the edges of the trap that it had to be put down (Humane Society) due to its injuries. It was a horrible, horrible experience - one I will never forget. But, it doesn't sound as if Lady Katherine's cat is quite so completely wild. Maybe Julie's method is worth a try!? :)

 

Doran

[Julie in CA]

Doran, I'm so sorry about your experience with the trap! We've even used that trap many times without incident, and I'm surprised that the edges of your trap had exposed sharp wires. Yikes! That sounds awful.

Fwiw, we've actually never been unsuccessful, and never ever had one perish in captivity(or even come close). Even the adult cats have done fine with enough loving attention. We have done this with at least 12 cats/kittens over the years. Surely the OP would also not let the cat die rather than set it free, should it become necessary.

~Julie~

Hey, I'm a Worker Bee now! :-)

[Tammy]

get this cat in New Orleans....did ya?

 

I am just joking....(you probably didn't 'get it' if you didn't see my post about the feral cats)

 

:)

 

Tammy

[Kate CA]

It (she?) is seven months old, and was born and lived all her life under this family's back porch.

 

No, unfortunately, we did not have much success for ours as an indoor kitty. If you would allow her to be an outside kitten alone and feed it on your back porch, etc., you might have some success with her, but I would not hold out any hope for an inside cat at that late age. Would that work out for you?

 

Warmly,

Kate

[Lady Katherine]

We do have outdoor cats. We have to because we're in the country and otherwise the rodents and rabbits would overrun the place. But they don't last very long because of the coyotes, so I can't get attached to them. I was hoping to have one indoor pet cat. And the woman that gave her to me really wanted her to be a pet. But, no, I won't keep a cat indoors if it's miserable. If she doesn't tame up, I have a friend with a barn who might take her. Her barn cats are much more protected and live longer (although the coyotes are still a problem).

[RoughCollie]

I had a feral kitten once. She was about 6 months old according to the vet. A neighbor found her in the trunk of his car.

 

When she came to live with me, I let her have the run of my apartment. She and my other cat, who was about the same age, got along fine. My goal was to tame her. I started out by petting her when she ate -- it was the only time I could get close to her. I gave her fresh green beans a lot because I discovered she loved to play with them -- toss them in the air and bat them around. After she "killed" them, she ate them.

 

For a long time, she would gaze yearningly at me when my other cat would sit in my lap, but M wouldn't dare get close enough to me.

 

After 5 months, she finally sat in my lap and I was so happy that she had overcome her fear. I fed her tidbits of whatever I ate, and she loved all of it. That helped, too, except that ever after I had her begging for food every time I ate.

 

She was very loud and vocal and "spoke" to me continually -- whenever she wanted something. She was small and it was funny to hear such a loud, strident voice come out of a little cat.

 

She ended up being a fine pet, but she always hid under the bed when children were around. When I got her, I was dating a man who had two little girls and she was definitely afraid of them.

 

She was an indoor/outdoor cat until the cat next door got killed by a car right in front of her (she was good friends with that cat). After that, she wouldn't go out unless I was with her, and she would stay right beside me.

 

When my boys were born, she would stand guard next to them and if one of them started to cry, she would come and get me and insist that I follow her back to the babies without delay.

 

She died when she was 16 years old and she was a wonderful pet the entire time.

[Doran]

I had a feral kitten once. She was about 6 months old according to the vet. A neighbor found her in the trunk of his car.

 

......[messg. trimmed].....

 

She died when she was 16 years old and she was a wonderful pet the entire time.

 

Thank you for sharing that. It puts me in mind of some of James Herriot's stories! :)

 

Doran

[Doran]

...I'm surprised that the edges of your trap had exposed sharp wires. Yikes! That sounds awful....

 

 

Surprised and shocked. We couldn't believe how badly that cat was injured. I called Hav-a-Hart and told them everything, asked lots of questions, tried to get to the bottom of the situation. It broke my heart. The only thing I got out of the company rep. to whom I spoke was that they had been doing some re-tooling lately and that it was possible that the edges of the trip plate were probably not rolled over as they had once been. It did appear that the damage came from that, not from the cage sides. You can imagine, if you've used one of those traps, how the edges of the plate (the thing that trips the door shut when the animal steps across it) would be hazardous if they were even slightly sharp, because the thing sticks up into the middle of the trap. Well, these were straight metal edges. Not "sharp", but certainly dangerous for a frightened animal. I was furious, but ended up feeling totally defeated by that experience.

 

Your success stories are very hopeful. Thanks for sharing!

 

Doran

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

We trapped a kitten once, a few months old (maybe 5 or 6 months old). Poor thing was trapped while we were gone, and then it started raining. The trap was inadvertently left in the worst place. All the rain water was channeled on it! The kitten was SOAKED..

 

Anyway, we got the kitten into the master bathroom, where it promptly hid behind the toilet. It was terrorised, its eyes were all white! I brought in a little litter box, and some food. (Water was self-serve in the toilet bowl :rolleyes:) The cat caught on quickly about the litter box. It took a good week before I could touch it, and another week before I could hold it. Within a month it was sleeping on my bed.

 

That said, it was and stayed semi-feral. It spent days and nights outside but would come back when hungry. The following summer, we discovered that another neighbour was taking care of it too! But that neighbour never did the feral-non feral transition. He simply thought it was a nice cat.

 

When we moved, we notified the neighbour that we were not taking Charlot with us. Charlot belonged to the neighbourhood, not to us. So he had sole custody from that point on.