• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Here birdy, birdy, birdy.....

Since there seems to be some cat experts here, may I ask a question?

Have any of you tamed a wild kitten and was it successful?

We have taken in a stray young kitten and are trying to tame her. She was born in the wild.

I have read on the internet of putting them in a cage for anywhere between 2-6 weeks. We have had her in the cage for going on 3 weeks now, and have made a little progress with her. I let her out the other day, and for a while she seemed like a normal house cat. She slept on the arm of the couch for several hours, she then later got up and followed our other cat to our bedroom. I went to check on her a few minutes later and noticed she is back to hiding under our bed. When we tried to pick her up, she tried to run away and hissed at us. When she was on the couch earlier, she would let you pet her, and she did not even try to get away. I did notice that she doesn't even really try to check out the rest of the house. She, for the most part, doesn't venture too far from the cage.

I don't understand why one minute she was fine, then the next she tried to get away from us and hissed.

I was just curious if any of you folks have had any experience with this and how it went for you? I hope we can tame her. I think she will make a good cat.

Thanks
 
That's a zoo fer sure NC!

My day begins somewhere between 5:30 AM and 6:00 AM this time of year, cats are quite biological, dawgs could sleep all morning as long as the moon's not bright, then they'll bark all night and sleep all day. Anyhow, one of three feline beasts will jump on my bed and start doing what my youngest son use to call :round da doo-doo", where he/she will start going around and around on your lap preferably stepping in the groin area and extending "happy" claws whilst doing so.

On nights between first quarter moon and last quarter moon, I can expect to be awakened by "kill" cries from anything rodent or avian, which means........Instant Reward of FOOD! So I have to get out of bed and get some treats for his/her majesty and dispose of the dead critter.

Naturally when I go to feed the cats in the morning, the dawgs are instantly aroused by the ritual of FOOD! Fortunately, my two Iguanas wait until a decent hour before they are warm and awake enough to eat!

But nine cats indoors there and you say ten more outside! :isadizzy: The most cats I have ever had was seven and that was with a litter of kittens (I always kept one). I have never been without a cat master, in my life that I can recall. My dad always owned beagles, but I never had a dawg of my own until I moved to where I live now. I have two now, have had five altogether.

BTW, I had a pet crow when i was in my teens, Smut. He was one hilarious creature and never, never leave a shiny object in sight of a crow, they are natural thieves and will snatch it and carry it to their stash. Whenever someone in the family was missing a ring or coin money, simply pull the fridge out from the wall and there it was. Smut would get pissed too, but he always stashed his ice behind the fridge. He learned to mimic many sounds more than words, could cough so that you'd though someone had pneumonia! I had thet bird nearly six years and never thought I'd grieve over loosing a darn bird! There will never be another like him. The best that can be said is he was a "character". Got drunk on bourban and ginger ale one night while we were playing Rook. Oh Lord, I wish we had video cameras in those days!

Caz
 
We had one that was semi wild Rob, just showed up at the house one day. She'd hiss and spit until you finally caught her. Once we held her for a bit she'd calm down and be ok. After a week she'd sit with you on the couch and lay up close to your neck and cuddle. aseeing we already had 2 cats we found her a good home. last we'd heard she was fine.

Just try holding her more often, pet and talk to her. And try to hand feed her, that might help too. It might take longer seeing she's totally wild, but she should turn out ok and be a good pet. If you've given her a name and she responds to it that's a good sign. Good luck.
 
Taming a feral (wild cat) can take a long time. A few months back, I posted about having our little "Frannie" put down. Frannie was born feral. It took us a very long time to tame her. Actually, to the day she died, she preferred to be outside. But she was a sweet, loving cat. Just not a lap cat, like so many we have.

Just to be accurate, we have 33 cats total. 16 are outside cats (with their own little house), and the rest, 17, are inside cats. A LOT of kitty litter, food, medicine; not to mention animal hair/dust.

But back to the subject of trying to tame a feral cat. It takes considerable patience. Feral animals are understandably suspicious of humans. I guess it is part of their survival instinct.

Offer treats to her. Talk in low, soft tones. Try not to raise your voice. And give her space.

Pete
 
Pete, 33 cats? I hope yall stencilled their names on them so you can keep it straight on whos who in that crew! :costumes:

Ever think about claiming 'em as dependents on your income tax?
 
Willy, you don't know HOW much I wish I could get a financial break with all these cats. Believe me when I say it is a burden. I love them all, BUT. Where we live, it is not easy to find homes for any of them either. The mindset of a lot of these locals, when it comes to pets, is not the same as ours. They just don't think of their animals the same way we do.

Pete
 
I've got to give it to you NavyChief......... I've been complaining to my wife about the brood of cats she calls hers and I get to buy food for. It's only nine cats, so I'll quit complaining to her.

Have you check into getting food stamps for your 33 "kids"?

Kevin :d
 
I would be content if I could just get my wife to quit buying treats for the cats. The food alone costs a bundle, and then add treats to the expense? Don't get me started..........

Pete
 
2 dogs, 2 ferrets, 3 fish tanks....that's enough for me. We had a cat for a while....my wife brought it home from work (at the hospital) one morning. Some knuckleheads had moved out of their apartment across the street and left the kitten behind ON PURPOSE! The kitten ran around the parking lots for about 2 weeks trying to be with people. My wife heard about the kitten, caught it, brought it home. Poor thing was skin and bones and totally eaten up with fleas and worms. We nursed her back to health and took about 6 months to find a home good enough for her to go to....we were very selective about who we can Chasie Underbed to (our older dog Brutus, would chase the kitten and the kitten would always run under the bed. Brutus was the chaser, the kitten was the Chasie....thus Chasie Underbed). The people we gave Chasie to had recently lost their cat....after a long and happy and healty 14 years. We figured that those people would take top notch care of Chasie and give her a long and happy life.

My wife and I are also against declawing....a torture that should be banned...along with ear and tail docking in dogs. We have found that an easy way to prevent furniture damage is to use a pair of finger nail clippers and simply trim the cats claws once a week. It does not hurt the cat, is not cruel, and keep the furniture and curtains safe.

OBIO
 
3 dogs, 3 cats and a crippled blue jay that can't fly for beans here. And any cat that touches a feather on the bird had best hope it's soul if it has one goes to God. Because I'm not going to be one iota lenient about it. Jay's been with us for four years now and I hope he's around for years more in decent health.
 
Thanks guys for the advice.

Good to know there are success stories out there. I think in time, she will be ok.

After I posted my question, last night she climbed up on the couch and played with my sons for several hours. Not one time did she hiss or try to run and hide, so slow improvements are happening. We'll just take it one day at a time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top