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#1
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Anybody tamed a feral?
About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a
four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy -- Joy Unlimited Colorful Crocheted Critters Photos at http://www.PictureTrail.com/joy9 |
#2
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Anybody tamed a feral?
On 2014-08-02 3:10 PM, Joy wrote:
About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy I haven't dealt with a real feral, but one of my RB cats was fairly close to feral. All I did was let her do what she wanted, making sure she had some safe place to hide in whenever she felt in danger, which at the beginning was pretty much all the time. Very gradually, she settled in, and became much more friendly with me - but I let her approach me, not the other way around. Throughout a long and mostly contented life, she never cared much for other humans, and went into hiding whenever they were around. Even the good friend who kept an eye on things when I was out of town rarely saw her - once the friend ransacked the place looking for her because she thought she must have slipped out. -- Cheryl |
#3
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Anybody tamed a feral?
On 8/2/2014 11:16 AM, Cheryl wrote:
On 2014-08-02 3:10 PM, Joy wrote: About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy I haven't dealt with a real feral, but one of my RB cats was fairly close to feral. All I did was let her do what she wanted, making sure she had some safe place to hide in whenever she felt in danger, which at the beginning was pretty much all the time. Very gradually, she settled in, and became much more friendly with me - but I let her approach me, not the other way around. Throughout a long and mostly contented life, she never cared much for other humans, and went into hiding whenever they were around. Even the good friend who kept an eye on things when I was out of town rarely saw her - once the friend ransacked the place looking for her because she thought she must have slipped out. Okay, thanks. That gives me an idea of what to expect. Did you have another cat when you got her? My hope is that Pickles might befriend him and eventually convince him that I'm safe. Joy -- Joy Unlimited Colorful Crocheted Critters Photos at http://www.PictureTrail.com/joy9 |
#4
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Anybody tamed a feral?
On 8/2/2014 2:38 PM, Joy wrote:
On 8/2/2014 11:16 AM, Cheryl wrote: On 2014-08-02 3:10 PM, Joy wrote: About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy I haven't dealt with a real feral, but one of my RB cats was fairly close to feral. All I did was let her do what she wanted, making sure she had some safe place to hide in whenever she felt in danger, which at the beginning was pretty much all the time. Very gradually, she settled in, and became much more friendly with me - but I let her approach me, not the other way around. Throughout a long and mostly contented life, she never cared much for other humans, and went into hiding whenever they were around. Even the good friend who kept an eye on things when I was out of town rarely saw her - once the friend ransacked the place looking for her because she thought she must have slipped out. Okay, thanks. That gives me an idea of what to expect. Did you have another cat when you got her? My hope is that Pickles might befriend him and eventually convince him that I'm safe. Samwise was close to being feral when we trapped him , 2 litter mates and the mother. Spend time in the room with him. Take a book or other quite thing to do and just sit there.Try talking softy to him. Let him get use to you. Give him treats. Let him come to you. After 9 years life is still on Samwise's terms. He will let us pet and brush him. He will come and lay against me or sit on my lap.He does not like to be picked up. If it were me I would keep him separated a little longer. Let him settle in more. Ann |
#5
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Anybody tamed a feral?
On 2014-08-02 4:08 PM, Joy wrote:
On 8/2/2014 11:16 AM, Cheryl wrote: On 2014-08-02 3:10 PM, Joy wrote: About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy I haven't dealt with a real feral, but one of my RB cats was fairly close to feral. All I did was let her do what she wanted, making sure she had some safe place to hide in whenever she felt in danger, which at the beginning was pretty much all the time. Very gradually, she settled in, and became much more friendly with me - but I let her approach me, not the other way around. Throughout a long and mostly contented life, she never cared much for other humans, and went into hiding whenever they were around. Even the good friend who kept an eye on things when I was out of town rarely saw her - once the friend ransacked the place looking for her because she thought she must have slipped out. Okay, thanks. That gives me an idea of what to expect. Did you have another cat when you got her? My hope is that Pickles might befriend him and eventually convince him that I'm safe. Joy I had another cat when I adopted Betsy. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake, because the resident cat was quite territorial, and there were some battles. A vet advised me that I should let them settle their dominance squabbles themselves, and they did. -- Cheryl |
#6
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Anybody tamed a feral?
On Saturday, August 2, 2014 1:38:08 PM UTC-5, Joy wrote:
On 8/2/2014 11:16 AM, Cheryl wrote: On 2014-08-02 3:10 PM, Joy wrote: About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy I haven't dealt with a real feral, but one of my RB cats was fairly close to feral. All I did was let her do what she wanted, making sure she had some safe place to hide in whenever she felt in danger, which at the beginning was pretty much all the time. Very gradually, she settled in, and became much more friendly with me - but I let her approach me, not the other way around. Throughout a long and mostly contented life, she never cared much for other humans, and went into hiding whenever they were around. Even the good friend who kept an eye on things when I was out of town rarely saw her - once the friend ransacked the place looking for her because she thought she must have slipped out. Okay, thanks. That gives me an idea of what to expect. Did you have another cat when you got her? My hope is that Pickles might befriend him and eventually convince him that I'm safe. Joy -- Joy Unlimited Colorful Crocheted Critters Photos at http://www.PictureTrail.com/joy9 Felix wasn't a feral, but he was definitely an outdoor cat at 6(?) months. Nadia, whom we got at the same time, was almost a feral. She was run over and killed and we think Felix may have seen this. Anyway, he has increasingly been more and more an indoor cat, especially since the morning he came home with an unexplained scratch on his nose. Toci |
#7
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Anybody tamed a feral?
On 8/2/2014 12:34 PM, ann791 wrote:
On 8/2/2014 2:38 PM, Joy wrote: On 8/2/2014 11:16 AM, Cheryl wrote: On 2014-08-02 3:10 PM, Joy wrote: About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy I haven't dealt with a real feral, but one of my RB cats was fairly close to feral. All I did was let her do what she wanted, making sure she had some safe place to hide in whenever she felt in danger, which at the beginning was pretty much all the time. Very gradually, she settled in, and became much more friendly with me - but I let her approach me, not the other way around. Throughout a long and mostly contented life, she never cared much for other humans, and went into hiding whenever they were around. Even the good friend who kept an eye on things when I was out of town rarely saw her - once the friend ransacked the place looking for her because she thought she must have slipped out. Okay, thanks. That gives me an idea of what to expect. Did you have another cat when you got her? My hope is that Pickles might befriend him and eventually convince him that I'm safe. Samwise was close to being feral when we trapped him , 2 litter mates and the mother. Spend time in the room with him. Take a book or other quite thing to do and just sit there.Try talking softy to him. Let him get use to you. Give him treats. Let him come to you. After 9 years life is still on Samwise's terms. He will let us pet and brush him. He will come and lay against me or sit on my lap.He does not like to be picked up. If it were me I would keep him separated a little longer. Let him settle in more. Ann Thank you. I go in and talk to him frequently, and put down some treats for him. Monday will be ten days since I brought him home. His settling in consists of moving to a new hiding place every time I see him where he's currently hiding. He can continue to do that with the door open. The only concern will be how Pickles decides to treat him. She's the reason I got him. She's obviously very lonely since here littermate, Waffles, went to the Bridge. Joy -- Joy Unlimited Colorful Crocheted Critters Photos at http://www.PictureTrail.com/joy9 |
#8
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Anybody tamed a feral?
On 8/2/2014 1:23 PM, Cheryl wrote:
On 2014-08-02 4:08 PM, Joy wrote: On 8/2/2014 11:16 AM, Cheryl wrote: On 2014-08-02 3:10 PM, Joy wrote: About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy I haven't dealt with a real feral, but one of my RB cats was fairly close to feral. All I did was let her do what she wanted, making sure she had some safe place to hide in whenever she felt in danger, which at the beginning was pretty much all the time. Very gradually, she settled in, and became much more friendly with me - but I let her approach me, not the other way around. Throughout a long and mostly contented life, she never cared much for other humans, and went into hiding whenever they were around. Even the good friend who kept an eye on things when I was out of town rarely saw her - once the friend ransacked the place looking for her because she thought she must have slipped out. Okay, thanks. That gives me an idea of what to expect. Did you have another cat when you got her? My hope is that Pickles might befriend him and eventually convince him that I'm safe. Joy I had another cat when I adopted Betsy. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake, because the resident cat was quite territorial, and there were some battles. A vet advised me that I should let them settle their dominance squabbles themselves, and they did. Thanks. I'll do that unless it gets physical. -- Joy Unlimited Colorful Crocheted Critters Photos at http://www.PictureTrail.com/joy9 |
#9
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Anybody tamed a feral?
On Sat, 02 Aug 2014 10:40:44 -0700, Joy wrote:
About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy I have domesticated several feral / near feral cats and the thing is to let them do it on their time schedule!!! DO NOT try to rush or force them to do anything or be friendly!! Eventually they will come around. The longest one I worked with took me several month and turned out to be the lovingest cat I ever had. She went to the bridge a couple years ago and I miss her very much!!! If it is eating and using litter box that is a good part of domesticating it even if she only uses it at night. Good luck and bless you!! http://lestark.webs.com/ |
#10
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Anybody tamed a feral?
On 8/3/2014 5:38 PM, Larry Stark wrote:
On Sat, 02 Aug 2014 10:40:44 -0700, Joy wrote: About a week ago I adopted a cat from the shelter. He's a four-month-old neutered male. He's also feral. I've been keeping him isolated for the time being, but I'll be trying an introduction on Monday. He spends all of his time hiding, changing his hiding place whenever I find him. He is eating and using the litter box, but that's it. Any suggestions for making him feel more comfortable when I stop shutting him up? Joy I have domesticated several feral / near feral cats and the thing is to let them do it on their time schedule!!! DO NOT try to rush or force them to do anything or be friendly!! Eventually they will come around. The longest one I worked with took me several month and turned out to be the lovingest cat I ever had. She went to the bridge a couple years ago and I miss her very much!!! If it is eating and using litter box that is a good part of domesticating it even if she only uses it at night. Good luck and bless you!! http://lestark.webs.com/ Thank you. That's encouraging. Joy -- Joy Unlimited Colorful Crocheted Critters Photos at http://www.PictureTrail.com/joy9 |
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