Feral Kittens

[Bari]

For a few years, I've taken notice to a stray cat that lives around my neighborhood - my family even gave her a name, since we saw her often. We've always made the effort to leave food out for her, but she's so skittish that every time we go outside with food, she'll run off.
Recently this cat had a litter of three kittens. About three weeks ago, we saw the kittens for the first time. They're all extremely thin, so now we're trying to leave food and water out for all of them. After that first sighting of the whole family, we didn't see them again for several weeks. Just last night, my family was outside and they came out, now by themselves, I'm assuming their mother has weaned them.
What I'm wanting to know is how you tame a feral kitten. There is one kitten in particular that is the bravest of them all. Last night she even ate out of my hand, but of course jumped back after about ten seconds. She stayed around for quite awhile, and even followed me! If our family could, we'd keep them all, but all the other ones are so terribly skittish. We're going to feed all of them, but if we could save one of them and make her part of our household, it would mean a lot to us. We've already adopted one shelter cat, nearly three years ago, and she's our pride and joy.
Any advice would be wonderful - I appreciate anyone taking the time to read!

-Bari

[jason]

What I'm wanting to know is how you tame a feral kitten.

tame?

cats know about using a litter box quite immediately if you are concerned about that. every cat is different and will take the change from "out on their own" to "being cared for" in different ways, at least initially.

if you do plan on caring for this kitty, keeping her indoor only is the best start. also an initial vet visit to check for any possible parasite or health condition that her diet would need to be taking care of.

if you have specific questions on taking care of her, please do reply and keep us posted.

[Traci]

Taming a feral kitten is not much different than that of a new adoptee, time, patience and a whole lot of love are the keys. Because this kitten is still relatively young, and impressionable, it should be fairly easy to acclimate her indoors, but you'll have to be prepared for some adjustments on her part. Also, you need to get her fully evaluated by your vet before introducing her to your other kitty (exam, deworm, tested for FELV/FIV, vaccinated accordingly)

[kate & kobi]

It sounds like they are all still quite young, so all it will take to get used to humans is frequent contact and love. You just need to earn their trust, and it sounds like one of them is beginning to trust you already.

The best thing you could do would be to catch all of them (even Mama, if you can) and at least have them spayed/neutered, even if you are going to release them back outside again. Then hopefully you won't end up with even more kittens next year.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[MA]

Hi Bari-

I just work with ferals both cats and kittens. I would be happy to help you out just email me at maryanne@meowhoo.com if you want. But I will interject that you don't actually "tame" a feral kitten, you can socialize them with time and patience, but usually they do not take on the mannersims of a domesticated cat that was raised in a family of love and hugs.

If you can capture all the kittens that would be best, they calm down better if they are not separated right away from their littermates. You want to set a room aside and give this kitten a nice dark hidey hole to hide in, and you want it well away from the pulse of the house, he will need it to be dark and quiet.

here is an article I wrote some time back about this, perhaps you will find some help within it-

http://www.thecatsite.com/cat_care/care.php?a=ferals