You're actually off to a very good start.
- Keep holding and petting, whether they admit to liking it or not, and keep
the feathery toys handy.
- Keep them in a very small space so you can easily get your hands on them.
- Add a little meat baby food to your repertoire, especially the chicken,
turkey and ham flavors. You want to follow up petting sessions with a really
special treat. I actually have them lick the baby food off my fingertips.
Gets them even more accustomed to hands.
- Also, whatever space you have them in, play music very softly and/or leave
on a television set to a low volume. Gets them more used to human voices.
- Patience and persistence
- Also, join the feral cat list at
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/feral_cats/ and read through the very
extensive files section on taming.
Caroline Kaufmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
.hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage {
FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } My other issue is that is took in 3
female barn kittens last Sat. We are estimating they are about 8 wks (just got
spayed on Mon and all weigh almost 3 lbs). They were born in a barn in
Indiana- mom was dropped off on this man's farm and had her kittens in the
barn. I don't know too many details, but after they were born, they started
coming out of the barn a little so they were noticed by the farmer and his
daughter. They were not taken into the house as far as I know they stayed in
the barn until they were caught and brought to me. So my contact at the
adoption agency obviously wanted to get them fix and out of the bitter bitter
cold and wants to see if they can be socialized enough to be adopted out. If
not, they will have to re-released to the barn. She doesn't have the
time/resources to take on this project right now and she was given my name and
number as the newest "kitten rehabber" on the block I guess. But I'm a
rehabber of sick kittens- that's my forte! And these babies are the healthiest
lil piggies I've seen in a loooooong time (aw the irony). (By the by, 5 of the
7 kittens that I have nursed through illnesses and fostered since Sept. have
been adopted! The remaining ones are Yoda- who shows badly b/c he thinks I'm
his mommy and he has no intention of going anywhere...and the little booger is
growing on me daily anyway; and Possum (aka "Possee"- my little struggling
underweight darling who's finally growing and moving around now that we've gone
through a whole thing of Nutrical! He's not caught up to Yoda yet, even tho
they are the same age, but there's been improvement. He isn't show-ready yet
so I haven't even tried to adopt him yet.).
Anyway, I don't know what I am doing with these barn kittens! Other than just
generally "forcing" myself on them, I am kind of at a loss. They're not really
wild like feral cats or anything, they just would prefer it if you didn't touch
them. They kind of go into this panic mode when I do pick them up by the
scruff where they will just curl up their body like a ball and they just kind
of go to their happy place-- like lapse into a trance and don't engage. So
people who don't truly know cats think they are darling little docile things
you can just hold forever, but it's not so. I know if you put them on the
ground, they would be off and under something and you'd never find them again.
It's like they go into survival mode when you hold them, so people think they
are fun to hold, but really, these little things are dying on the inside while
you are doing it! They never purr when I scratch them or handle them. They
will hiss sometimes when they first see me or I reach
for them, but it's really baby hissing and I totally ignore it. Of course,
they are scared of sounds and some toys I originally gave them, but we are
making headway now b/c they love the cat teasers with feathers, so I can get
them to engage, but only for the purpose of playing.
Other than forced holding of them, what can I do to work on getting them to
engage with people- and even like them? I hold them together as a group all
wrapped up in a towel- I thought that would lessen the trauma by them all
having each other. Plus, the farmer's daughter (hee hee!) favored only one of
them and held only that one kitten- so it's more socialized and easier to hold
than the other two. It's actually really sad to see the effect that that
favoritism had on these babies! I just want to be doing all that I can b/c if
they can't be socialized, they will have to be released and I will feel like
it's partly my fault-- I feel like I can't fail here. It would be especially
sad b/c these little things are cute cute! They have those big round "apple"
heads and pudgy faces and huge round eyes and they have medium fur that is
really fluffy and poufy- very distinctive looking and I know if they didn't
have "people" issues right now, they would literally fly off the
shelves at adoption day! They look little bear cubs basically...insanely cute!
Suggestions very welcome at this point!
thanks,
Caroline
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