There’s a colony of feral cats living under the neighbor’s deck. Just about every summer a new group of kittens appears on my porch to eat the food we leave out for the yellow cat that’s been living on our porch since before we bought the place.
This summer’s batch was 4 kittens that were all on our porch one night a couple of months ago. After that night we’ve only seen two of them return, a little skinny grey one that I’m pretty sure is a male and a calico, and they’ve taken to basically living on the porch as well. I’ve been feeding them wet food and over the last few weeks they’ve become friendly, friendly enough to the point they’ll run up to me just for pats and attention. They will let me pick them up, and they follow me around the yard like a parade, it’s quite adorable. They’re still quite kitten-y and small.
My wife and I are considering taking them in, at least until we can find them another home. Or maybe we’ll just keep them, though I’m not sure how happy our two existing cats will be about that. We’re at least going to get them fixed and vaccinated and stuff.
Anyone have any experience bringing in feral cats?
You want kitten pics? I got your kitten pics right here! From that first night they were on the porch:
Any feral friendly enough to be touched is almost certainly friendly enough to be tamed, if they functionally aren’t already. The younger you start doing that the better. Best thing to do is trap the kittens, tame them and adopt out the ones you can’t/don’t want to keep. Trap mom and her neighbors and neuter them to try and stop the constant kitten re-load. That last part is easier said than done, cats breed like rabbits :p. So that might be beyond your ability. But it sounds pretty promising for at least getting this set of kittens into a better life.
I don’t know where you are, but if it is a major city there are likely organizations dedicated to trap-neuter-release programs that might lend a helping hand, including paying for the neutering. As far as taming feral kittens goes there is a lot of great info on the web. Best of luck :).
When we were still living at my great-grandmother’s house, a stray cat had kittens in the garage. My mom managed to catch one of the kittens when it was between eight and ten weeks old, and gave him to my aunt, with plans to catch and rehome the remaining two as soon as we could buy a have-a-heart trap which weren’t in-stock at the hardware store. Unfortunately two days later a possum attacked the two remaining kittens, killing one and wounding the other. The mother cat must’ve thought they were both dead because she abandoned the wounded one. We were eventually able to catch the last kitten and take her to the vet - she had an infected bite but was otherwise okay.
Kitten three, named Boo, hid in the pool table for the first three days, but eventually became quite friendly to humans although not super fond of our other cats. We had her until she managed to escape outside after being scared by something (Mom thought it was a fight with another of the cats) eight or so years later.
Kitten one, Sam, was my aunt’s beloved cat for nineteen years. He died two days after my mom did, however, making for a extra terrible time for my aunt.
So…if you get them very young, in my experience feral kittens can become very good pets.
Sounds to me like the feral humans at your home have already been adopted and just haven’t picked up on it yet.
I’ve taken in feral kittens a couple of times (I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned Mouse The Fearless Coward and Princess The Hateful Snake Hunter before). Those kittens may be wild yet, but from the sounds of it not really feral, the behavior you describe sounds to me like you’ve become part of their conspiracy(of cats). By all means, work them into the indoors and get them all fixed up. There’s a good chance they’ll be some of the best pets to ever own you.
My mom caught a feral kitten about six weeks old back in 2003 or so. You have to get them as early as you can or they never lose their feral instincts (around 4 weeks is the cutoff, so i been told)
Even adults or old feral cats can be very friendly, or grow to be so if you are nice to them, not only kittens. Unless they are orphaned or there are other exigent circumstances, you must never separate kittens from the mother or otherwise take them in before the age of 8 weeks or so. There are also different types of cat flaps and cat doors that can be used if you are able to let them go in and out.
The essential responsible thing to do, though, is to trap and sterilize all the cats over the age of six months, so that they will not keep reproducing.
Yeah, people who love cats need to also realize that they’re an invasive species that wreak havoc with indigenous fauna. I’m sure they’re also not adapted to the colder climes of human colonization, so it’s extra-miserable for them to eke out an existence outside their original range.
I was going to say that my sister-in-law adopted two feral cats, but actually they adopted her.
A woman in her neighborhood works to trap feral cats, have them checked out and neutered. My SIL is one of the families in the area that feeds the feral kitties and helps trap them. Two kittens – a male and female from the same litter (and almost definitely the only two from that litter)-- took a look through their patio door and decided this was going to be their house. After a couple of weeks, sure enough they became indoor kitties in their new home.
I was a bit concerned that they would always hear the Call of the Wild, but they really exhibit very little interest in the great outdoors. It seems though that early on one of their favorite activities was looking out the patio door and lording it over the outside cats.
Please beg or borrow or buy a humane trap (if necessary, if you can’t just pick them up and put them in a box) and get the adult cats fixed so there aren’t continual litters of new kittens. Not just the kittens, but all the adult cats as well. The adult female cats’ lives will be much better without the stress of continual litters, and the world really doesn’t need a constant new supply of feral cats.
Check with your local SPCA to see if they have a free feral fixing program like we have here in San Francisco. If not, they might be able to direct you somewhere that does.
Those kittens as you describe them aren’t feral at all any longer; they sound very human friendly. The one thing you need to be careful about is that if they’ve never been indoors they may panic when they first find themselves shut inside. If possible let them wander around inside a bit with the doors open before you put them in a room with a closed door; if you can’t do that, make sure there’s someplace in the room where they can hide – that’s a good idea in any case.
I’ve tamed feral kittens easily who were over 4 weeks old; I think the cutoff age is probably closer to 10 or 12 weeks – but that’s for first interaction with humans. Once they’ll let you pat them, you’re set.
And I have friends who tamed an adult feral cat once. He was sick and starving on their porch; it wasn’t until food and a vet visit had him recovered enough so that he had the strength to resist handling that they realized they’d taken in a feral who was on their porch in the same way as a raccoon or a starving fox might have been, just because there was food there, not because he’d come to humans for help. It took them a long time – he spent much of the first couple of years in the rafters in their basement, and it was several years before he’d let them pat him, and longer than that before he’d come to them for pats. Well before he died (at an advanced age), though, he had become quite affectionate, and not only came to them for pats but would also let me pat him when I visited, even though that wasn’t often. So it is possible in at least some cases; but taming a fully adult feral can take years, and lots and lots of patience. But young kittens are generally easy.
Even outside big cities, there may be a trap-neuter-release program that can help you with the adults. Not everywhere has one; but it’s worth trying to find out. Ask the local veterinaries, and/or any local humane society; they may know.
They are the most angry vicious animals which will ever scar your arms, draw pints of your blood, and make you love them.
One checks on me at 3AM every night to make sure I’m still there.
I know. We’re just negotiating the terms.
Thanks for all the stories and advice. Tried to get people to come out and take care of the adults a few times, but we’ve yet to have any success in getting a hold of them (the people).
Probably sometime next week we’ll make an appointment to take the two kittens in to the vet and get them fixed and vaccinated and everything. Then we’ll start working them into our little indoor family. We think we have a friend who will take them, but if not, we don’t have a problem with keeping them. Being siblings and seeing that they’re always together we don’t want to break them up.
Those pics were taken June 5, and they were very tiny. I’m guessing they were 3-4 weeks old then, which would make them about 16 weeks old now. They’re very skinny, I’m worried if they’re getting enough to eat, but then again, kittens at that age tend to be very skinny anyways.
They may be older than you think; lack of food can stunt growth. Once they start getting enough food (they can haz home, yay!) there may be a rapid growth spurt; enough food soon enough can let them catch up.
I have a former feral kittencat. Well, full grown cattenkit? She hid a lot at first. Now I can’t get her off my pillow when I’m trying to sleep. She had stunted growth, or maybe she was the runt, but either way she’s a very loving very small cat now.
I have a feral cat now I got when it was only about 2 weeks old, I had to bottle feed it for several weeks. No different than a cat born in captivity. Lots of feral kittens are rescued each year and they become fully domestic in a short amount of time.
We’re at least going to get them fixed and vaccinated and stuff.
