Hi everyone, new here!

Hello to everyone! Just wanted to introduce myself, and see if I can jump on board! This looks like a very enjoyable board!

My name is Jaime and I live in Kentucky USA. Last Wednesday, I adpoted two precious little kittens @10-11 weeks old. Thats my best guess since the guy that I got the cats from barely even knew that the kittens were still at his place. He has a MAJOR cat population issue, and I sorta ended up at the right place at the right time. Apparently he was unaware he had the kittens left, and didnt really know what to do with them.

Anyhoo, I have them here safe with us now, but they are really skittish little guys. My hubby and I have been reasearching all sorts of info on feral cats, and how to socialize kittens like these. I am happy to say that the male is starting to come out of his shell somewhat, and the female is still not very confident..but she is begining to get used to seeing us. We still have a lot of work left before the cats are the happy, and loving pets we envision them being.....but I am definatly in love with them, and am looking forward to seeing all of our work pay off!!!!

So, I am looking forward to getting to know everyone here, and getting some advice from others with more experience than I. I havent ever owned a cat of my own (didnt think that I would have liked cats so much), but already I am loving these two little farts!!

And I will post a pic as soon as I can figure out what is wrong with my dig camera ....Im very anxious to get it fixed so that I can get some pics of them while they are still this little!!!

 

Hi Jaime and welcome to the forums! It's good to have you here.

Congratulations on your new kittens. I'm sure they'll come around soon. I, personally, have not had experience with feral cats, but there are lots of others here who have.

Looking forward to seeing pictures and hearing about your progress! What have you named them?

edit - oh, Cinder & Jynx! I missed it during the first read-through!

 

Hiya Jaime and welcome! I can't wait to see your new fur babies!

 

Welcome Jaimie! There's some really great people on here and some adorable kitties I've only had experience fostering one feral kitten. You can see pictures of Kodak on my home page. She was a fiesty little hissing spitter kitty when i got her at about a month old. For the first couple days i didn't mess with her too much except to feed her and kept her separated from my other kitten and let her calm down. Then every day I'd work with her a little more. First thing i had to work on was getting her comfortable with being handled, cuz she did NOT like being held at all. She would scream and cry whenever i picked her up. But everyday i would hold onto her a little longer and she was also very food agressive and would attack anything or anyone that got too close to her food. So what i did was i started making her eat while she was sitting in my lap. And then I gradually introduced petting her while she was eating so she could get over her fear of me taking her food away. After the first week and a half, she was able to be left unsupervised with my other kitten(who is an angel, lover kitty) and they became best buddies. I think that helped her come along too. It took about a little over 2 months before her behavior was acceptable for a new home and she'd gotten over her food aggression problems and issues with being picked up. By then she was comfortable enough with me to come curl up next to me on the bed while i was sleeping and she was a great kitty. So just be patient and keep on trying a little bit more everyday. Good luck and good for you taking them in!

 

Hi Jaime & welcome to the board! The people here are very friendly and helpful.

Congrats on you new kittens can't wait to see the pics, When I was very young my family adopted 2 feral kittens, one male and one female, unfortunatly the male escaped about a week after we had them (my brother and I left the door wide open, I think we were only about 5 & 6 so we weren't really thinking about if the kittens escaped), the female turned out to be a very loving cat and she had been soooo shy to begin with.

 

:kiss_her: welcome to the forum!

it's a great place to be a part of, full of great advice (tho it never substitutes for a vets) and even better people.

happy to hear u saved those little babies that was so great of you! Sounds like u and your hub are gonna make great furry parents.

vene is one of the librarians here i'm sure she'll have some feral kitten links for ya hehe

cant wait for the pictures! :m7: :qm2:

 

Hello and welcome!

Can't wait to see pictures of your new furbabies!

 

Welcome to the forum! This is THE forum of all forums, with very friendly people! lol

Congrats with the furbabies, I'm sure you and your hubby will do a great job with them.

 

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new kittens!

Two things I've found very useful in getting my feral kitten more comfortable around me are food and toys. At first I would just sit in the same room with him while he ate his canned food. Once he was pretty comfortable eating with me there I started playing with him. I used a fishing pole type toy so that I could sit at a distance where he was comfortable enough to come out and play with the swinging toy. As he became more comfortable he would come closer and closer to me during our play sessions. Recently I have even been able to pet him while dangling a toy in front of him and he does't hiss and run when I approach him anymore. He was really sick when I got him so its been an extra slow process trying to socialize him but I really think he's going to turn out to be a very nice cat eventually.
With a little patience your little girl should come around in no time.
Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

 

:m23: and welcome! Love to see pics! :mrgreen:

http://www.feralcat.com/taming.html

http://catnet.stanford.edu/articles/socializing_ferals.html

http://www.muttcats.com/articles/taming_ferals.htm#kittens

http://www.forgottenfelines.com/new/pages/info/tame.html

EF, LOL's. I'm not a librarian but I love to get links.

 

Welcome to our little home...have fun posting...and we cant wait to see pics!!

 

Thank you all soooo much for your warm welcomes!!!

Every day we do seem to make small little progresses with the kittens. We have moved thier food bowl out into the kitchen, and are now trying to get them comfortable with the living room and kitchen. They have pretty much stayed in the front bathroom, and sometimes in our bedroom. I think that they are coming along nicely....and the female even played with me and her brother tonight! So, looks like they are begining to trust us a little more each day. Jynx (the female) even sat with my oldest son who is seven, for a long time in his lap while he watched tv. Im so glad that they are here with us, and away from that dirty old machine shop, and wierd man!

And the spay/neuter links at the top of the forum are awesome!!! I found a place that does low cost spay and neuter just a few minutes away from us!!! Seeing as how I am thinking we will broke after Christmas, this will be a great way to get them fixed sooner than I had hoped!!!

 

Hi and welcome to Auspet. I have a little feral kitty as well. Her name is Juliet (she's all black with a few white hairs). Her boyfriend's name is Romeo (he's the social one). With a lot of work and patience she has come such a long way. She can still be a bit shy with new people and new surroundings (I take them with me to a lot of places), but she is just so much better than when she first adopted me. So, there is hope for your kitties too. :wink: You just need to have a lot of patience. They'll come around in their own time.

 

lols lols lols.

and vene...you ARE THE LIBRARIAN :m3: :m36: UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!!!!!

hi 2blackcats...and welcome to you!! :0018:

cant wait to see pics!!! :wink: