# Help with two rescue kittens.....



## Ray Ferrier (Apr 2, 2020)

Hi everyone, I’m posting on here for some help and advice.

First off I’ve had a few cats over the years. The first was an abandoned kitten that we had to bottle feed, the second was a adopted kitten from a shelter and the third was an elderly cat whose owner emigrated. So I generally know my way around cats.

Anyway, after a 3 year gap, since my last cat died, I decided to adopt a couple of kittens.

We ended up with a couple that weren’t sisters but had bonded at the shelter. One was 6 months old (Pam) the other 8 months old (Spicy).

We prepared a room, got a couple of cardboard boxes, cloths, scratching post, multiple trays and a few toys, and brought the cats home. 

Now I was expecting a settling period as all of our cats have needed some time. However, we are now 6 weeks in and have made very little progress.

Pam will come out and play with feathers in a pole. She eats and drinks fine, and as I change the litter can testify that she’s very regular. However she spooks really easily and if I get more than 4ft away she will still bolt for shelter.

Spicy however looks either terrified or completely ignores us. She’ll either bolt and hide or sleep. However she’ll always bolt for cover if we get closer than about 6 ft or even make a surprise movement. She eats and drinks fine, but if we are in the room she’ll bolt a couple of mouthfuls while staring at us and then darts for cover again.

The combination also means that when one gets spooked the other panics as well so frequently the day can pass with me only seeing them for a split second as I open the door to feed, clean or attempt to play with them.

I’ve pored over the Internet for advice and have tried all sorts to help them settle, but I’m beginning to wonder if they would be more comfortable on a farm or somewhere away from humans. It’s getting hard to deal with two cats who are so scared of me.

I certainly haven’t given up on them and will be doing everything I can while we are self isolating during covid to keep trying to settle them.

So any suggestions of how to help?

We’ve tried regular play with a long pole and small toys
We’ve tried catnip
We’ve tried feliway
We’ve tried treats
We’ve tried special foods such as Tuna, Chicken, Butter, Kitten milk.
We’ve tried cat ‘winking’ and body language
We’ve tried talking to them while being on the floor.
We’ve tried sitting in silence
We’ve tried sitting with them and reading.
We’ve even read to them.
We left scented cloths in the room and also tried giving them things of outer to smell.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Hello @Ray Ferrier and welcome 

How were the kittens when you saw them at the Shelter? Did they run away and hide when you went into their pen?

Did the Shelter staff say the kittens were rescued ferals?

If they are rescued ferals (i.e. born to a feral mother and not rescued until they were past the crucial socialisation period of 3 to 4 months old) then it may certainly be harder to socialise them, but not impossible. It will take longer and they may never be at ease with visitors but they should become bonded with you, given time and patience. 

We have had rescued feral kittens (at the Shelter where I volunteer) who were very scared of toys such as wands and rod toys. But a simple piece of string pulled slowly along the floor fascinated them.

Do you spend a lot of time in their safe room with the kittens? I would spend as much time as you can in there, doing normal everyday things like using your laptop, reading, watching TV, eating meals etc

By all means read out loud to them, in a calm, light tone, so as to get Spicy used to your voice. But do not expect Spicy to come out of hiding. She will do that when she feels more confident. I would not coax her out, or react to her if she does show herself. Let Spicy come and sniff you if she wants, but do not stroke her or pick her up. She needs to feel she is in control of her personal space.

Basically she needs time to feel she can trust that humans will not harm her. If she has had little contact with humans in the past then it is going to take a while. 6 weeks is not very long if she is a feral kitten. It may take several months to see progress, but I promise it can be very rewarding to socialise a very timid kitten successfully. 

I would focus mainly on Pam for the moment, as she seems much more confident than Spicy. If you can build a close bond with Pam, Spicy will observe this and it will help her feel more at ease, Cats are good at taking behavioural cues from each other.


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## Pepperpots (Apr 3, 2016)

As someone who fosters scared cats I would say that lots of time, patience and tempting food fed on a schedule are your friends. It’s not a quick process, but I promise the rewards for both you and the cats are huge.


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## Ray Ferrier (Apr 2, 2020)

Thought I’d give you all a progress report.

They’re still settling but there has been some improvements. We leave the door open for them now and they roam the house now. They have a second bolt hole upstairs under our spare bed.

They will both come into a room while we are there but if we move they tend to bolt. Also if we walk into a room they will tend to bolt. With care, and bribery, we can get close to them but have only managed to touch them once each.

Spicy is still refusing point blank to play with anything, but Pam is happy to play with a wand.

It’s slow going but we’ll soldier on.

N.b. 
To fill in the blanks about there past.
Both were found feral Pam about 5 months old and Spicy at 7 months. Even though they aren’t sisters the shelter noticed an immediate bond between them. They would always cuddle up together, groom each other and got stressed if they were separated. Interestingly they both used a litter tray immediately and the shelter believes that they may have already been trained then abandoned.

At this point the shelter thought they were the same age, but when the vet checked them out before coming to us he said that Spicy was 2 months older and had already been spayed.

Other than that we know nothing else about their backgrounds.


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## Silverdoof (Jan 23, 2014)

It can take older kittens Longer to settle however agree with Pepperpot, it will happen. Its good you let them have freedom of the house to explore and play. Its early days yet for these babies. We had one it took nearly a year for her to get on our knees and such a day that was one day she was still in flight, next she cautiously approached us, then jumped onto my knee. 

We beamed big smiles for 24 hours solid. It is so so worth all the working with them. The rewards are immense. 

You are doing a marvellous job with these babies. x


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## Summercat (Oct 8, 2017)

@Ray Ferrier 
Hi,
Just reading through all the posts, and wondering how things are going?


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## Ray Ferrier (Apr 2, 2020)

Honestly, it’s still slow going.

Spicy still stays to herself for most of the day. Although the improvement with her is that she will now sleep on top of the sofa bed upstairs rather than hide underneath it. She’s still not engaging with us and certainly won’t play with the wand and she certainly won’t voluntarily come near us. She will occasionally come into the front room and hide at the other end while we are in there and will go out in the conservatory to watch the garden if we are elsewhere. Overnight she’s bounding around play fighting and messing around with Pam quite happily, but us humans in the house are still feared. She still goes wide eyed if you walk towards her and will bolt out of a room in a panic if we wander in.

Also recently she’s started to shred the stairs carpet, the sofa and poo on the edge of the litter trays so something is clearly upsetting her.

We spoke to a vet about her and he suggested feliway and nutritional supplements to help calm her. Although we already use feliway and Spicy refuses to eat anything other than dry food that’s no where near us so getting supplements or medicine in her is problematic.

Basically she lives in the house and avoids us at all times.

Pam is slowly improving, although I fear Spicy is holding her back. She will now take stick treats and dreamies from our hands. We play with her with the wand every day and she meeps at us when she wants a treat. She’ll also come in and sit near us while we watch TV. Probably about 3-4 feet away. She roams the house, loves her new cat tree, and spends her daylight hours in our conservatory watching the garden or asleep in her tree. She’s eating fine, pooping fine and using the scratching posts happily. If you move around the room she will stay sitting or lying, until you get to a few feet away and then she darts off. She also communicates with Spicy quite openly now across the house and calls her down when food is out or she wants to play.

So that’s us at the moment.

I’ve adopted 4 cats before these two. 2 were young kittens, 1 was about a year old and the other was 12 years old.

I’ve never had it take this long to settle a cat down and integrate them into the family, but will persevere.

Although I’d be lying to say that I haven’t considered that they might be happier on a farm away from human contact. Spicy, in particular, makes me sad. It can’t be good to go through life being so scared of everything all the time.

Last week she was on the windowsill in the conservatory dozing in the sunlight. I wandered in and she panicked, fell off the windowsill into a plant, bolted out of the room avoiding my wife, landed on the sofa where my daughter was, panicked again and leapt onto a coffee table where she slipped on a magazine and panicked again. She then spent about a day hiding in her cardboard box, wide eyed and shaking.


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## SbanR (Jun 16, 2017)

Poor Spicy. Does she like lick-e-lix? You could mix zylkene into it and offer that to her


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## Ray Ferrier (Apr 2, 2020)

SbanR said:


> Poor Spicy. Does she like lick-e-lix? You could mix zylkene into it and offer that to her


No she doesn't eat lick e lix. 
She will occasionally lick some gravy off of wet food but otherwise only eats dry food and not when we are about.

I have some security cameras up around the house that I use to keep an eye on them


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## Silverdoof (Jan 23, 2014)

Honestly it can take months or longer. Putting her in an alien farm environment now would be absolutely petrifying for her. She knows your house the safe places and bolt holes, a farm she Would just run until exhausted then run some more

where did you get the kittens from


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## Lurcherlad (Jan 5, 2013)

Is there more than one litter tray?

They often don’t like sharing.

Try to let Spicy know that someone is going to enter the room she’s in so she gets some warning. I would start speaking to her in a calm voice before entering.


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## Summercat (Oct 8, 2017)

@Ray Ferrier 
Hi ,
Thanks for the update. 
I have heard some people have more success with Pet Remedy than Feliway and you might switch to that.
Beaphar also does a calming spray that you can use on bedding, scratching posts etc.

Try not to make eye contact too often or too long, especially with Spicey if she is the more fearful. Pretend if you can, that you often do not even see her. Cats if fearful can see eye contact as aggression.
It can take awhile and if you can make progress with Pam, it should help Spicey as she will likely watch and observe.

Agree, about the litter boxes, make sure at least two and in different areas.

I might even add some cat shelving if you can, it will give vantage points where they can feel safe and see what is happening. 
Cats like them in general to relax and move about the room on. 
To give some ideas:



__ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/419608890259546379/

It sounds like they had very little socialization if any before coming to your family and very good of you to take them on.


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## Paddypaws (May 4, 2010)

If the cats like dry food you could try this stuff....I do find it helpful with shy cats. 
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats...bXzIQDPs-mmCDQgr9JTb0hAbJWIjZddkaApNdEALw_wcB


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## Silverdoof (Jan 23, 2014)

Just wondering have you ever had Spicy’s hearing checked? If she has hearing issues she will be much more easily startled than norm. What colour is she?


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## Ray Ferrier (Apr 2, 2020)

Silverdoof said:


> Honestly it can take months or longer. Putting her in an alien farm environment now would be absolutely petrifying for her. She knows your house the safe places and bolt holes, a farm she Would just run until exhausted then run some more
> 
> where did you get the kittens from


Thanks for that. It's reassuring that we're doing the right thing.

We got them from a place called Venture Farm Cat Rescue.


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## Ray Ferrier (Apr 2, 2020)

Lurcherlad said:


> Is there more than one litter tray?
> 
> They often don't like sharing.
> 
> Try to let Spicy know that someone is going to enter the room she's in so she gets some warning. I would start speaking to her in a calm voice before entering.


We've got 3 litter trays spread around the house.

And we are also speaking our routes as much as we can, I even find myself alone in the kitchen telling no one that I'm about to stand up.


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