CatActionTrust - Help with feral cats

How you can tame a ferral kitten.

Kittens up to 6 weeks usually tame quite quickly. From 6 - 8 weeks, they take longer, over 9 weeks it becomes difficult and lengthy and at 12 weeks very difficult - but it has been done! The younger they are, the quicker they become normal. At two and a half weeks, for example, they tame in a couple of days.

It all depends if they have been born to an abandoned female who has gone wild, or are from several generations of ferals; the latter can only be tamed if caught when very young. We have found the following guidelines to be useful:

If you have a small, empty, unused room (e.g. a box room), leave them free with somewhere to hide, but first, all possible exit points must be blocked - chimney, pipeholes, windows etc.

If caged, put on a table, so they are level with your face. Cover the cage, back, top and sides and leave for a few days, just providing food and clean litter trays, not attempting to touch until you can push the food to the back of the cage with a stick. Always talk in a quiet, slow voice.

Then proceed as for the free kittens: In the open, put food against a far wall, so that the kittens' backs are towards you when eating. Stroke very gently on the back, with one finger, while they are engrossed in eating.

Next day, with two fingers, later with the whole hand, eventually overcoming their fear of hands.

Finally when being touched, slowly and gently pick up underneath the body - never by the scruff - it is too frightening. When you have succeeded in picking one up, it will go rigid at first... but keep trying!

Some may tame quite quickly but play with all of them and do not just concentrate on the most timid.

It is a matter of trial and error. All kittens are different and each must be treated differently. It is not as difficult as it sounds and they will repay you threefold when they purr, roll on their backs and let you pick them up. When they start purring and playing, you've won!