Socializing a Spicy Feral Kitten!

so what happens if you run into a kitten that's between eight to twelve weeks old and you're not sure whether you should try to socialize it or just get it spayed and neutered and vaccinated and then return it back to its colony socialization takes a lot of work most rescues and shelters do not have the time and space to do it so I'm hoping that watching this will give you a little bit more information on how to do it yourself in this video we're gonna follow a kitten named Frannie from when she was around eight weeks old all the way to being several months old and finally ready for adoption we got off to a bad start because I needed to grab the kittens from a woodpile that was an unsafe area high traffic I wasn't gonna be able to trap them and that's always the worst way to start off a socialization project especially if you kitten there's already eight weeks old because their first interaction is negative and it's with your hands but that's what I needed to do to get them out of there safely and so that's what I did you can't really do anything the first day you just need to let them calm down but second day I brought them to their new foster I knew she hated me and she didn't want to be there but I also wanted to know if she was food motivated at all and so I used chicken baby food to test that out [Music] that's a great sign because it means no matter how spicy she might be over the next couple weeks I can use food as a motivator to bring her closer and eventually kind of get her trust we typically give all kittens a flea bath with Dawn dish soap you can skip this step if you feel like the kittens are really hostile but a lot of times they might be too young for revolution or other fully medication so for the first week you're really looking for any indication that they can be socialized and they're very food motivated that's a good sign for the next few weeks Alison's goal is to establish a positive association with people I'm making sure that Frannie only gets food when she's around [Music] after a few weeks all four kittens were getting more comfortable inside Frannie was really enjoying playtime but she was still a little apprehensive about people so I decided to bring her home and work with her solo because cats can progress much more quickly that way you can see why I mentioned earlier that rescues and shelters don't often have the time to socialize kittens imagine splitting up every litter of four kittens and sending one to each foster which is not a good use of their time or space in this case we had already made a commitment to socialize all of these kittens and most of them are doing well so I wanted to make sure that we could get Frannie over the finish line I spent one to two hours with her everyday just convincing her that people were not a threat and after a few weeks I was really starting to see some progress but she still had an issue with my hands [Music] this playful body language shows us that she does want to engage but she just doesn't trust people yet watch her ears go back whenever my hands approach remember that she was fine sitting in my lap so really this is the issue that I need to work on if she's going to be ready for an indoor home [Music] keep in mind most kittens can be socialized in just a few weeks as long as they're under 8 weeks when you start but Frannie was our toughest case of the year I decided to go back to the basics and that means hand feeding every single meal for a week straight the bad news is your hands will smell like turkey all the time the good news is very quickly you start to develop new associations with hands so now instead of potentially seeing my hands as a threat they're literally the source of all of her food treats and playtime and that starts to add up I've dropped a couple other links to some really great socialization videos in the description and they talk about things like hand feeding as critical steps that you can start right away when you begin socializing a new kitten when someone has a deeply held belief not gonna change their mind with just one conversation and that's the same with cats I needed to prove to her over and over and over again a hundred times in a row that people and hands are not a threat after weeks of hand feeding and always having treats nearby friendly started to see my hands as a good thing and of course the ultimate sign of progress is when they just appreciate your company don't have any treats they're just glad to see you and they're okay with maybe being held a little bit and they especially love getting all kinds of scratches and scratches and attention it feels really good to see that she's not just tolerating your presence or doing what she needs to do to get food but actually really seeking out that affection so by this point I knew that Frannie was finally ready for adoption and that she would accept the new family and be able to bond with them the same way she eventually bonded with me [Music] and because I had documented her progress along the way I could easily help potential adopters understand where she came from in the work that they would also have to put in to earn her trust [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Flatbush Cats

Views: 4,353,876

Keywords: cats, rescue, feral, tnr, socializing, kittens, adoption, trap neuter return, feral cat, kitten lady, how to, cat rescue, feral kitten, kitten rescue, feral kittens, what do i do, kittens playing, socializing a spicy feral kitten, socializing feral kittens, adoption story, animal planet cats, cat rescue videos, taming feral cats, taming kittens, animal planet, taming feral kittens, animal rescue, hannah shaw, scared kitten, cat training, cats rescued, socializing feral cat

Id: QcD8DrJKejQ

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 12 2018