Socializing feral kittens!

this is a backyard colony that one of our neighbors feeds we spayed and neutered all the feral cats and provide her with food and she lets us know when any new cats might show up here's a new mom the broader kittens over to feed in our last socialization video we talked about how kittens that are over ten weeks of age can be extremely difficult to socialize the ideal window for socialization is between 4 & 6 weeks or even up to 8 weeks after that it's often recommended that you simply trap neuter and return the kittens if you don't have the ability to socialize them as these kittens are clearly over eight weeks old we have a tough decision to make do we have the time space and resources to try to socialize them so here's the planning checklist we have the cats on a feeding routine thanks to my neighbor we have access to traps we have upcoming ASPCA spay neuter appointments we have holding space and the ability to foster and try to socialize the kittens so we decided to go for it and remember we need to get the cats fixed anyway so we can go ahead and focus on trapping them and make a decision about socialization later this is called a drop trap it's a little trickier to operate than a regular trap so make sure that you have training before you use it we're going to feed the cats from under the trap for a few days before it's actually set [Music] notice mom is still looking around and one kitten isn't completely underneath the trap I need to make sure everyone is completely inside and focused on the food before I pull it I cover the trap of the sheet as soon as possible then it's time to load mom and kittens into different traps for transport [Music] next up everyone goes to the ASPCA and we'll see who's friendly after they're spayed neutered you can tell this little guy clearly misses his mom and siblings but I need to see if he's food motivated that will give me an early signal as to how easy he might be to socialize here we're just using regular plain chicken baby food [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you may think your bathroom is small but it's a perfect size space for these guys it's much much better than a shelter cage in fact cats actually prefer small spaces because it's easier for them to get comfortable quickly [Laughter] [Music] since the mom is feral she was spayed vaccinated and returned to her outdoor home after a 48-hour holding period a lot of people may think she would prefer to be with her kittens but that's just not true see the link in our description for more information one of our first goals for socialization is to get the kittens comfortable eating next to us you can do that by slowly pulling the food bowl closer and closer towards you and mealtimes or when you'll make the most progress because they're hungry and they're willing to cooperate [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Laughter] [Music] we made a ton of progress in the first week just by spending one to two hours a day with them during meals so I knew what the right foster they could eventually be fully socialized and ready for loving homes [Music] [Music] [Music] once the crew was ready we placed them with a foster volunteer so they could get even more quality time [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Flatbush Cats

Views: 1,858,989

Keywords: feral kitten, feral cat, kitten lady, cat videos, animal video, animal rescue, cat noises, cats rescued, cat rescue, the dodo, cats meowing, cat rescue videos, cat rescues, cat rescue stories, cat rescue 2019, animal planet, cat rescue 2018, hannah shaw, kitten lady rescue, cats meowing loudly, best cat rescue videos, feral kittens, flatbush cats, taming feral cats, taming feral kittens, how to socialize feral kittens, how to tame feral kittens

Id: lUk1ndFww7c

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2019