Tiffany since you may be taking in semi-ferals here's some information.

http://muttcats.com/articles/taming_ferals.htm

The key to taming a feral kitten is to provide her with a maximal amount of human contact in a situation where she cannot totally escape or hide. You can put the feral kitten in a small room, such as a bathroom, and then have someone in that room several hours per day. You can also start out by placing the kitten in a large cage and then putting the cage in a busy room of the house.

Your goal is to show the feral kitten that she can trust you. You can gradually get closer to her by giving her treats and using toys (such as feather stick toys) to play with her.

You can then slowly begin to pet her and then gradually advance to picking her up and holding her for progressively longer periods of time. When petting her or picking her up it is best to approach her with your hands in back of her. Moving your hand toward her face or even moving your hand quickly away from her face may be interpreted as threatening and evoke a fear or aggression response. When working with a very fearful feral kitten, it may be necessary, when attempting to handle her, to wear thick gloves to avoid being bitten or scratched.

There are other tricks that can also be helpful. Having the feral kitten be around or see domesticated cats can be useful. By observing normal human-cat interactions the feral kitten will start to emulate some of the behaviors of the already-domesticated cat. Also, playing a radio or TV in the room with the feral kitten may also help the taming process.

http://www.littlebuddies.org/feralcats.htm

http://www.narfrescue.org/animals/cats/cat_pdfs/taming.pdf (PDF FILE)

Would you say that it is better to put her in a bedroom by herself or is it better to keep her in a cage in the living room. If I keep the cage in the living room then her and PHX will have to see eachother face to face. Is that a good idea or what?

I told the people that I prefer to not take the feral one that requires cage training. I don't know if I could do that since she is very skittish and requires a lot of work. Which I don't have experience doing this. I did volunteer to take some of the other kitties that have become more comfortable and aren't so hard to get used to humans.

Thank you for the links, I will be reading up on this. I will keep you updated as I find out more info! Thanks!

This says the more human interaction they get the better. I think at first I would put her in the bathroom. You do not want the two cats to fight. It will be enough at first for them to smell the presence without fighting or seeing one another.

After a few hours put Phx in the bathroom and the cat in the living room but still caged. Let him get use to Phx smell and vica versa. Keep switching them without them seeing one another till they act like they are OK with the smell. You will most likely have to do this for several days giving the circumstances.

After they are use to each other's smell take Phx and hold him to the cage. He shouldn't hiss her growl. If he does their not ready to be introduced yet. Go back to the previous step. You do not want them to offend one another.

When you can have Phx by the cage and neither are growling or hissing then it's OK to bring the kitten out to the living room. The more interaction he has with both human and cat are going to help tame him.

I won't be taking the kitten that needs cage taming. I think that's way to much.... considering she is feral... and needs a lot more work then the other kitties. I am probably going to go meet her this weekend. Will keep you posted.


Thanks for the info!

These are good tips... Nollee was feral when I brought her home. Well maybe she was semi-feral by that point since she had been rescued from a barn, at the most, a month before I took her home (she was 6 months when I got her). She was so skiddish she didnt go to the bathroom or eat for two days. I felt as if I was harrassing her but I maintained as much contact with her as I could, usually just us two one on one and in a quiet atmosphere. The adoption agency wasnt sure they were gonna let her go until Nollee let me hold her for 2 hours straight (she wouldnt let anyone hold her). Nollee is very afraid of men and most anyone still to this day. She is a one person cat without a doubt, and as much as she is attached to my hip she still runs from me at times. Having a feral/semi-feral takes alot of patience and prep. It took Nollee 2 full months to finally be comfortable with me. Of course it doesnt help that after we brought her home we had to take her to the vet for a URI, ringworm of the ear, and a scratch on the eye... the poor thing had to received antibiotics twice a day, eye salve three times a day, and ringworm solution once every five days... she wasnt a happy camper but she is today. Oddly I must say that she was very good natured with Tiger... she warmed up to him as soon as Tiger got over the initial introduction... she gets along with all cats.

Oh yeah... I had Nollee and Tiger seperated for three whole days (no face to face contact other than when i first brought her home in the carrier) and then she was let out under supervision from there on... within a day of that there was no need to seperate anymore... All cats are different tho... i.e. Tiger and Osiris.

Best of luck if you plan to take in some semi-ferals... if you have any questions send a pm...