I wanted to start a topic on feral cats, but not sure which section to put it under.

So, how many of us currently have ferals cats in our homes or take care of feral colonies?

I have 2 feral girls, littermates.  I adopted them from my vet's office at about 4 months so they got the brunt of the scratches, not me.  I have had them for a few years. The one with the "Betty Davis Eyes" is still my little "wild" girl.  We can pet her, but only when she wants to be petted and only on her terms.  I still can't hold them in my lap.  Putting them in their cat crates is a real trip.  yeouch!  They love rock and roll music.  They were living near a dumpster in a bar when they were rescued.  They are fascinated when my husband plays his guitar and cranks up the amps.  Our other cats all scatter.  LOL.

Oops, I forgot the question.  Since I have only had ferals for a few years, I was wondering, are they always feral for their entire lives.  I mean, will they always be on the skittish side?

Wow. I could go on and on about this topic.  Rufus (in the photo) was a feral kitten I nabbed out of my yard when he was only 4 weeks old. We had just bought our house and the former owner "forgot" to tell us he had been fostering a feral colony here, so it took us a little while to figure out why all these scrawny cats were hanging around - finally our neighbor told us about the colony and we have been feeding, caring for, and running a TNR program ever since!  We are happy to say we have the only fat feral cats in the neighborhood.  I think my neighbors consider me "the crazy cat lady."   

With feral cats, how tame they will become depends entirely on how early you get them and start socializing them to humans - if you get them before they are 8 weeks old you have a pretty good chance of getting them to tame up but after that they will retain some level of wildness (depending on the individual cat's personality).  Rufus is totally tame and my big baby but he still startles easily.  We nabbed another bunch of kittens last fall (6 total) who were about 5-6 weeks old when we brought them in, and they tamed up really fast too (we eventually adopted them all out to good homes).  On the other hand, most of the ones we've been caring for over the last two years have never let us touch them and are diehard ferals. 

My mom had a formerly feral Siamese that she trapped when he was about 4 months old and it took forever for him to adjust to people, but then he finally took to my dad and they were best friends for over a dozen years, though he was still suspicious of most other people.  I've read that feral cats do tend to bond with one person, and lucky you if they decide they like you!

I rescued a feral cat that was born under my deck.  I captured her when she was about 5 months old.  I had to use a live catch trap to capture her.  All the advice I was given was negative, in that she was "too old" to domesticate.  I decided to try anyway and researched the internet to give it the best shot I could.  I've had cats all my life and I have a pretty good sense when it comes to cats.  She is now 2 and is the best, most affectionate cat ever.  This is how I tamed the wild in her.  We have a household with two toy dogs that love cats.  I put Holly (we captured her around the holidays) in one of the dog crates (it's big-about 2x3feet) with a litter box and bed and kept it in the kitchen so that she would get used to people being around.  I did not handle her at all for at least 10 days.  After that, I started touching her through the cage bars with a tool I made from a stick and a round tip plastic tool.  I used that to "pet" her and get her used to being touched.  She began to like being petted by the stick.  I fed her and changed her litter through the cage pan.  I used a string through the cage bars to get her to play.  Sometimes I would just sit next to her cage and read, just to get her used to people being next to her.  Eventually, I started touching her with my hand at her back side while I used the stick to pet her front side.  I slowly brought my hand closer and closer to her head till finally I replaced the stick with my hand.  When she got used to my hand thru the bars, and I was pretty sure she was not going to bite me, I calmly opened the cage door to pet her thru the open door.  Eventually, I put a collar on her and after a time, I put her on a long leash and let her explore a quite kitchen.  Over time she became very comfortable and began slowly exploring the entire house, supervised, while on a long leash.  She was always exposed to the dogs from the beginning who accepted her right from the start.  She seemed to bond with the dogs as a pack, and modeled alot of her behavior after the dogs.  (a Pomeranian and a Papillon).  She holds her tail over her back like they do.  She comes when she is called AND she is crate trained.  She was tamed in a crate, and now her litter box is kept in the crate and she is free to sleep in the crate whenever she wants, she sleeps there at night and she has a perch above the crate (which is actually kept on top of one of the dog's crate). We have an animal condo set up!    She runs willingly at the end of the day to jump in the crate and get her treat.  It's like her den.  She rough houses and plays chase with the Pom.  She eats dog biscuits and expects to get anything the dogs get.  She's very smart and a very different cat.  I had one bad incident when she was sitting in front of our screen door and my son absentmindedly opened the door and startled her.  She bolted outside in fear.  Once out, she freaked and wouldn't come to us.  We had only had her 5 months at that time.  She returned to the neighbors deck where she had frequented as a kitten.  It took me 3 weeks to capture her with a trap.  When we got her back, it was like nothing happened.  While I was taming her she took some time to warm up to being picked up, being held and having people hover above her.  But now she was tame as ever, will let you pick her up when you say "up", will jump up on chairs etc. if you say "up", sits in our lap etc.  The only "feralness" we see is when she is outside, she gets very skittish and spooks easily.  Unexpected noises freak her out, she runs first then turns to look.  And she takes a little bit to warm up to new people.  Has to check them out first.  We take  her traveling where ever we can to get her used to things.  We put her in a travel carrier.  She goes to my parents house weekly.  We take her camping in our RV.  I have her microchipped for security, as well as tagged.  We are very cautious with the doors too.  But she really isn't interested in bolting out the doors.  So I think that any feral cat is worth a shot.  While some may not warm up, one cannot assume that age is the sole determinate.  Holly has never bitten me except once when she was outside and freaked, and even then, when she realized it was me, she did not bear down fully.  I've been bitten badly in the past, breaking up a cat fight.  Her bite was nothing, and her teeth are very sharp!

Feral cats who love to rock. LMAO. It totally makes sense since they were living next to a bar.

I love our readers.

I took care of a feral colony in my previous neighborhood for years.  I trapped them, had them spayed/neutered.  I tried EVERYTHING to get ahold of the mother.  She was hot, a real sexpot, and had every guy on the street although she seemed to fancy orange guys.  LOL!  I finally caught her with a laundry basket (after 16 kittens), slid a folded cardboard box underneath and duct-taped them together. 

The cats I didn't place with friends and family, I took with me when I moved.  Everyone's getting along well, it's been a few years - even with the cats I had already.  The mother cat who hated me (I have the scars to prove it) now sleeps on my pillow every night. 

HELP !!!  i just found an abandoned little kitty, hes about 5 weeks now and ive been bottle feeding him. i started to wean him and hes doing great, but that sweet ball of fur has turned into the tazmanian devil. all he wants to do is bite bite bite me. and of course that is followed by climbing my body with razor sharp pins, i dont know how to stop the biting, i know he is playing, but i am bleeding. i have given him lots of toys which he plays with but he likes biting me more. how do i stop this, is he teathing? will it stop on its own? i really have fallen in love with him. any advice from all you kitten veterans? thanks in advance

Haha palbuddy!! What a cute story! When my cats were babies they were a little crazy. Lots of biting and climbing up my jeans. I will tell you though, they grow out it!! My cats are still playful, but no more crazy biting and climbing. Well...one of my cats tries to play bite, but he is a maine coon and just like that! BUT the other two dont do that anymore. They are lovebugs now!

in march i took in 2 feral torties who were trapped along with their feral mom by a local feral cat organization. they were born last august but their paperwork indicates they were not trapped until late october.

unfortunately their foster mom had a physical disability that made it difficult for her to partake in all the rather trying physical activity necessated by trying to catch a hiding feral and adapt them to human touch, although they came to me loving to be around one special human-they apparently followed their foster mom around even if she couldn't pet them.

at first they freaked and hid all the time. i left them in a room of their own and would visit them through the day. i started playing with long stick toys with the most friendly one and she liked it very much but was skitterish. i had to make the room so they were forced to the floor with only the futon to hide under( they do need a safe place-it makes them feel more secure-an absolute necessity if youre going to get anywhere with them)- as they had taken to the trees so to speak and kept going for the highest point in the room when i came in. once forced to the floor they became easier to deal with and less frightened of me. clearly the move to an unfamiliar place was trying for them- and it seems that they regress when it happens.

i finally let my 3 older cats into the room-wherein they scarfed the kitten chow as if i was starving them. the ferals seemed facinated with the older cats and to this date theyve never been aggressive toward them, just curious.

after 3 weeks i started leaving the door to their room open once they no longer scattered when i entered the room. slowly they started coming out-but still run to that room when they feel threatened-they still hide when company comes over.

they follow me around-i often find them staring at me. they are obsessed with my dirty laundry and roll in my scent a lot. i still cannot pat them but in honesty i have not focused on this as i probably should have. i think its suggested you roll them up in a towel and pet them or use cloth on the end of a stick toy to start out. they do let me play with their tails and toes on a limited basis and one of them crawls into bed and cuddles under the covers when she's sure i am asleep- when i move or wake up she bolts.occassionally i catch one of them and pet her-she seems horrified and fascinated at the same time. her ears are down but she doesn't really try to escape me.they have never bitten or scartched me and are remarkably amenable to other cats-probably from being in a colony. they do not growl or hiss at me.

they come to the door when i come home, rub all over whatevers nearest to them when i talk to them and understand now what mealtime is and run into the kitchen with the rest of the cats-something which took months as they still preferred to eat in a room seperate from my other cats. they do not like to eat in front of me-it still makes them nervous.

i would say i consider them ' semiferal' now. there's a thought they could remain that way-indoor ferals but i have an older cat who was very similar to them-sort of wild and hated human touch from being in a home where the humans ignored her when she was a kitten. within 3 years of me having her she latched on to one of my roomates and became highly pettable-craving of human touch. she had found her person that opened the door to her accepting human contact. i have this cat to this day- she's a handfull and i cant get her to the vet without bodily harm but she sits on my lap, loves to be petted and is devoted to me. i have come to the conclusion that for myself- i will not force them. they will come out in their own time and that they already seem to like my company and consider me ' theirs' is a good sign. it requires a great deal of patience and they may never be lap cats. but i just love them-they're a lot of fun and sweetly tempered despite their shyness.