Is it possible to domesticate completely feral cats?
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at
8:43 am
I’d like to hear some stories and see how long it took to get the cat comfortable with humans.
Filed under: Cat Behavior
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I had a feral cat come out of the woods near my home, looking for food. I would set out a bowl of food in the corner of my yard and move it a little closer every day. I would set quietly and watch her until she got use to me being there. After about 3 wks i had her eating at my back door steps. Another wk past and I could pet her. After about 2 months she was sleeping in the house. She always preferred being outside, but was just as tame as my other cats. Just like she appeared, she disappeared.
ok I rescued a feral kitten (probably 8-12 weeks old) 4 years ago…she will sometimes let me hold her, but I have to catch her first…she will sometimes jump on my bed while im sleeping (very rarely) most of the time she likes to be under my bed or my daughters but within the past 6-8 months if we are sitting in the living room she will come out and lay on the dining room floor…so as you see its not easy and its not as if i havent tried to cuddle and hold her and even spend time with just me and her alone in a room where I brush her and try to get her to open up with me, but at least I know she is healthy and always has food and water and doesnt want to be outside or anywhere but in my house and she does ( I think) know that we love her
Yes, but it takes years, and they only warm up to a few people who they trust. It all boils down to a trust issue with them, you have to earn the right to be considered ‘safe’.
I’d seen Fred (male, feral not stray) for a year or so, off and on. He showed up unexpectedly one day with blood all over the top of his head from an open wound there. It had to have hurt a lot, his eyes were partially closed and he had trouble moving but woulnd’t let me get close. I left him alone but made a point of bringing soft food out for him whenever I’d see him back there.
It took 4 months before the wound wasn’t red with blood (it had broken through the skull…). He let me get within 3 feet by then if I had food, but not to touch him.
After 6 more months I could skritch his neck, shoulders or top of the head ONLY at arms length or he’d move away. All in all, it took till he knew me three years before he was comfortable walking up to me and letting me pet him ONCE down his sides, but he’d hang around quite a bit. We had a food bowl outside and water, so he spent a good deal of time nearby. During the summer he’d sleep in my car on the floor in the front if I left the window open (scared the hell out of me the first time I reached for the door to close the window for the night…). He found it was ‘safe’ in the car for him. If my windows were shut he’d walk around the car and lean from the hood or trunk, pawing at the window to see if it would move–we had a lot of foot prints smearing the corners that summer.
He showed up one Sunday with a broken fang and drool hanging ropey for 8" off his mouth, I got him into a carrier by giving him the Bum’s Rush (quick, dirty, slam the door) and got him to a vets. They neutered him, removed the stub and we took him home the next day, he spent the night in the basement getting the anesthetic out of his system. He woke us up at 5am screaming at the top of his lungs to be let OUT!!!!! I did & he ran. A day later I was bringing in groceries and something flashed past my feet and ran downstairs–he’d decided that he liked sleeping in a place under the stairs we coulnd’t reach him at, and he couldn’t be jumped by any other creature.
Within a week I was letting him in and out 6 times a day into the basement….he tried getting into the kitchen but I blocked that because of the other cats we had (four of them). But he decided he lived INSIDE now, and did the best he could to make us understand that. It was all his decision.
He’s been indoors 7 years now, and trusts the two of us, and MAYBE the mailman (who is also consistent in what he does) but nobody else. He’s indoors too, unless I’m out working on the lawn or something, then he’ll join me out there.
Supposedly, it is possible to domesticate feral cats but the process is often long and arduous.
Two factors go into play when it comes to how difficult this is going to be:
1) How old the cat is. If it is a kitten, you have a much better chance domesticating it because its personality is still developing. If the cat is older, some say it is extremely difficult if not impossible because they view humans as a threat.
2) Its genetics and parents. If its mother was a domesticated cat, chances are that the cat has already been around humans before, even if it lives out in the wild. Domesticated cats tend to liken humans as a source of food, even when they roam freely outside. Therefore, if it has had human contact before by observing its mother’s acceptance of human contact, it will be much easier to domesticate.
Ironically, 15,000 years of domestication can be undone as easily as a single litter having zero contact with humans. Good luck!