my husband volunteers at a local animal rescue and yesterday we started fostering for them. We took in 4 kittens.(2 males,2 females).They seem to be 8-11 wks old and are a little weary of humans, although one of the males seems to be warming up quickly. The shelter has little info about them, we don't even know how they made their way to them or if they are from the same litter.
I need help with how to socialize them with both people and other cats(we currently have 3 adult male cats, and they don't really want anything to do with the kittens right now.)
Mamma Cat2014-06-30T17:33:16Z
Socializing cats/kittens is what I do with my local shelter. You can go on line socializing feral kittens and get lots of info. But, you said they are around 8 plus weeks old. So it is going to take you at least a month to socialize them. Start by putting them in a kitten safe room where they cannot hide from you. Go in the room several times a day with wet food. Put the food about 5 feet from you. Stay in the room and talk to the kittens. They should come out to eat. Maybe not the first day, but take the food with you when you leave. Do this several times a day and then hunger will prevail. I know it is hard as you feel you are starving those precious kittens. But, they do come out and eat. Then move the food closer to you. Soon they will rub up against you and let them touch you. Then they will run to you when you are in the room and sit on your lap as you softly pet them. It is a slow process and it breaks my heart as I think they are starving. But when I see those little ears come up to take a bite, I am so happy. Then it is time for spay/neutering and then up for adoption. That is the hardest part. You will know how much you have done for those precious kittens but it is time for them to start their forever lives. All mine leave with my tears in their fur. One of mine just left today.
First off, I don't know what kind of shelter he volunteers with but you need to have this information:
Did that shelter have those kittens blood tested for FIV and FeLV?? If not, those kittens should be kept in a separate room or you chance infecting your cats with diseases. Kittens quite often come with Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) and that's highly contagious and your cats will get it. So you should make sure any animal you bring into your home is healthy to begin with! If you didn't have cats it wouldn't matter so much but as long as you have cats in your home then it matters big time.
Make sure your cats are calm and mellow cats otherwise every time you bring in new animals to foster is going to stress out your cats. There is no reason to try and do introductions to get them to get along because: (1) the animals aren't going to stay with you long enough (2) constant introductions to new animals is stressful.
Socializing:
http://www.alleycat.org/page.aspx?pid=292 - some kittens are born wild and are feral and this article pertains to them
http://cats.about.com/od/amyshojai/a/8-Reasons-to-Socialize-Kittens.htm - if kittens are calm and not freaking out then probably not feral and this would pertain to them
Quite often kittens come in not ever being handled by humans, never having played with toys, or never lived inside so the sounds of a home scare them spitless: doorbells, TVs, garbage disposals, vacuum cleaners, air conditioning or heating coming on and off, refridg coming on and off, walls or floors squeaking. So getting them able to handle everyday sounds and meeting people is enabling them to get adopted quicker.
I have had kittens at that age, when i first got them they hid under the dresser hissing if anyone got close, now the ones who we kept are extremely friendly! I think you should keep trying to slowly approach them and put some food in your hand, if they come up try to pet them, if they dont come up at all, leave the food and try later. hope i helped! :)
Well idk if this might help but when I got my new cat she was very nervous and started to hide so I just fed her soft cat food and rubbed her softly and she got use to me kind of quick