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Kitten afraid of humans

  • 06-12-2012 11:49am
    #1
    GoldFour4
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 5,042 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Hi there. We've got 4 lovely kittens at home. Nearly 5 months old at this stage. However we have a problem with one of them . The 4 would spend all day outside the front of the house, 3 of them still do. One has left the house though, initially we thought she'd been run over or taken by a fox but now she comes to the house almost every day. We try to be friendly with her but she runs off almost instantly. Extremely confused by the whole situation.


Comments

  • #2
    Nody
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 18,375 CMod ✭✭✭✭Nody


    Well the normal would be to lie down, have food for her away from you and simply repeat the process until she gets comfortable with you around. Then slowly move the food forward. Adding some play with "da bird" or similar toy that's far away from you would also help obviously.


  • #3
    Pumpkinseeds
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,635 ✭✭✭Pumpkinseeds


    I'd agree with Nody, we found a kitten eating from our food recyle bin a few years ago. He was wild and terrified of us. I got down on the floor inside the open back door and talked to him a few times a day every day. I had his food bowl a good distance away from me in the garden, so that he felt safe to eat with me around. He was fine so long as he knew he could escape if he needed to.

    Playing will make a huge difference, most kittens love to play and its a great bonding excercise. I used a toy thats a long stick with a long cord on it, it meant he could choose how close he got to me. It took about 6 months before he trusted us enough to come into the house, although I'd say he was afraid of our own cat too. Now he's still wary of our other cat but he's become a cuddle monster who loves my lap and would play for hours.


  • #4
    planetX
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭planetX


    malistheman wrote: »
    Hi there. We've got 4 lovely kittens at home. Nearly 5 months old at this stage. However we have a problem with one of them . The 4 would spend all day outside the front of the house, 3 of them still do. One has left the house though, initially we thought she'd been run over or taken by a fox but now she comes to the house almost every day. We try to be friendly with her but she runs off almost instantly. Extremely confused by the whole situation.

    are they outside all the time? If so please neuter them asap, they are old enough to start breeding with each other.
    It sounds like no 4 isn't well socialised with you, bringing her indoors would achieve that.


  • #5
    anniehoo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,597 ✭✭✭anniehoo


    planetX wrote: »
    are they outside all the time? If so please neuter them asap, they are old enough to start breeding with each other.
    It sounds like no 4 isn't well socialised with you, bringing her indoors would achieve that.
    +1 Sexual maturity in cats starts around the 5mth mark, so if you dont want 20 more kittens by early spring try and catch and neuter them as soon as you can.


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