My room mate rescued three feral kittens and their mother on Friday. They were found hanging out by the bins in one of the out buildings where she works. They are currently at the local cat rescue who have listed the kittens as eight weeks old and semi feral and the mother as feral and unable to be domesticated – she will be sent back to where she came from if she hasn't got feline aids or anything else which could be spread around the colony.

We are going to home one of the kittens… the one in the middle, she's called Bella. The ginger is a boy called Ben and the tortoiseshell is called Valerie…

We went to see them yesterday and they were very frightened. With the most gentle approach I was only able to very lightly touch them before the hissing started and Ben made a swipe for me. I figured best leave it at that for the time being. We've both kept cat since we were kids so know what a cat needs but have no experience with furry little ferel creatures… any advice to help us getting it used to us and our house would be much appreciated. Ah… and we already have a four yr old Bengal cat with us which we have had for a couple of years.

Kev

To be blunt, your Bengal cat will not accept the newcomers lightly and will probably try very hard to make life difficult for you and your partner. Cats, even docile domesticated ones are very territorial. I dont think the chances of the Bengal actually killing the kittens is high, even kittens can defend themselves but it will take time, especially if the kittens are 'toms', in the future be prepared for them to 'leave' your home as tends to happen when 2 / 3 toms inhabit the same area…

I would also get them neutered / spayed ASAP.

oh I forgot to say the bengal is a girl btw.

Neverfastenstuff.. I did say above we are only taking one of the kittens, not all of them. The cat rescue will make sure they it is spayed. I wouldn't home a cat without having it done first. It will have all it's innoculations, be spayed and chipped – like our other cat.

K

Keva – Member;

I have done this several times, introduce a new kitten when we already had a 'master' cat… always the same outcome..

I have had cats all my life.. until the last year when our old boy died…

I dont think initially the 'sex' of the cat will make the difference, just be watchful.. the good news is the queen will not bugger off (usually).

All depends on the cat in my experience. Some cats will accept newcomers immediately without any fuss, others will try and kill them or leave home.

It's better introducing kittens than adults though. Should be fine, just make sure they have plenty of room to get away from one another. Don't lock 'em in the same room together.

We took 2 semi-feral kittens (boy and a girl from the same litter) in a year ago. Lots of folk said that it would be difficult to domesticate them, but they were fine. Sadly we lost Jet, the female about a month ago, hit by a car. We still have Jasper, and he is the softest cat I've ever known. The only slight issue, is that he is a voracious hunter – I think linked to his feral ancestry. He is currently bringing in at least a bird a day, which is getting a little tiresome. We plan to get a kitten later in the year, so I'm interested to hear some other opinions on here.

My old boy wasnt 'feral' but he too could bring home the 'birds'… I often came home from work to the delight of the Mrs who would not go near the 'presents'… he was a great cat.. he once brought a live frog home, my missus saw it wasnt a bird so picked it up without thinking, the frog jumped and my missus had a fit of hysterics.. a lovely sight…

You really need to get in there and get them used to as many people as you can whilst they are young. If you leave it they'll never get socialised and will be very difficult to manage.

Our latest kitten was from a semi feral litter, she's as Geoffj says a voracious hunter, our dog is constantly getting attacked!

The more contact they have, the more they think its normal so get handling them as much as posible as soon as possible.

We were adopted by a feral kitten; usually refered to as "Feral" or "Squeaker". Neither my wife or I were cat lovers so it's proven to be a suprising experience. The kids spotted her in the field in the snow looking worse for wear so insisted on feedng it. It wouldn't come near anyone initially but over a period of a few weeks we moved the bowl in to the house. Food seemed to be the key. She doesnt meow, all she does is "squeak"!

She's "resident", coming into the house for food, sleep or to attack our ankles. She bring us copious ammounts of shrews and other wild life in return, coming and going as she pleases, though she goes outside at night.

She's still very wild. She doesn't go to anyone else bar our immediate family and she certainly doesn't appreciate the presence of any other cats. If we had another cat we'd get another feral one just because she has so much charachter and independance.

I found a kitten a few years ago, he was alone late at night in our street, so I took him in.
As he got a bit older, he became more and more wild, he would go out all night, and finally got himself knocked over.
He never wanted any affection, but liked to sleep at the foot of the bed- and liked to attack your toes!

nuke em from orbit – it's the only way to be sure…