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About a month ago I realized a local feral had squirrelled away two kittens behind my hedges so I started feeding her because she seemed a bit stressed and overwhelmed with what seems like her first litter.

Now at about 6 weeks the kittens have started to wean and everyday she waits with them on my front porch for breakfast @ 6 am, hissing as I open the door while her young rugrats scatter.

I'm starting to get our neighbor involved who has her own pampered feline as she now feels guilty that I alone have been feeding them. I want to be able to travel and have someone leave them food when I'm away. Kittens very fearful as mom is feral and so far have not been able to do much more than leave them food. In a few weeks I may resort to trapping them and trying to find good homes but lots of socialization needs to occur first if ay all possible. For now some pics

Feral cats can be tough. We had one a few years ago with stripes. She was skittish for awhile but after getting food from us she stepped right up and lounged around and would sit with us. She got knocked up near winter so we let her come inside. She proceeded to terrorize our little dogs. She would sit in the hallway and our cat chasing dogs would sit on the other side and whine for us to pick them ap to carry them past.
She never hid the kittens from us so they were crazy friendly and also would rush our dogs. We ended up selling the kittens for 100 ea instantly.
It seems ol Felina was a little too bold because there was word coyotes were around and we never saw her again. The father cat is still around and no one has ever got near him or rarely sees him. And that's why hes still around.
I think some of it is genetic but catch them soon and get them tame or no one will want to take care of them.

Ok...I said I'd feed them...not give up my shoes !

Good neighbors to have - they can keep rodents away.

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Tue Mar 16, 2021 10:19 pm Good neighbors to have - they can keep rodents away.

I'm looking for something to keep the neighbors at bay first...

Kittens are quite attuned to Mom's actions. I was not happy with having them all jam their heads into one bowl of food, so I split it into two bowls, right next to each other. mom started eating out of one and the kittens only would eat out of mom's bowl, leaving the 2nd bowl untouched. Weirdos.

Tonray's Ghost wrote: ↑Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:56 am Kittens are quite attuned to Mom's actions. I was not happy with having them all jam their heads into one bowl of food, so I split it into two bowls, right next to each other. mom started eating out of one and the kittens only would eat out of mom's bowl, leaving the 2nd bowl untouched. Weirdos.

They can be like that. I have two cats, unrelated, who are more than happy to eat out of one bowl at the same time. It can help to split the food across more than one bowl just to make sure that everybody gets a chance to eat.

We feed a stray Tom. He acts like he would like to come in on occasion but he sprays everywhere outside. We have a spayed stray female that lives 50% in and 50% out. Strays are different than feral cats. There is a Feral cat that may be a brother from another mother to the Stray Tom but he is crazy skittish.

Our big guy, Max, used to live on the street, but I don't really know if he was a stray or what, because he was very friendly and affectionate right from the beginning. I know that he was living on the street at the age of maybe 1 or so when he was TNRed, and then shortly thereafter he was spotted with a severely injured front leg, so they trapped him again, amputated his leg, and put him up for adoption. He was two-something when we got him, and despite his initial nervousness he was clearly very much an indoor cat and a people cat. So I can only guess that he was born and raised around people, because in my experience cats born feral don't warm up to people that easily.