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"Feline Behavior Post- Unsocialized kittens"
"Hi Imgur, I'm your friendly neighborhood feline behaviorist. Cats are often misunderstood creatures- I can't tell you how much misinformation I see out there about them. Part of this is because cats have NOT been studied scientifically nearly as much as some other species, such as dogs!
I want to help cats by making sure that humans have a better understanding of them, and thus don't have unrealistic expectations for their behavior. I figured why not share some info on Imgur! Even if you don't want to read it, you can at least enjoy a few pictures of some shelter cats!
This week I'd like to talk about unsocialized kittens!"
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"An unsocialized kitten is one who, either through lack of exposure or negative experiences, does not understand or like humans. They are scared of people and may hiss, scratch, or try to bite if they are cornered. If they continue to grow up without much human contact, they will become a feral adult cat. However, if you get to them young enough, it's possible to turn them into a little purring machine who loves snuggles and being around people! After a kitten has reached 3 or 4 months of age, the socialization process is usually less likely to be successful, but each individual kitten is going to be different. In general, the younger a kitten is at the start of the process, the easier the transformation is going to be."
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"At our shelter, the very young unsocialized kittens go out to foster; being in a foster home with multiple people to offer them gentle attention and love is often all it takes to fully socialize these tiny kitties. If, however, they come back to the shelter for their spay/neuter surgeries and are still showing undersocial behavior, or if we get older kittens in as strays who need socialization, we have a team of staff and volunteers who jump in."
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"It's best to have multiple people work with an undersocial kitten, so they can form positive associations with more than just one person, and will be more open to meeting new humans as they grow up. We make sure their kennel or habitat is set up in a special way, to provide them with a hiding spot to feel safe in, but to still allow people to easily interact with them. Unlike with shy adult cats, who often do best left to adjust for several days before much interaction, with young unsocialized kittens it's important to gently engage them as much as possible after only a day or two of settling in."
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"With undersocial kittens, this often means starting off gently petting them with a stuffed animal, or dangling a toy for them to follow with their eyes, or even just being near them while they eat and talking to them. As they get more used to a human presence, we start petting them, holding them, or hand feeding them. They start to become more playful, purr every time they're pet, and really enjoy being cuddled! We tailor our approach to each kitten's individual needs to keep them as comfortable as possible- some kittens warm up to us very quickly and love humans after only a day or two, while others can take a couple weeks or longer."
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"Once they're responding positively to all their staff and volunteer visitors, we make them available for adoption! They sometimes have a longer adjustment period in a home than a kitten who was socialized to humans from a young age, and some may retain an element of skittishness to their personality, but as they grow up and settle into their new homes it's usually impossible to tell that they were once a frightened, unsocialized kitten. We've adopted out hundreds of undersocial kittens over the years with great success! We send adopters home with a short informational handout with tips and tricks for helping their new kitty adjust."
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"If you want to know more about undersocial kittens/how to help them, I strongly recommend checking out this resource from The Kitten Lady: http://www.kittenlady.org/feral"
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"Thank you all for reading! For a full list of all my feline behavior posts, see here: https://imgur.com/gallery/QWAWDJS "
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If I've helped you out with a feline behavior issue, please consider donating to me! https://ko-fi.com/friendlyneighborhoodfelinebehaviorist"
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Can't get enough of ICanHasCheezburger? Find us on Instagram!