Do socialised feral cats retain some of their wild character throughout their life?

Gabriel has retained a tiny bit of his feral character after being socialised at 7 weeks of age. He is now around 8 years of age.

We hear a lot about socialising feral cats; turning them into domestic cats. I did it myself. I can write about this with the advantage of personal experience. It’s quite an important topic because there are many stray and feral cats that can and should be brought into the home as pets. My story …

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Do cats need to socialize with other cats in order to be happy and healthy?

Cats friendly with each other

Do cats need to socialise with other cats in order to be happy and healthy? What the question is asking is whether a domestic cat needs to successfully live with another domestic cat in a good relationship in order to be happy and healthy. And the answer is no because there are many millions …

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Infographic on 5 aspects of domestic cat personality

Cat personality - 5 aspects

This is an attempt to list in an infographic some salient points about domestic cat personality which is a big topic. I am touching on some well-known and less well-known aspects of domestic cat personality in the infographic. Assessing cat personality can be problematic. Firstly, humans are feeling their way in the dark and …

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Wide-eyed fear and acceptance as feral cat is petted

Wide-eyed fear and acceptance by a feral cat who accepts being stroked

Socialising a genuine feral cat is tricky. It requires patience above all else. You can’t push the process. It requires a certain amount of bravery by the person doing the socialisation. On the other side, it requires courage from the cat as well because they have to learn to accept being touched by a …

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If a mother cat is not around to train her kittens, how does it impact their personalities?

Carol's kitten as rescued and then 12 years later

The question is asked by Carol Chapell on the Internet. She actually answers the question herself. In this instance, a kitten’s mother was tragically killed in a road traffic accident. The 10-day-old kitten came up to Carol screaming at the top of her voice. It was a demand to be adopted. I love that …

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What should you do if you have feral cats at the bottom of your garden?

Feral cat who has been part socialised

I think the first thing that you should do is to make sure that they are feral cats. They might not be. You can normally tell by their behaviour (or ear tipping – see below). True feral cats are not socialised to people. They will be frightened and possibly defensively aggressive towards strangers as …

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5 key thoughts from this video about socializing feral kittens

Socialising four kittens

This is a brilliant video on how to socialise feral kittens. I guess kittens are easier to socialise than adult cats but it takes patience nonetheless. I take away five thoughts from the video: Patience; use food as a reward to overcome fear of people – socialising is done before and during feeding time; …

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