Re homing a stray

dandelionclock30

I think I'd start leaving the cage door open and let her start coming out, shut your window for a bit if your worried about her climbing out of it.
I've rehomed a couple of rescues and they have just had to get on with the household as it is and they have been fine. Obviously its a bit different in you case.
My friend took in a couple of cats when an old lady had to go into a home and one wouldnt come out for under a sideboard for ages but he did eventually settle in.Good luck with her, but let her out sooner rather than later.

GwylimT

Cats tend to get very stressed when they are confined in small spaces, which is why most don't enjoy kennels or re-homing centres, by keeping her in a cage she is also being told that outside the cage is the other cats territory. I also doubt the largest dog crate has sufficient space for a cat, they are designed to sleep in, not to live in.

If you are concerned for a few days limit her until one room, once she is confident leave the door open and allow her to explore, that way the area already smells of the other cats so she is able to explore some of their territory, she physically has enough room and she can start to settle in.

Red_Tabby

If she is to stay in the cage, even for a short while, can I suggest covering the cage up with a big blanket or towel.

It will have a calming effect and make her feel less threatened by her surroundings.

Good luck with her and well done for taking her in and giving her a chance.

WeAreGhosts

im confused. did you get her from the cats protection or are you just following their advice?
either way i think it is dismal advice.
if you rehomed her from them i would think they would know this cat was scared/timid etc and should have worked with her to try and overcome those problems. they have a desensitising programme. if you rehomed her from them i would go back and ask for more specific advice.

if you didnt rehome her from there then i would not follow their advice. leave the door open and let her explore one room in her own time. try doing this when your 6 year old is not at home and leave the cage door open so she can escape back to a familiar area
have you got any Feliway? i recommend spraying a little around the room and on some surfaces that she is likely to sit on.

keep talking to her. any old rubbish, it doesnt matter. just get her used to your voice. we spent 6 months talking to out rescue cat and now she really listens to our voices and has good recall when she is outside
make your voice high pitched, as if talking to a baby, it seems to work better. i even made the male members of my family do this - they thought i was crazy but it worked

missbiggles1

mrsdwhite wrote: »

Thank you for the replies.
I feel like I should explain the decision to use a cage! We have 2 existing cats, one was re homed from a cattery around 10 years ago, he's my fur baby! We took a stray in from our car park around 2 years ago, she was around 3 months old and incredibly friendly but a bag of bones and full of worms. Neither were caged, both settled in very quickly, especially the little one.
We re homed the latest one after being told about a large family of cats that had been abandoned, we tried to re home a different one first, but she was far too terrified to come out of hiding to eat or drink even when we left her for hours in a room on her own. We had her for 2 days before she worked out how to open the door and escaped in the night. That one we now believe was a true feral. Though we hadn't been told that before we took her, and the person we homed her from made us feel truly awful when she escaped.
We arranged to try again, either with the same cat (she returned to where she had previously lived) or a different one, we ended up with the current one. It was suggested on the cat protection league website to re home a very nervous cat they should be in a cage for a few weeks while they adjust.
I don't like having her in a cage, and just as soon as we are able we will allow her the run of the room. But we don't want to rush things, it is especially hard with the heat as it would mean the window would have to stay closed as well as he door.
I do think when she is allowed out of the cage she will eventually settle in, but also, she really isn't all that un happy in the cage. As I said, she has a box to hide in as well as the option to look around out of the box whenever she chooses.
We have been including her in tid bits that the other two cats get, which she sees, and that seems to be helping build her trust in us.

When we adopted two cats from Battersea, we didn't seem them for nearly a fortnight as they moved into the airing cupboard!

I get the feeling that this cage is in your living room which must add to the cat's stress. Couldn't she be in a bedroom in the day when you don't need the window open so that she can feel quieter and safer?

tea_lover

Chances are she'll do a runner the first time she's let out. By now she'll associate your house and your other cats with incredible stress.

dandelionclock30

So have you opened the door or let her out OP? let us know how you are getting on.Please dont let her stay in there as I think its a bit strange. Let he settle in properly by being able to wander about.

Chezcat

We have taken in strays and feral kittens over the years. We put them in their own room with lots of boxes, cupboards etc to hide in together with toys, food bowls, litter tray etc. We then sit with them, talk to them and generally let them approach us when they feel safe enough, the first time they purr when being stroked is magical! This can take days or weeks but it has to be at their own pace. Integrating them with the existing cats can be a bit fraught but again patience is required.

TBagpuss

I agree with PPs that the cage is probably not helping.

Try having the cage in a room away from the rest of the animals and family, laving the door to the cage open, and having lots of places she can hide, including some where she can be up high.

Chezcat's advice is really good and is similar to what a friend of mine, who has fostered some *very* difficult cats, does.

mrsdwhite

I opened the cage and it took her hours to decide to venture out!
She hid under the sofa and has just moved to the bookshelf which seems to be a new vantage point.
No idea how long it will be before she decides we're ok to talk to.
She seems to really hate DH and tried to bite him twice in the week we've had her.