# Feral "look"?



## 0ozma (Sep 22, 2012)

Can you tell which kitten(s) were not feral? Is it just me? I feel like feral kittens have very distinguishing facial features that make them appear scared, sometimes angry, and much more serious. Bad quality pics, sorry. 

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Cat 1 was born in a foster home to a feral mother. Cats 2 and 3 were found living in an abandon house when they were around 8 weeks old. I feel these three (along with all other) feral kittens have very pronounced "fear" in their faces, maybe because they are still scared? Kitten 1 seems innocent and "fluffy" even though they were all born to feral mothers. 8 Weeks isn't long to spend feral - or is it long enough to develop instincts? 

Bonus video of them playing. 5 of them were found in the same abandon house.


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

Got to be honest and say I can't and mine have always varied. At least not from a photo.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

A kitten that isnt handled can take on feral tendencies from its mother, even at 8 weeks. You can easily socialize them if you remove them from the mom.

If you have the semi feral or feral mom in a foster situation and have handled the kittens usually they dont have the feral behaviors is my experience. 

Just so people dont think were being irresponsible. Feral moms can get pregnant while nursing so we remove kittens between 4-8 weeks depending on the situation. Normally its the 6-8 week mark. We get her spayed. Our cut off point is 12 weeks as a rule of thumb for kittens. Other TNR groups may do it differently.

One thing I noticed is feral kittens do not purr cuz it gives their location away to predators.

Feral kittens do have a look. I agree. Its more in the body language. Or the way it hisses. Personally I love the puff hissing from kittens that are feral. They are trying hard to be so bad *** to intimadate you!


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## BigLittleSmall (Dec 9, 2013)

I don't believe a feral cat has a different "look" .. because when it comes right down to it .. there is no difference between them and a cat living in a house except it's interact with humans.

Your housecat can become 'feral' fairly quickly if forced out into the wild and forced to survive like a "cat" is designed to be.

Same goes vice versa, a cat can be de-feralized (not as quickly as they go feral) .. so, it's not like they are born looking different, they just have different attitudes.

Feral kittens usually adapt quite quickly, it's the older cats that were born feral and never had human companionship that it takes the longest to tame. 

Yes, they may have a look of fear or even amazement (at the things inside that weren't outside) .. but once they settle down that look is going to go away.

Just my opinion lol. rcat


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

There is that "half eyed squint" look some ferals cats and kittens give you. I had two black 12 week old kittens that were brought in with a bunch of other kittens for me to foster. The 12 week old kittens kept giving me that half eyed look and crouching in the back of the large 4x8 kennel.

I worked with them. One became completely socialized the other is skittish to this day. The skittish one is still with me and still not adopted. :| He is: 1. extremely large 2. black 3.long haired 4. very skittish. I'm still believing there is the right cat savvy person who will adopt him. Hope springs eternal!!!!


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