Kitten Crack

I was looking online for ways to help my new foster become less afraid of humans. Right now he hisses and cowers in fear if you even go into the room with him. He cannot be handled unless it is really necessary because he will likely bite out of fear. He is this 2lb bundle of fear and fear based hissing. I feel so bad for him.

I knew that the easiest way to get an animal to start to trust you is by using food. I learned this with the many stray dogs I used to play with as a kid. Food and play is the way to gain their trust. But this kitten did not seem interested in his food, even the wet food. This morning I realized that he did eat the wet food, he was just to afraid to eat while I was in the room.

So I did some research online and came across some really good sites and videos on the best way to help socialize stray or feral kittens. In one video, the gentleman talked about what he called kitten crack. Which, in case you are wondering, is Gerber stage 2 chicken and chicken gravy baby food.

His video said that they just can't resist it. So I went to the store today and picked some up to try it. I was skeptical because so far even getting anywhere near the cage caused him to hide or freeze and hiss so I did not see him eating baby food off a spoon for me. But I opened the jar and just sat near the cage and read a book for a while so that he could smell the food. After about 5 minutes, I put some on a spoon and slid the spoon in the cage. It took him a minute or so, but he ate the food. After that, I was able to hold the spoon with my hand outside the cage and the spoon inside and he ate off the spoon. Then Doyle (my kitten) wandered in and practically jumped into the jar of baby food so I fed him some right near the cage. Then I fed Doyle some off my finger. The kitten relaxed even more once he saw Doyle interacting with me without any fear. Eventually I was actually able to get the kitten to take some of the baby food off of my finger. He prefers to eat it off the spoon, but getting him to lick my finger even once is progress.

Hopefully, we will continue to progress. I do not have a picture of him yet, because I do not want to scare him any more than his is. I will give him a day or two before I whip out the camera. So instead, here is a picture of his new favorite thing in the world:

Kitten Crack
(a.k.a. Gerber Chicken and Chicken Gravy)