To be honest if you are unable to let him out of the crate into a room where he can free roam without harm then you should take him back to the shelter asap. Nothing you do now can ease his stress at this point apart from letting him out and unfortunately I've seen this happen before and his future is very uncertain at this point. He will need someone with ALOT of experience and patience to turn this around.

I commend you for trying with this little one but I really wish rescues would stop using this blanket "guide" for fosterers. Every cat and kitten is different and although this way of forced socialisation will quite often work with young kittens it can actually be completely detrimental to older kittens and cats

Two weeks is far too short for a kitten to "learn" to interact with new people. I would say a month to two months minimum. It seems the shelter is trying to do a crash course in socialisation. This isn't fair on the cat. It is very normal for a kitten to need to hide at first. My guess is that he feel overexposed in the crate. I would suggest is for you to allow him the run of the flat (as long as he can't get out through windows or doors). If he wants to hide for a while, let him. He will come out when you are asleep or not at home to explore. To pursue him and drag him out from his hiding place every time will have negative effects. All cats need a hidey-hole which is sacred and where they can feel safe. If you really must keep him in a crate, then cover one half of it with a blanket so he can hide or place a cardboard box in one corner of the crate which he can hide in. But really, he needs moe space. If he gets rehomed, it is unlikely he will be living in a crate, so really I don't see how the crate is helping him to socialise. Good luck and bless you for taking care of this kitten.

Could you no let him out but shut him in one room so at least he can run around a bit

__________________


http://nickoftime.proboards.com/index.cgi?

you can't keep him entertained in a crate cats are not built for being confined like that

__________________


http://nickoftime.proboards.com/index.cgi?

Hi rosay - as it has reached the stage where the little thing is so upset and stressed he is meowing loudly, climbing up frantically and gnawing at the bars then IMO there is nothing you can do to entertain him in the crate. In order to preserve his sanity and to have any chance he will ever trust humans, he needs to come out of the crate as soon as possible.

As another poster has said he needs to be able to find himself a hidey hole in your flat, where he can emerge at night time when it is quiet and he feels safe, when you are asleep with your bedroom door shut.

Hi
I have fostered many feral kittens over the years and agree with what the rescue is suggesting.
It is very important to keep a feral kitten in a crate so he can become accustomed to handling.
If you let him out of the crate he will hide and you will end up chasing him around to try and handle him which would be much more stressful for him.
Letting a feral kitten run loose and hoping it will come to you will not work - the chances are he will never come to you and it will certainly take a very long time if he does.
Being tamed will be upsetting for the kitten but the best way I have found is lots of short sessions of touching. Keep the kitten where he can see people and have a radio on (Radio 4 is good as it is human voices).
Also the more people he meets the better.
Kittens do vary, some never become that tame, others become like any domestic cat, most become used to their people but never really accept strangers.

I am taming a feral kitten at the moment, i took him into my house nearly 2 weeks ago. I have a huge dog crate & for the first day & a half i kept him in there, he had a bed that he could hide in & he had loads of toys to play with, but the main thing was that the crate was huge so he had loads of space.

But by the second day i had to let him out of the crate, he is a kitten with bundles of energy, he needs space to run around. Kittens/cats love to explore & what better why is there to get a kitten used to living in a house then having freedom of a home?

My kitten was 100% tame after one week! he was completely feral when i got him, he was terrified of humans!!! Once i let him out of the cage he started to come around really quickly! Of course the first two days out of the cage he spent hiding, only coming out for his food, but he soon learned to come out to me when i came with his food, & i could also get him to come out when i dangled a piece of string in-front of his hiding spot for a while 'curiosity killed the cat' & all that!

I know you said that you kitten got out of the crate & hid for a few days, but it is totally normal for them to hide, its nothing to worry about! Also if you were trying to catch the kitten to put him back in the crate he would have sensed that you were trying to catch him!

I really think you should take peoples advice on here, its a great thing that you are doing by fostering this kitten, but think how good you would feel if you actually made some real progress with the kitten! Coz so far it sounds like you have made no progress with the crate! Honestly the kitten will only hide for the first few days while he is getting over the stress of the crate!