New siamese kitten is terrified

[lilxcx]

Hi there,
Just found this forum and hoping for some advice...two days ago we got a 4 month old female siamese kitten,and since we got her home she's been terrified-hides,mews constantly and when i did attempt to stroke her she lashed out and cut my hands to ribbons.
So,we have been keeping her in a quieter room with food and a litter tray as well as an enclosed basket and we are giving her space.She quite happily eats and uses her litter tray,snoozes in her basket...she just seems terrified of people.
When I went to collect her she was kept in a crate with her brothers and sisters so im wondering if she may not of been socialised properly as i've not seen such a strong fear reaction in kittens before-she cringes and flattens herself right down if you try and interact with her.
I guess we will continue to give her space and see if she comes out of her shell abit but any perspective or advice. would be welcome

[Lilith]

Hi there and welcome

Poor little girl! I used to breed Siamese myself, and although they're a normally outgoing breed you do get the odd nervous one. Also it depends on the amount of socialisation they're given before they go to a home. Many breeders pen kittens simply for their own safety (there are times when, if you're busy, a pack of kittens rampaging round the house and getting underfoot could lead to disaster) but they do need to have plenty of time to run around and explore (and get into mischief.)

I would always advise buyers to give a kitten a safe space where it could hide if it wanted (usually it didn't want lol) and this is what you're doing with this girl. Some cats do have quirks about being handled - my youngest cat, a moggie Burmese lookalike) is like this and it's taken a long time to get her trust, but she's headshy. She'll lash out still. Why, I don't know. She likes her back stroking - but SHE comes and tells me. She is very confident and possessive, very much of a companion cat nevertheless. So I'd say that if your girl doesn't want to be handled or stroked at the moment, don't push her, just give her space and time, as your intuition is telling you, and praise her, talk to her a lot, and I think that she will come round.

Don't spoil her where food's concerned, but a few tasty titbits of chicken and fish while you are sitting with her may entice her to your side. All's fair in love, war and Siamese!

Does the breeder want to keep in touch? Have you discussed this with them? If so you may be able to pick up some more clues as to why she's like this. But we're here to support you and I think you're doing all the right things - time is the remedy.

All the very best and please keep updating

[Ruth B]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new addition.

I don't know anything about Siamese in particular, but I do have a very nervous cat. We adopted Freyja over two years ago from a rescue charity when she was about 6 months old. They had had her 3 months earlier and had been working on socialising her, but it was slow going. We don't think she is feral, but there is a good possibility that she was badly treated as a kitten and I think had very little if any socialisation.

For the first few weeks she lived in the back of a cupboard, and would only come out if we were in the room if the food had just been put down and we sat very quietly and ignored her. Slowly she become more confident, but it was about 3 months after we had got her that I finally managed to give her a scratch behind the ears. It seemed a very long time to have a cat that you barely saw and could never touch.

Two years later she can still have her moments and seems to react as if she has been caught somewhere she shouldn't be or is in some form of trouble. If she gets that look, we either just freeze or back off to give her space to sort herself out and get somewhere she feels safe. She has learnt that some areas are safe and happily accepts strokes and ear scritches while there. When either myself or my OH are sat at the computer she will often come in and meow to demand fuss, if we don't oblige, she will rear up and put her front paws on our legs or hip to reinforce the demand, but will never jump onto a knee or onto the desk. I still can't pick her up or even restrainer her for flea treatment and the like.

While many people might feel that this isn't a fulfilling relationship, she is happy and that is what matters to me.

It does sound to me that she hasn't had the socialisation she should have, although it could be a case of her personality as well. Give your little one time, take it slow, let her sniff your hand and only when she is relaxed with that try and stroke or scritch her. Play with her a lot, I would advise using wand toys so that there is little chance of her hitting your hand by mistake, even if you don't mean to tell her off, a cry of pain might upset her as she is just starting to be confident around you. Hard as it is, try and be in the room with her, but ignore her, watch a TV or read a book, anything that means you are not looking at her. It all helps her start to enjoy your presence without feeling threatened.

Hope she settles down soon, it is very early days for her in her new home, away from familiar sights and smells.

[lilxcx]

Thankyou for taking the time to reply.
I have sat by her basket and offered her little morsals and then when she wont take them i have put them next to her whilst talking to her so she at least will hopefully connect me with nice things.
As far as playing goes she completly ignores all attempts or toys she has,i guess she has to be more relaxed for that.
I really do hope she comes around as shes a dear little thing and I would like a close companion eventually.
Thankyou again and fingers crossed

[Kay]

lots of good advice here - as Ruth says, at the moment all she wants is to be invisible, so you must try to treat her as just that, although talking to her is very important - and if you can waft a dangling toy around without invading her space, it will act as a distraction at the very least

as she learns that nothing bad is going to happen to her in her new home, the sooner she will come round - my bet is you'll be back complaining she won't leave you alone within a couple of weeks

[Ruth B]

I am sure she will come round, but it will take time. A lot of the more nervous cats can almost become more friendly than those that were well socialised as kittens, you almost have to make sure they don't become too dependent on you as they get older.

I have to admit that the more I hear about her behaviour and the situation when you picked her up, makes my opinion of the breeder plummet. It sounds like she has had very little socialisation, and keeping them in a pen when you are busy is one thing, but when a prospective new owner is visiting then the kittens should at least have the freedom of that one room and the mother cat should also be around. We all make mistakes and hindsight is a wonderful thing but with legislation being talked about to kerb puppy farms, I think that kitten breeding should be similarly regulated. I always remember a Thelwell cartoon from my childhood, it may have been about ponies but I think the sentiment is the same for any animal. In the first picture you had prospective owners viewing a bunch of ponies with the caption 'Buying a reliable pony can be tricky, expert advice should always be taken.', the next page showed a range of disreputable men all lined up with the caption, 'finding a reliable expert can also have its problems'.

Fingers crossed she settles in well and turns into the friendly little girl she should be.