Socializing kittens - need encouragement
Hi all, we trapped and brought inside three feral kittens about 2 weeks ago. I’m not sure how old they were when we trapped them, but we sent a picture to the vet who guessed around 8-12 weeks. They have not been to the vet yet because I wanted them to be comfortable with handling first. They seem healthy and eat, play, and use the litter box well.
We have been following the Socialization Saves Lives method guide https://www.socializationsaveslives.com/guide and are in Phase 2. We can pet them while they are receiving treats, plus they play over our legs and sometimes just hang out on our extended legs when we sit on the floor. They come up to us when we enter the room if they think we might give them food. They have been in the living room the whole time (first in a playpen and now with the playpen door open the past couple of days) so we’re in and out of the room constantly. They are still skittish when we approach them and we can’t pet them without food yet, but we haven’t really tried because that’s not where we are in the method.
I see a lot of advice online about picking them up when they are eating or wrapping them in a towel and forcing pets, but I think they would freak out with this. We’ve never socialized cats before, and I haven’t had kittens since I was a kid so I’m not sure if we’re doing the right things or if following this SSL program is the right choice for kittens. When I read through the advice on Reddit it seems conflicting.
Basically, I’m just looking for encouragement that we are doing the right things and that there’s hope they will become cuddly lap cats eventually. We said goodbye to my 18-year-old cuddly cat a few months ago and if we can socialize these kittens we are considering keeping them. Thank you!