I recently rescued a beautiful black kitten. He's a little shy, but getting better. However he will not let anyone pick him up. What can we do as this will make it difficult for vet visits, etc.?
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Talk to your vet. My friend just went through this and her vet suggested a very mild sedative administered orally 1/2 to 3/4 hour before the vet visit. The tech would then hold Kitty in a soft towel during the exam and all was good. Kitty has had several successful visits with this method. As she gets older, you could try it without the meds and see if she outgrew the fear. Good luck.
I had this problem with feral cat. A lot of cats just do not like to be picked up. I am not sure why but it is very common. What worked for me was to just pick the kitten up and hold him and love on him. I would hold him until he started to squirm (about 10 seconds to start).
some cats will never like close contact or being picked up, but the fact that he is getting better at it means that he will most likely improve, especially as his confidence and security improves.
you can train a cat to like certain people better, and all people generally, by having them feed the cat. Ifyour cat is really skittish you can provide food while the person you want the cat to like stands behind a screen door where the cat wont necesarily see the person but will smell the person and then come to associate good things (IE food) with that person
you can have every time a stranger comes into the house offer a treat so the cat can begin to associate good things (IE food) with people in general
you should also put up shelving or tall furniture - cats love being higher than everyone, which maeks them more confident and less skittish.
Your kitten must have been abused and thats why she doesnt like being picked up. Speak gently and reward her when she comes to you.
My kitten doesn't like to be picked up. I don't think he was abused, he's really shy. I also think he believes I'm his Mom.
I would not even try and pick her up, your best bet is to just stroke her to get use to boing touched.
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