Last Updated: 8 months ago
Thinking about adopting a stray cat?
Before you do, make sure you follow a few steps to keep everyone safe in your home!
When a stray cat comes into a home, many people will feed him and try to make him comfortable.
What starts out as a humanitarian effort often becomes a desire to adopt the wayward kitty.
Tips For Adopting a Stray Cat
The first thing you want to remember is that adopting a stray cat into your home is nothing like adopting a cat from a shelter.
For starters, you have no idea what the cat’s health history is, unlike cats at the shelter, which have been checked out by a vet and vaccinated.
This is extremely important to remember if you have other cats in your home. Many stray cats have FIV, which is basically cat AIDS, or Feline Leukemia, both of which are incredibly contagious.
1. Gain His Trust
Before you can even think about bringing in your homeless cat, you’ll have to gain his trust. You don’t want to move too quickly and frighten him. You also don’t want to get scratched or bitten.
Cat bites and scratches are nothing to mess around with. They easily become infected. So you’ll need to begin by making the cat super comfortable with you.
In addition to the daily feeding or feedings you give him, put out some sort of cat refuge.
This can either be something as simple as a cardboard box lined with some blankets and laid on its side if it’s out of the rain, or something as involved as a lined storage bin with a hole cut out of the front.
In either case, begin by putting out the food next to the cat refuge. Slowly work the food into the refuge over time.
As the cat becomes more and more comfortable with you, try staying nearby as he eats. Moving closer and closer over a sufficient period of time so that he’s able to get comfortable.
Do all of this while speaking to him in a soft, calm voice to get him used to your sound as well as your presence.
Eventually, after the stray cat has become comfortable with your presence, you can try petting him while he eats or after he eats. Be very careful here. Don’t get bitten.
2. Increase Interaction
At this point, you may be tempted to jump the gun and try to bring the cat into your home.
Resist the urge. Your adorable stray cat may tolerate some mild petting, but he may not be as comfortable being picked up.
Instead, continue to pet him during feeding time. You can also try doing things to increase interaction, like sitting next to him when you pet him, allowing him the opportunity to cozy up with you.
Maybe he’ll rub against you or hop into your lap. Whatever the case, you want the stray cat to be extremely comfortable with you before you attempt to pick him up.
3. Prepare Your Home
Before bringing in a stray cat, make sure you have your home prepared for it.
You’ll want an area in your home designated specifically for your new family member.
An area that is specifically for the cat allows him to slowly acclimate to his new home. It also keeps him away from any other cats you may own.
This helps protect both the stray cat and any other cats you may have from fighting, as well as the possible transmission of FIV, or Feline Leukemia.
4. Bring in the Stray Cat
Now that you’ve gained the trust of your stray cat and have prepared an area for him, it’s time to bring him in.
Before picking him up, pet him. A lot. You want him to be prepared for the feeling of being picked up by being super happy with all the petting he’s been getting.
When you do try picking him up, do it from behind with your hands under his front legs and your palms on his chest.
This is a way of picking him up that doesn’t leave him feeling trapped and limits the possibility of you being injured should things go sideways.
If Operation Pick Up goes well, immediately bring the stray cat to his designated area and be sure he does not come into contact with any other cats in the home until you can have him checked out by your vet.
5. Take Him to the Vet
You’ll want to welcome your recent addition to the family as quickly as possible.
Your previously stray cat will need a full vet checkup, including blood work, to check for any illness, including FIV and Feline Leukemia.
It’s imperative that you find out exactly what’s going on with your new cat’s health.
6. Slowly Introduce Him to Your Other Cats
Now comes the last, and arguably, most challenging, part of bringing in a stray cat. Introduce him to your other cats.
You’ll want to do this by keeping him in his designated area but making sure he and your other cats can see each other.
They’ll need to get fully comfortable seeing each other before anything else.
After that, it’s a matter of a slow introduction with limited time and maximum monitoring. Be sure you DO NOT put the cats together if they are showing any sort of aggression.
Gradually increase the interaction time between your new cat and the other cats until, finally, they are peacefully coexisting.
Bringing in a Stray Cat Takes Time and Patience
Don’t rush the process when you’re adopting a stray cat.
You want the transition to be as smooth and stress-free as possible, so you can start things off on the right foot.
Follow the steps above, and you should have a relatively easy, if relatively long, stray cat introduction.
Do you have experience adopting a stray cat? Share your tips below!
Good advice. There’s so many out there that need help.
I didn’t know there was such a thing as cat AIDS. I would love to bring in a cat that needs a home, and I will keep these tips in mind.
I think earning the trust of the stray cat is important. It would also be good to give the cat ample time to prepare them to interact with other pets.
We have a few cats that hang around the house. I check on them occasionally to make sure they are doing alright, but I don’t think I would ever try to rescue them unless they were in distress.
Such great tips! Going to the vet is so important and always should be #1 – great post!
We recently have had a stray cat that has wondered onto our deck. We have tried to make friends with it. It is really cute. I think we need to heed some of your advice because it still doesn’t trust us.
Yasss LITERALLY SO HELPFUL! A house I live at has a cat that has been feed by the people living here for over two years.
And over the last one year, I have slowly made my presence known by hanging in the area he feeds. Forts he kept mowing and I was so unsure, thinking he just wanted more food. But I soon realised he wanted company. Company his way. So, I started bringing my study there and he began to get used to me. Would jump on the table and sit there. For a long while, every movement, sound etc made him jump and else up. But over time that eased. Eventually I opened the wide door from his feeding area to a room in my house. Again, SLOW. I tried to get him to feel comfortable with the whole house in a week and that would just cause him to freak, mowing a lot and eventually biting. So I kept it to one room. And he only comes in and sleeps on the Matt if I am there too.
So patience people, and who knows, a new friendship might form.
I love this! We’ve had many stray cats throughout the years and just like with dogs, sometimes they will turn out to be the best of any of them!
Outdoor cats almost always have fleas,worms. Giardiasis very possible. Vet visit before bringing inside recommended
I just brought a stray kitten home. Gave him a cozy home, fed him well TRIED to feed him. Gave it some milk which I don’t know was spilled or drunk.Not sure if its a he or a she. It doesn’t come near me much. I let it roam about in the house. All it is doing is hiding in places and meowing there mildly loudly.