Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello everyone!

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good kitten socialization checklist that our foster parents can use to make sure they are exposing their kittens to a reasonable variety of experiences. I'm hoping for something like Dr. Yin's puppy checklist (https://drsophiayin.com/app/uploads/2015/12/Socialization_Checklist.pdf ), but cat-specific. I've found options that are more articles about the socialization process, but not something that offers a wide range of ideas for foster parents and a way for them to track how the kitten is reacting so we have info for potential adopters. I also think that the checklist-style formatting makes it less imposing, since I think chunks of dense text tend to only get skimmed.

Thanks in advance for any useful leads!

I recently attended Cat Adoption Team's Fostering 4 Rockstars apprenticeship and received some resources on socialization, including the "socialization training takeaways" checklist I attached here. 

Otherwise, I recommend checking out some of the resources attached to this thread: https://maddiespetforum.org/thread/training-on-working-with-un-socialized-cats-older-kittens and creating a checklist from those.

You could also use Hannah Shaw (Kitten Lady)'s video on socializing for ideas (though she pretty strongly believes in only socializing kittens under 12 weeks old, so you may or may not want to actually recommend her video to your volunteers depending on your policies around that!): 

I like the idea of a quick go-to list for fosters though :) 

Attachment(s)

Fostering4RockStars Socialization Class Takeaways.docx   90 KB 1 version

Hi Erin,

Thank you for posting that great download-we hope to add that to our site in the future!

Sarah AdoptPetsLocally.com

https://fearfreepets.com/puppy-kitten-socialization-bingo/

Hi Allison, great info and so clearly spelled out. Thank you for sharing! Not sure if I missed it but including trimming nails (I was amazed at how simple this was for kittens! I was so excited over this that I now trim all of our adult cats nails monthly. And that even goes pretty smoothly) and introducing puppies to stairs-really low ones-and ramps may be a good addition to this info. Thanks again and have a blessed day! Sarah

Funny you should ask...I was just thinking about this yesterday. I'll be creating a weekly socialization checklist, or maybe something a little more fun like Bingo, for fosters and new pet owners in the near future.

I have always thought kids were an underutilized resource when it comes to fostering. What do you all think about making it a game or challenge, maybe with fun stickers they get to use whenever they do a socialization task? Do you think your adult foster caregivers would like the stickers too?