So after my two previous posts we have gone ahead and are now a family of 4 humans and 2 kittens!. Got them at 14 weeks and had them about a week. As far as I can tell we are doing all the right things: safe room, playing with wand toys, encouraging interaction ( stroking when they eat) etc. So on the face of it all is well.

Now I know they are young, I know they have just been removed from littermates, and I know they are in a new environment. My question is how long (ball park, average, in people's experience) will it be until they start to be comfortable and confident. I'm not expecting an exact answer and I acknowledge each kitten will be different, but I would like to give my kids some sort of reassurance that the kittens won't always run and hide when we walk in the room.

For info: kittens were brought up in breeders home for 14 weeks ( we're with their mum till 8 weeks old)

Any thoughts?

Thanks jeb

would love to post pic but ' insert link' has defeated me!!

For my two bengals, they hid under their bed for the first 24 hours or so, then started to slowly venture out, very timidly, often only to run back under the bed. All in all I think it was 2-3 days before I could say that they showed a significant degree of confidence in their new surroundings (namely their saferoom) and probably another 3-4 days before they were acclimated to the rest of the house.

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The little monsters 3

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The little monsters 3

Luna spent about 24 hours face first in a corner. It was heartbreaking. After that she was still very timid, especially if we made eye contact. I would lay on the bathroom floor at night and I would notice her creep out and just stare at me, as soon as I looked she would hide again. After a while she got up the courage to come right up to me but I still avoided eye contact. It was a few days before we could look at each other without her hiding. We started letting her out of the safe room after a couple days and she would roam the house. She found a lot of places to hide (under dressers, under beds, behind curtains) She would move from hiding place to hiding place. It was probably about 2 weeks or so when she started spending more time out in the open. She slept with us for the first time around the 3 week mark and after that she really seemed to come out of her shell.

Your kittens will definitely stop hiding, they just need to know that you are there. Let them come to you. I know it's hard, but it's worth it!

All kittens are different. A lot depends on the noises in the home. With a quiet environment, they may come out earlier than if someone is banging pots and pans around -- if you know what I mean. Since you got two kitties, once one starts venturing out, the other one should follow. It could take a week or longer. Patience from the humans is the main thing. You are doing all the right things for them. They will continue to gain confidence. All should be well within a month.

I have 2 kids and an older cat. When we got Luna she hid for about 48 hours and wouldn't eat or drink. She then realised the older cat was here and he became her security. Everywhere he went, Luna followed.
She probably took a few weeks to be confident to stay out in amongst the noise without running and hiding. My kids couldn't pat her for a few months, she was still quite timid and would run if they tried to touch her.
Now at 8 months old she's the boss of the house, plays with the kids and torments the older cat!

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Sarah, owned by Cosmo (9yr old Exotic Shorthair) and Luna (Silver Spotted Bengal - born 23/6/14)
Mummy to 2 little men, Mr L (7yr old) and Mr O (3yr old)

As above really, just remember that all the time your creating associations. The the more good associations you can make with your kittens the better. Lots of priase and cuddles for the good things, even the simple things like using their litter box instead of having an accident, after feeding, after playing, but on the flip side, don't reward the negative behaviour, mouthing during play, toilet accidents etc. If you can observe, learn and recognise their behaviour and triggers, things that they do before a negative, you can learn to prevent things before they happen. Like the stalking, rear end wiggle wiggle, launch, for example. You'll see it, we all do when cats stalk. I'm not saying don't let your cats stalk, I'm using that as an example of how you can see what's about to happen, and if needed intervene. Give them some time to calm down, as initially excitement will be the main cause and you need to teach your kittens what's good to get excited about and what's an unacceptable behaviour resulting from excitement. Not that different to a teenager pushing their limits and boundaries.

One thing, try not to use human limbs as toys. If that association is made with fun, they'll always think they can claw their humans hands and feet. It can be especially hard to explain these things to the younger members of the family, but really kittens learn very similarly to us.

Benji was cautiously confident as soon as she got to the house. It took her a day or two to get let out of the bathroom for free roaming.
Will never forget that first weekend, instant purring as soon as she got home, following me everywhere the next day.

The house is small though and her free roaming area is limited when nobody is home (most rooms closed) so it was easy for her.
Also it was about 1 hour drive from breeder and she was crying a lot initially in the car, so probably just so glad to be out!
I also went for a couple of visits beforehand and left some bedding with her at the breeders to make acclimatising easier.
Gave her a small amount of food upon arriving.