Hello, this our male cat Benji, he is one of four cats and the only male, he has lived with about 8 months, we got him when he was around 5 months old, an extremely traumatized kitty.

He has always been really scared of humans, though less now, after plenty of months of sitting next to him, playing with him, feeding him, a very lengthy process. Every development was a win, the first time he used the bathroom in the same room as me, the first time he ate in the same room as me, the first time he played with me, and the first time he ate from my hand.

Nowadays, he is way more confident, he is friendly with all of his sisters, and they play all the time, we can hand feed him, and play with him, however, we cannot move too quickly in his direction or he gets spooked, we cannot pick him up, and we cannot pet him, unless we bribe him. The only way we can pet him (we, being me and my wife) while we feed him something he likes, we can pet him maybe once or twice before he pulls away, while he knows we have something he wants, and no head pets, only shoulders.

I came here to share his story and to see if anyone has any advice about what we can do to make him see that we will not hurt him, and that we are safe, because I feel like he won't let us pet him because he is still scared, even after spending most of his life with us. I know he has come a long way, that is undeniable, but he's still a cat that we cannot be 100% comfortable with, we need to be wary of the way we move, to try not to spook him, we cannot pick him up, which sometimes is a hassle if we need him to move out of a room and we isn't cooperating, and I won't even mention the vet visits.

I have heard stories of frightened kitties that make a switch overnight from scared to cuddly, this might still happen, he is young, his sisters are all cuddly, they don't bite, they don't misbehave, he can, and has learned from them, but he's still scared. If we move too fast towards him he'll still hiss at us, he won't necessarily run away, but he has done it before both to me and my wife, when we approach to give him treats, it depends on the approach.

Recently he's been playing with my hand, in a very specific scenario where I'm lying in the couch and he's lying in his little window perch thingy, and I just start giving him my hand, he'll smell my hand, I'll pet his paw, then he just lets his paw there while I'm touching his little paw pillows with my finger, this happened two days ago and lasted what felt like 2 minutes or so of continuous touch, I was kind of shocked, but I feel like it's positive.

Then he started to play with my finger and and my hand, swatting and it, nibbling it, he's a rough player but he doesn't hurt me.

And that's it, that's the most recent development, I'm sorry for the very long text, and sorry about any weird formatting.

TL:DR Adopted 5 month old frightened cat, he has lived 8 months with us, along with other 3 female cats, has made major improvements, wondering if theres anything else we can do to make him trust us, since he's still very wary of humans, will smell our hands (even of any friends we invite over) and that's about it, unless there's food involved.

Thank you!

Advice wanted - Scared cat