I doubt you will make any difference in a week---unless the owners continue whatever you start. And a week is not nearlty enough time to acclimatize feral cats to humans. You have to start by basically ignoring them, but leave a treat where they can see you leave it. Never corner them or scare them if you can help it. Talk normally to them, if they quit running/hissing/etc., you might sit out in the open and toss treats.

Agree that you have good intentions, but definitely don't think you have enough time to make a difference in the ferals.

We adopted a kitten (7 w/o) last summer that was a feral. We/my DD worked very hard with him. Until recently he only was only tolerant of prolonged affection from her, would only come if she called him etc. He is now what I would consider 80% "domesticated". He now will snuggle with someone other than DD and loves to take treats from anyone. When he first came he would only eat if no one was standing there. It was very strange. He was in no way mean, it was as if he was afraid of humans.

Taking on a feral is a serious committment of patience, time and work.

I find it odd that the vet wouldn't vaccinate and if I were the neighbor petsitting, I don't think I would have too much "up close and personal" time with unvaccinated kittens.

Best of luck to you. I wish your neighbors had different plans for the kittens.

Eight week old kittens should NOT be allowed out of the stall! They are waaaaay too young to know how to stay out of harm's way and protect themselves, and they have no mother to defend them and teach them what they need to know to survive on their own. Those kittens shouldn't be allowed out of the stall until they are large and strong enough to climb out on their own.

Also, if scared babies are allowed out of the stall, the likelihood of ever getting near them again is virtually nil ... assuming they survive at all. Bad, BAD idea.

If you could take the kittens into your home for the week, keep them in your bathroom, and spend virtually every waking minute with them, you might be able to make a little progress in their socialization. But the socialization will be lost when they are returned to the barn and have no humans with whom to interact.

If you really want to try to socialize the kittens, just spend as much time as possible in the stall with them. Take a book, sit on the floor of the stall and read aloud to them in a soft, soothing voice. Avoid direct eye contact with them, and don't stand over them. Let them become accustomed to your inert presence. You may not make much obvious progress, but you will be giving them the opportunity to learn that humans are not dangerous predators, and that's a start.

Good luck,

Laurie

I guess I have a lot to learn abour feral kittens! I do want to say that my neighbor and her children do spend time with the kittens and that the horse stall is a large, bright and airy one.

I had 2 barn cats that came from a different (somewhat irresponsible when it came to cats) neighbor. His cats were a combination of semi-domesticated barn cats and feral ones who only showed up at meal time. The two that I took were friendly from the beginning. They spent a couple of days closed up in the tack room, then were turned loose and did fine. The last one died this past year at age 16.

Our present house cat was found in the middle of the road at approximately 3 weeks of age. His first weeks were spent living in a horse trailer as the vet said keep him isolated as he was too young to be checked for feline leukemia. He went on to become a house cat due to vision problems. He is now 10 and he is a little odd due to having limited socialization with either cats or humans while young. He doesn't really meow, is fearful of strangers, and was totally useless when a mouse got into our kitchen. So I have had no experience with fearful, hissing baby cats.

Laurief has some very good advice...Taming ferals is very time consuming but well worth it in the end...I help with a cat/kitten rescue organization and we do trap and tame ferals...My last 3 were about 3 months old when we got the call. After getting them vet checked, I kept them in my laundry room, in a very large cage, which I practically lived in myself...After a while, I kept the cage open and they had the run of the laundry room... I spent all my time in this room, just letting them get used to me..They then moved upstairs to the spare bedroom and there again, I spent alot of time there, even sleeping with them...We have other cats and after much smelling under the door, we did introduce them to the rest of the furfamily...It does take time, patience and lots of love but it can be done/ All the ferals that I have tamed have been adopted and have made wonderful inside pets...It seems, these cats sense what you've done for them and are very appreciative...Good luck with your venture....Bless you for helping those little furbabies....