by Anonymous
Question: At what age are ferals too old to socialize to humans?
Answer: You will have the best success at socializing kittens to be household pets if they begin being accustomed to people before they are 8 weeks old.
After this age, they will be much more difficult to tame, but not impossible--it may just take longer.
Sometimes though even getting kittens very young from a feral mother will have some security issues--before we were married, my husband adopted 2 littermates (a male and a female) that were 5 weeks old, born and living under the cement patio of his apartment to a very skittish feral calico female.
Today, they are almost 9 years old and very affectionate, but the female will still startle easily at loud noises, and doesn't like people walking around her while she eats.
Kittens from birth will respond to their mother's body cues--if the mother cat tenses up at noises while nursing, for example, her kittens will learn this association as well.
Basically, the sooner the kittens are exposed to human handling the easier and faster it will be to tame them.
I found this article that will help you socialize them if you have rescued feral kittens.
Full grown feral cats are unlikely to ever make a good pet, but if you want to help reduce the population of feral cats, you can contact your local animal shelter for information on a trapping/neutering/releasing program in which you give a refundable deposit to rent a trap.
There are so many feral cats, and they have very difficult lives. Whether you can adopt a feral kitten or not, at least you can always help!
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