We've got two kittens that were living in a garden and were pretty wild when we took them on. We've had then for coming up to five weeks now and they've come on miles.
We decided to keep them close to us so that they got used to humans, so we bought them in straight away and kept them in the living room so that they would get used to the noise of us moving around and our voices. We kept the cat carrier open with a towel in so that they could retreat there if they needed to and we made sure that they saw us putting food down, close to their carrier when they needed feeding. Obviously we couldn't get close enough to put flea stuff on their coat, so I managed to find a tablet that de fleas. I ground it up and put it in their food and also wormed them this way.
For the first week or so they hid from us constantly, especially under the sofa and if we looked under the sofa at them, they would go nuts and hiss. I think they eventually decided that under the sofa was their safe place, cos they would pretty much stay there when we were in the room and only come out for food.
After about a week, we managed to get them to play with toys with us, particularly one's on sticks as it meant out hands weren't really near them. We carried on with this and feeding them and after about a week, we started sitting close to where they were eating and stroking them every now and then when they were distracted by food. When we were playing, we would also stay close to the floor so that we didn't appear too big to them and scare them. We also managed to trick them into jumping on our legs/tummy with toys.
After about two weeks of this gradual interaction, we started to put food on our laps, so that they were forced to come to us to eat. We also started to feed them out of our hands so that they would get used to our smell and begin to trust us. I found that they went nuts for cheap chicken paste (make sure there are no onions in it though). They started to eat this out of our hands and lick our fingers.
When they started to eat out of our laps, we found that we could gently stroke and groom them and that they didn't mind too much. They also started to get less weary of us and would come closer to play. While they were playing we kept gently stroking them and then stopping so that they weren't quite sure if we had done this or not.
We carried on doing this for about four weeks, and now finally, they are less scared of us. We can get closer to them when they are lying on a cusion or the floor and manage to stroke them and make them purr. We've even started to pick them up and put them on our laps to pet them there, and they'll stay for a bit, although they might have to be bribed there with a toy.
They still have good and bad days, for example I think I pushed one a bit too much yesterday as I picked him up and carried him a short distance. He was a bit skittish this morning and ran away from my hands when I fed him, but I know that if I take something too far and they react like that, I just need to back off and leave him for a little bit and that he'll come round again in a day or so.
I took them to the vet on monday and thought they would hate me forever as they wouldn't come near me for the rest of the day, but by tuesday mid morning they were happy enough and one kept coming over to lie next to me where I could stroke him.
I hope this helps!! We're still progressing with our kittens, so happy to help in anyway as it can be hard work and feel quite disheartening sometimes.