Young mother leaving baby kittens. Help!!

A young mother, under 7-8 months old, had 4 kittens on our back porch in a big box two weeks ago. The mother is a stray but loves humans. She lets us hold the kittens and pet her.

The babies seem healthy, but recently, the mother has been hanging out with some other adult cats and leaving the babies for long periods of time. We've seen her leave for up to 5 hours at a time. When she finally came back after being gone for 5 hours this evening, she was reluctant to get in the box and feed her screaming kittens. When she was gone, we were worried she would never come back, so we bought supplies to take care of them. But, she finally did get in the box and feed them.

What should we do? We would like to bring the mother and kittens inside and confine them to one room, but we are worried she will not want to be confined and that she will not interact well with our pets.

Thanks!

If it were me, I'd probably bring her in and confine her to a small room of her own. She CAN get pregnant again already. Do you have a place you can keep her? If she is just a stray and friendly with humans, allowing you to handle her kittens ect. I am sure she'll adapt to being inside. It IS a tough project to take on, but there plenty of people here who have had similar situations who can help with more advice.

I agree, if you can bring her and the kittens inside (ie if you want to do it) is the best.

Interaction with your residents?  Wait with that for a while, so this is not a problem for several weeks.

Later on you will see.

Are your own residents used to roam outside?  Did they already met?  If so, the quarantine as such you dont need to overdo.   If they are pure inside you must  have them separated till you are sure there are no health issues.   But as said, as you will held her and the kittens apart some time, this problem will solve itself.

The only variation they may meet already now, is if your residents ARE used to roam outside, they had met and are best friend since before, so she wont mind them being in her room with the kittens.

Begin to plan on it, and come back with follow up questions.

Good luck!

I totally agree that bringing her and her brood indoors is the best thing you can do. As mentioned she can get pregnant again at anytime and confining her until the kittens are weaned and she can be spayed is the only way to prevent this. You also want the kittens indoors so they can begin to socialize to humans. Otherwise you risk them always being fearful of them. She doesn't need a lot of space- even a bathroom or walk in closet can work just fine. 

I agree with Stefan that I wouldn't worry about your other pets at this point. Not only does she need to be confined for her to adjust to the indoor life but you want to give her time in a quarantine to make sure she doesn't have any illnesses. Once the kittens are a few weeks older I would take them all to the vet to get the all clear. If you want to at that time you might start introducing her to your residents. 

It may be worthwhile to call around to some of your local shelters and see if they will let you "foster" her and the kittens. Usually this means you provide for their basic needs and house them while the shelter takes care of any and all veterinary costs and finds good homes for them. This may be ideal because if Mom ends up not being a good match for your family the shelter can help find her a home too. 

Thank you for looking after these little ones and doing the best that you can for them. Please, continue to ask questions as they come up. Hopefully you have some space where you can house them until they are big enough to go to their forever homes! 

Thank you so much for your replies!

We brought the mother and babies inside, and confined them in one room. The mom is staying in the box with the babies for a much longer period of time. The mom seems happy, but has not used the litter box yet. How can we help her adjust to the litter box? The babies are doing great!

Awww! Look at em! So tiny, yes... this is sooooo good of you to do this for all of them. Thank you so much.

As momma is almost certainly just a stray. I am sure she'll use the pan when she needs to. Just show it to her and let it be. If she doesn't use it, there is litter called cat attract, sprinkle a little over her litter, it should encourage her to the box. She will also need a good kitten food to eat as she is nursing. You may want to invest in a baby gate, not now, but as the kittens begin to move around. I found I needed one to keep them from dashing out the bedroom door when I went in to feed everyone. It will also come in handy later on if you want to do introductions to your other cats. I actually had to use 3 stacked, as my foster momma was quite the little climber!

Yay I'm so, so, so happy to hear you guys brought them all indoors! This is an amazing thing you are doing for them- she is very, very lucky that she chose your porch! 

It's clear Mom is not a feral because she is okay with humans- likely just a house pet that someone stopped caring for. So, my guess is she has litterbox experience in the past. It's not uncommon for a cat not to use the box for a day or two following a big change like this. All you can do is keep it set up and keep an eye for her going somewhere else in the room. If she does, add a second box in that location and try not to get too mad at her- this is a lot for her to undertake. If she goes more than two days without going she may need to see a vet but I think that is unlikely here. She just needs some time to settle in. 

Keep us posted and ask any and all questions that you need to. We will walk you through each step as much as you need! 

Thanks for advice! I'll keep you posted!

Last night, the momma cat had diarrhea on the floor. We put the litter box where that happened and this morning she had diarrheal again in the litter box.

Then, a white snotty looking mixture started coming out of her. She tried to push it out, but couldn't. She got out of the box with it hanging out of her, so with a paper towel we slowly pulled on it. It kept going and going and appeared to be a long string like thing.

What was it? We are afraid she is having more kittens. What do you think?

Theoretically, they can have two different litters, and deliver them a couple of weeks apart. But this doesnt seem as anything kitten-alike...

Had you dewormed her lately?

May it have been a tape worm? coming out not just a rice-corn alike segment, but a good bit of it with many segments of the worm?

You had perhaps dewormed her, so they are dying - and coming out??

This could also explain the diarrhea.

Prob best you phone your vet, the vet will know what follow up questions to give.

Good luck!

No, we had not dewormed her. The string like thing did not look like a worm, but maybe it was. We are calling the vet. Thanks!

Definitely sounds like a worm. Most cats who spend any time outside will get them. This could explain the diarrhea, but also the change in food could do this also. As she becomes more accustomed to the food, and gets dewormed, it should improve. A good probiotic would be good for her also. Good your taking her to the vet.