How do I get mom to move kittens

Hi. I'm new to this site and enjoy it very much. I have 2 questions. I have a mother cat with 5 kittens. (a stray that showed up at my door with a present) The problem is I need to move the kittens because they are in a high place in my basement and I'm afraid they will fall. They're 2 1/2 weeks old now and are getting around pretty well. I've tried to move them but she just carries them back to the old spot. Should I just move them and block the basement off? I need to move them right away but I don't want to upset her too much.
Also, is it normal for mother cats to have rather loose stools and go quite frequently? She is healthy with a big appetite. I asked my vet but didn't get a real clear answer. Thanks

I am pretty clueless when it comes to kittens. You will hear from the kitten experts soon.

I just wanted to welcome you aboard!

Where exactly are these kittens? In a rafter? up in a corner? Can you be more specific?

You really can't move them, mom will consider you a threat and she will just put them back where they are safe. You can (if you are dedicated) outsmart her. Put a cat condo in the basement, one that is tall enough that she can get to and take the kittens up safely. Find an old mattress or two, drag it down into the basement and put it underneath where the kittens are.

Feral moms are very smart, she will keep a sharp eye on her brood. She will for the most part keep them almost immobile during the day and bring them out at night to teach them to hunt and survive. Short of capturing her and the kittens and putting them in another room of your house, she will just keep moving her babies back, for high places make cats feel very secure. She sounds like she has been traumatized by something major out in the world. Most momcats take their kittens to ground when they are born, not high up in some building.

Thanks for your help. I decided to just move them myself. I found a nice box with an opening on the side, put the same bedding in it and brought the kittens upstairs. Then blocked the cat door to the basement. She seems to be content with it. She's a very sweet cat. I feel much better now.

I'm glad that you moved them out of the rafters. When they are just a little bigger, they will start moving around and will fall out, no matter how much rigging that you do for them.

I almost lost a kitten that was born in the rafters of my garage. I first tried putting them in a box in the rafters (momcat was OK with that), built a platform under the rafters and put padding all over in case they fell. One of the kittens still managed to get out of the box, crawled to the end of the rafter and fell into the upper frame of the window well (about a 2 feet drop). Had we not been out there to check on them regularly, he would have died in there, since you couldn't see where he went (that would be our Tigger cat).

They simply weren't safe on the rafters and I had to make a place that was both safe for them and acceptable to the mom. I moved them into a larger box on the ground that was fully protected from the larger predators in the neighborhood, but accessible by mom. I put her own food bowl there and bribed her with canned food. It was the first time in her history that she actually let us pet her, as if she was greatful.

Sorry to ramble.....you just made me relive one of our more interesting feral kitten adventures - rebuilding the garage to protect a litter of feral kittens! LOL

Oh good, glad you moved them, and that she allowed you to without you getting bit!