Help!! Feral help needed

I do rescues. Mainly I take in very young feral kittens and whatever the rescue gives me. This year has been an insane kitten year. 2 weeks ago the rescue called me and had a lady catch a young kitten. I thought about 4 weeks old. Very tiny. I spent 3 days trying to keep it alive. Turned out it was one of 5 kittens. Before I left I showed the lady how to set a trap and catch the others. Last night she called me and the rescue and said she had the rest of the kittens. So I ran right over to get them. They turned out to be a lot healthier than the other one. I mean these were over 2lbs each. and 4 of them. The other that passed was only 9oz. Same litter. So mom abandoned her. 

 Before I got there she caught mom cat. She told the head of the rescue she could pet her. So the lady who runs the rescue said that is fine take her also. She was still in the trap. Good thing. The kittens were in a carrier. Good thing

 I get home and find Momma is pretty feral. She was so terrified that she was frozen in fear. I got home and put her in a create with the kittens around the outside of her (I have a pen set up). One of the kittens is kind of friendly, the other 3 aren't.

 Now the bad. About 3AM in the morning, I heard a crash. Momma managed to flip a 30 inch create over. She was going crazy. I had a blanket over her create. Thank God that it was on the floor. What a mess.  cleaned up the mess and figured I would put the only kitten that would let me touch it in the create until the morning. Things were fine. Then about 3 PM she flipped the cage again and went nuts. Again huge mess. Last night when I cleaned it up she went in the corner and hid. I'm talking cat litter, water and dry food in there. I opened the cage and she put the kitten in the corner and she went and hid. I cleaned up the mess. I locked the cage each time I took something out and then put it in. 

 The very bad...I went to put the water in (a very very small dish. I don't know how she did it, it was so fast, but she got out. Went straight to the windows.

 She is big enough to leap the pen. The room was closed. Now she is under the coach in the corner with 3 of the kittens. I have the other one in the living room in the create with me.

 Momma is crazy any time I go near the other kittens.I can't catch her or she tries to throw herself out the glass window. AS long as Mom is loose and with the kittens we are not going to socialize the other kittens. I figure they are all about 8 weeks old. I know it's important I get them now. The one that is out here in the living room is fine. Very calm. Is watching me and letting me pet her. She has great interest in my cat and kittens. They can see each other. She has reached out trying to play with them. 

Any ideas? I have the trap still here. Had I been told it was completely feral it would have been kept in another room and not allowed around the kittens. 

 I wished she hadn't caught the mom. But she did. I know I could have saved all the kittens and TNR the mom. 

I've worked with a lot of feral kittens, but only TNR the adults and anything over 4 months.

The kittens are eating and drinking fine and are weaned. They are a bunch of chuncky monkeys.   

I will take all suggestions on how to catch her. 

So so long. I'm new here. 

Hi Tieggers.

Welcome to The Cat Site

Good that you still have a trap. She's been trapped once it will be really hard to catch her again but if you could bait and cover the trap and leave it in the room with her you might be able to get the other kittens out. Don't worry about how long it takes, I've taken in 4 month old feral kittens and they are all very tame now. Even if they are with Mum for a few more weeks it doesn't mean they will be untameable.

So your plan is to TNR the Mum and release her in the old neighbourhood again? At the moment she is in a safe place, out of the way of any tom cats so not likely to get pregnant again. If it's OK with you for her to be in that room for a while I'd leave her there, take your time catching and socialising the kittens and see if she calms down. She might not ever be tame enough for you to touch her, but if you give her time to see that you're not going to hurt her you'll be able to get her into a carrier or trap and get her TNR'd eventually.

Good luck, keep us posted.

First, thank you for your work and care.
I don't have a lot of experience with kittens, feral or otherwise, although I have TNRd a fair number of cats and removed four or five cats from a cat colony to re-socialize. One cat around six months old literally climbed the walls trying to escape, but was successfully socialized and is in a furever home.
My gut says to ignore the mother and concentrate on the kittens. Leave food and water out in the room, change the litter box, etc. You can try sitting in the room with the kittens/feral mom while they are eating. Play soft music, etc.
Can you put up a screen door between where the friendly cat and your resident cats are and the room where the mother cat/kittens are. The scared cats can see how relaxed the friendly cat/kittens are.
If possible, I'd get the mother cat spayed and then returned to where she was trapped.
Good luck!

I agree with the suggestions so far.  You can also try with a Feliway diffuser in the room of the mom, to try and downgrade the moms panic and feeling of unsecurity...

Bless you for what you are doing.   And dont forget to apply for the Friend of ferales badge!

Good luck!   @tieggers22

Thank you so much for all the suggestions. Keep them coming!!

The last rescue I worked with, they gave me all the sick kitties. Once they were well, I was lied to about being adopted and they were taken right away. If they needed bottle feeding, I would have them only long enough to get them weaned and she would come and get them. 

I'm now with a new group that is pretty low key. We got in over 120 kittens this summer. And we are still getting them in.

All the kittens I have gotten are abandoned 4 to 5 week old kittens from Ferals. Takes a few weeks of socializing and the last group all had bad bowl problems. Including infected anus. Talk about poop being everywhere. 

I don't have the time to work with Momma. I know 2 woman who works with only feral past 5 months old..She is a saint. Even she told me unless I have a few year and it will stop me from getting any more rescues due to her being feral. Also, I was told that as long as she is around, the kittens will stay feral. 

I must say she is a great mom cat. She is very protective. She lets the kittens eat the food 1st and she shields them away from me, with her in front.

Also must be a great hunter because these are in great shape and almost fat!! I wished the other one would have made it. In 2 days it was sitting on my lap and would come and sit on the couch. 

The last batch I mentioned before, were so emaciated, that I didn't think any would survive. One has he butt blocked by the loose stools and with the long hair it matted so he could eliminate.  when they cut away the hair they said at least  string of 4-5 inch stool came out of his but. Then his anas was so bad he coudn't sit down. Poop would just shoot out of his butt everywhere. I would give him up to 3 butt, back leg, and tail bath in the sink. I used AD Ointment and prep h. 

 Then they were so starved they would inhale the food. All very food aggressive. They are now almost 4 months old but still small for their ages.

If anyone needs advice on handling digestive problems, I can tell you about all sorts of things I was taught from vets, reviewing and my nursing background. The really sick one started to fade on me one night and I managed to save him. I am a foster failure. I am keeping him (he should be my avitar).

 I got  one in April who was almost dead (got caught in a floor where we live). He was 4 weeks when I got him. He was the sweetest kitty I had ever gotten. And at 7 months just died. They said it was a cardio problem. Just laid down out of the blue and died. 

Since i am new here, I am from MI. I have always had cats, used to work as a nurse and as a new producer. I am semi retired and just bought a house a few years ago. Decided I would volunteer as a foster and do some work trapping, and at the adoption fairs we hold.

2 years ago I had 2 cats, one died at 21 and the other at 19. So I got Gidget. I walked into an adoption event, asked which cat had been there the longest (April) and it was now Nov, and took her right away. She was a dump job with kittens.She is mainly indoor, but goes and patrols the property 2-3 times a day for 20 minutes and comes right back in. The way she tells me she wants in, she jumps in the window. We even had a small puppy foster and she raised him. It was pretty funny when he would hisss. When we took a walk, she would walk on one side of the dog and me on the other side. My neighbors thought it was very funny. 

 I started fostering about 2 years ago. I worked with one that treated me like poo and took advantage of me. I got every sick animal they had. Ones who were stitched up, needed bottle feeding, had worms, fleas, needed lots of meds. No support, noting. I spent a ton of money on food, litter and treats. When JL died, she accuse me of not taking her to the vets. I did 4 day before she passed and the night she passed. (They said he an URI). And then to the most expensive vet who took advantage of me. The night he passed. She spread all kinds of rumors about me. 

 Then the rescue I got Gidget from called and asked if I could take a couple and then I got the sick kittens, and a 30lb male cat. All adopted. Then I got this bunch. 

She pays for food, treats, toys,litter boxes, litter, wet food. 

Once again sorry for the long post.

Hi, just checking in. How's it going with the Momma and her kittens?

I don't think that a few more weeks with their mum is going to hurt them, you can still use the time to get them used to you. Sit in the room with them while they eat and keep talking to them softly. They'll learn to associate you with food, even if  their mum is shielding them.

It can take years to get a feral cat used to you, but in this case all you are trying to do is keep her safe until she can be TNR'd, is that right? So just keeping her indoors and calming her down a bit is all you need to think about. Cats are smart, she'll soon realise that you don't mean her any harm.

The kittens will get more and more independent as the days go by, so pretty soon their curiosity is going to be stronger than their instinct to stick close to mum and they'll start coming over to see who you are. Get some wand toys, long feathers, anything that you can get them interested in without them having to get too close to you. They'll want to play so you'll be able to coax them closer with these toys. Mum might even join in the game too.

Let us know how it goes.