Mama feral & 3 kittens

I took in a feral mom and her 3 kittens this weekend. I trapped them on Thursday, they all went to the vet on Friday to be fixed and vaccinated, and they came back to my house on Saturday. My question is about what to keep them in. I live in 1 bedroom townhouse with a basement. Right now, they are in the basement. I have two dog crates pushed together so there is room for bedding, food, and litter box. This is great for a short term solution, but I would like to tame them, or at least try with the mom, so I need something that would work for the few weeks/months it could take. I don't really have an extra room that they could be shut in all the time. Does anyone have any opinions on the indoor cat enclosures? I've seen some online that are multi-tiered so they can have more room but still be enclosed, until they can be tamed and allowed to roam the house or, if any of them are absolutely miserable, released to outside. By the way, the kittens are about 9 weeks old, and there are 2 girls and 1 boy. I want to keep mom with them for as long as I can so they can learn how to be a cat better. It depends on her if she will stay forever or not.

GOOD JOB!  I do NOT have personal experience with the indoor enclosures, but several friends have used them with excellent results.  @kittensmom  had done this fairly recently.  This will alert her, she may have some ideas for you about enclosures.  Best of luck!

Welcome to TCS!  You have just found a community that is more than willing to offer support and advice, and, since we are world-wide, there is SOMEONE here pretty much 24/7!

Thank you. I'm learning as I go. I've had cats my entire life, but this is my first experience with ferals. I also have a dog, a 14-year-old dachshund that is having some health issues, that I worry about as well. She is used to cats. When we rescued her, I already had a cat and they got along. Unfortunately, I lost my cat last year to old age - she was almost 17. She had to take 6 meds a day for her last 6 months, but it was so worth it because she lived really well until she decided to let go. So...I'm used to tough love and taking care of needy animals. And, these cats came to me...Lived under my patio, took over the chairs. The mom would get within a foot of me during feeding time, so my hope is she can be tamed. I decided to act when I realized the babies where old enough to fix. Surprisingly, it only took 30 minutes to get them trapped. Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can share.

What a wonderful thing you have done!

I trapped a feral mom and her 3 kittens found on my deck last June. The kittens, also 2 girls and 1 boy, were about 8 weeks old. A rescue group who assisted me told me the mama was too feral for them to have fostered and adopted out, so we released her into my yard after her vet visit/spay. I kept the babies in my bathroom for about a week until they were litter box trained and less frightened. Then we moved them into my daughter's bedroom for about another week where we allowed slow supervised visits with our two resident cats. In about 2 weeks they were fully socialized and part of the family. They LOVE to play together and the tall cat tower I bought off Amazon for about $100. I was going to just foster, but kept them all.

I felt awful about releasing mama. I regularly fed her in my yard and spent the past 7 months talking to her and slowly gaining a bit of her her trust. 3 weeks ago I was able to lure her into my house with food and have her in a spare bedroom where I am working with her daily to socialize her and reintroduce her to her babies- now 10 months old. It's going well- slow- but each day brings progress and she deserves a forever home too! That said, thank you for trying to keep the family together. I wish I knew then what I have learned now and had kept Mama with her babies. The kittens will likely be more trusting of you sooner than the Mama. Keep using food to your advantage and keep a steady routine. We handled the babies as much as possible, especially when they were sleepy as they were very rambunctious when they were wide awake. Playing games really helped them integrate and trust us too.