Are both of your boys neutered now? She can get pregnant again within a week of delivery, so it may be best to close mom upstairs with the kittens for now.
Only one of our boys are neutered as of right now but we’ve been keeping them separated from her and the kittens since Saturday when she gave birth after our neutered boy gave us a scare and took one of the kittens out the bed and tried running off with it! So we’ve been letting them out at separate times alternating between the boys and mama cat until his appointment and the kittens are bigger
Juggling, alternating cat schedules, picking up kitties and putting them back! Oh boy, you are crazy busy for sure! But, it sounds like you have it under control!
Oh, btw, we'll gladly accept updated pics - no rush, we know you've got your hands full - whenever you get the chance!
They’ve opened their eyes! They were asleep in the picture but it’s super cute when they’re awake. Mama cat took them to the dogs kennel so we let her have that area. I keep putting towels in there but she just pushes them to the front of the cage and doesn’t lay on them. Also I’ve noticed one of the little calicos has some black gunk around her little nose like just around her nostrils. You might be able to tell in the second picture. I read I could remove it with a wet q-tip or cotton ball but I don’t understand what it could be?
You can use a cotton swab or ball with some warm water. Are you keeping the area they are in extra warm - especially since Mama is not using the towels to keep them warm? From what little I have learned from my neighbor watching her take care of 6 kittens with their own mom, she kept the room really, really warm as she said it would help to prevent possible respiratory issues. Fortunately, for this mom, all she wanted to do was keep them covered up - at least until they started moving around a lot.
We also bought a snuggly round bed for the kittens to lay in, and after 6 weeks they still use it to nap in.