My cat misses her kittens. Can I reunite vaccinated mom & babies?

It does not immediately "wear off" but it depends on how good her immune system is as to whether or not her body responded appropriately to the previous vaccine. There are no vaccine risks to nursing cats, so vaccination is recommended now. Kittens can receive their first subcutaneous vaccines at 4-6 weeks of age and there is no risk to the babies when nursing moms are vaccinated.

How lovely of you to take in this stray cat and her kittens! I would keep your five week old male kitten separate from the kittens. At five weeks old, your kitten will not be vaccinated and can pass along diseases such as calicivirus and feline distemper to the kittens and their mother. Conversely, the mother could pass those along to your kitten as she likely isn't vaccinated. Fleas and intestinal worms can also be passed between them. I would take your kitten into your vet when he's six to eight weeks old to get his first vaccines, and be sure to take the mother and her kittens into the vet in the next couple of weeks to get check ups for them. You can discuss with the vet when to get the mother vaccinated and spayed so she won't have another litter of kittens, and when to start the kittens on their vaccines. Good luck, I hope this helps!

At 6 weeks of age, kittens are able to eat on their own however if they have relied on their mother mostly for food up until this point I would recommend offering the kittens along with mom food and slowly wean them away. If though you can be certain that they will eat solely on their own now without any issues then yes it would be just fine

I would recommend that you have the kitten examined by a vet if she isn't interested in eating food. You can try a variety of wet kitten foods, or mix dry kitten food with water or kitten milk replacer (not cow or other types of milk). At 6 weeks of age, she needs an FVRCP vaccine.

Yes she can still nurse the kittens, if she still has milk. Sometimes a queen can also restart making milk. This is great as she will take care of them emotionally, hygienically and teach them everything they need to know, especially if you do not take them away before they are 12 weeks old. If she does not have milk (the kittens will get grouchy and whine ) you will need to feed them with kitten formula. You can find out their age by weighing them. For each week of age they are 3.5 oz , so if they are three weeks old they would weigh about 10.5 oz. If you are not sure that mama has milk, take her to your vet who can check that for you. Thank you for taking in those kittens.

This is quite odd behavior, but she is likely taking care of them since her other kittens passed away. I don't know of any ill side effects except maybe becoming overweight or an upset tummy from the change in diet. I would try to separate them so that the 5 month old kittens don't get over weight from nursing and eating regular cat food. Also the kittens could cause some harm to the mothers mammary tissue since they have teeth now. Also I would recommend to spay or neuter the kittens and mom to prevent any additional litters if at all possible. If either of the kittens are male it could mate with the litter mate or mother causing some kittens to be born with some serious genetic defects. Plus if the mother isn't nursing her new kittens then she likely won't properly nurse her upcoming litters. If you are unable to fix all of them, you may want to start with any of the males. I hope this helps!

Yes, that is normal. Some kittens are more independent than others and they are old enough to begin exploring the world on their terms. Generally the cats will work this out amongst themselves. I do recommend to have the mother spayed in six weeks. Spaying cats prevents many health and behavioral issues. It also helps to control the problem of pet overpopulation. One female cat can have almost 30 kittens in a year. That is a lot of cats! I hope this helps.