Can I touch feral kittens to move them from a dangerous outdoor spot?

You can move the kittens - if you are planning to socialize the kittens and either keep them yourself or adopt them out it would actually be ideal to handle them when they are young. It is unlikely that the mother will reject them, but she may try to move them back unless you cut off access to the other room. Depending on how social the mother is you may need to wean the kittens early to be able to fully socialize them to people - ask your vet for pointers. http://4fi8v2446i0sw2rpq2a3fg51-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Socializing-Kittens_update.pdf

It might really stress her out to be inside if she's never been inside, so I would just leave out food for her, and set up a shelter for her and her kittens. I would try to catch her after the kittens have weaned, and have her spayed. If she will allow it, I would try to handle the kittens to tame them so you can find them homes. I hope this helps!

You can try to pet her if she will let you. She doesn't need milk, she needs water. The kittens should start to be handled more to socialize them, and I would do it slowly and carefully. Interact with them a little bit every day, and increase the time and contact you have with them. If their eyes are open and they are moving around, you can give them toys to play with, and you can interact with them using the toys. When they are around four weeks of age, they can start getting a kitten mush to help them wean. To help them wean and to get used to dry food, I would soak a high quality kitten formulated dry food in warm water until soft. Then mix that with kitten formula such as KMR to make a mush the consistency of oatmeal. Over the next two weeks, gradually increase the amount of dry kitten food and decrease the amount of water and KMR you use until they are eating the dry kitten food only.

It is fine to handle the kittens, cats do not generally reject their young if they are handled by an outside source. It may also just look like mama is smothering them when in fact she might just be providing them with heat and/or the ability to nurse. Unless you actually see the babies actually struggling to move or crying out, they are probably not being smothered. The kittens are waking up a lot because they have to nurse. When they are this young, the tend to nurse upwards of every 2-3 hours. If you are not seeing the kittens nursing that often, they might need supplemental care in the form of bottle feeding. You can pick up some kitten milk replacer at a pet store or a big-box store as well as the bottle. Hope this helps!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your cat and the kittens. Yes, cats will move their litters around. However, if she is placing the kittens up high, there is the potential they could fall. This is unsafe for the kittens. Try to examine the environment and see if there is any reason for your cat to feel her kittens are unsafe. Is she moving them to get them away from another cat, a dog or children in the home? Otherwise, I would move to kittens away from high ledges and try to block her access from these areas. I hope this information helps!

That is so lovely of you to want to help the mother and her kittens! I would definitely catch them as soon as possible, and bring them to a vet. The vet can do a health check on all of them, and can do blood tests and a urinalysis on the mother to check on her organ fuctions and to see if she has any diseases. Then the vet can schedule a spay for when the kittens are weaned, and vaccines as well. The vet can give you an idea of how old the kittens are, and can give you tips on how to help them wean. The first step is to catch them, however, and I would do that as soon as you can. So great of you to help them!

Hi, a lot of kittens die because of catching viruses so as much as you protect them and make sure they are ok, if there are unvaccinated cats roaming and mum is also not vaccinated, the risk is high. Hope these kittens do well and that they can find a loving home in the future, you could try to contact a charity organisation that might help with spaying the queen afterwards and taking carol the kittens. See https://www.alleycat.org/category/our-work/ for example.