Taking a kitten from its mum?

Kittens born to a feral/wild mom have different "rules" than those born indoors to a pet. They need to be taken from mom as soon as they are reasonably able to eat on their own, and the younger the better, even if it means bottle feeding them. The longer they stay outdoors with mom, the more likely they learn her wild ways and are less likely to become friendly and social. The trappers and managers of feral colonies report the best success with kittens taken at 4 weeks or less. Grab them now. And momma does need to be spayed and returned outside. Contact the local spca about borrowing a live trap, and getting her in to be spayed. You aren't doing her a favor by allowing her to breed and breed over and over again. All cats in that group need to be spayed and neutered, and the local SPCA can assist you with just how to do that.

If you take kittens, take mama too. Please do then get a cheap feral spay after kittens are weaned. Please try to rescue and spay/neuter as many as you can. This will lower the chance of cat incest and mutated babies. Thank you and good job for looking out for them.

If your friend intends to adopt the mother cat, and you're willing/able to have the kittens in your home, can one of you take in both mother and kittens together for the time being? That might be the least traumatic for all involved. When the kittens are weaned, you can find them homes and the mother cat can go live with your friend.

Okay, if it was ME I'd take them NOW regardless of their age because if you don't they may become feral (afraid of humans) and it will be harder the longer you wait. The kittens should be fine if they are playing around outside. My friend rescued and abandoned 3 week old kitten and this thing eats regular canned food or dry food with kitten milk on it. It doesn't want a bottle. Do not give these kittens cow milk, buy some kitten formula or buy goat's milk. Their tummies will not do well with cow milk you buy at the grocery store! Buy some canned cat food that is really mushy, not chunky and I think the kittens will eat it! They will be fine... take them in, feed them mushy food with kitten milk or goats milk on it and find them homes! :)

Please have your mate take the Momma and get her spayed, this is the best thing for her and the only way to keep this from happening over and over and over.

If it's not possible for you to take Mom AND kittens, LEAVE THEM ALONE.
The kittens CANNOT leave her until they are at least 9 weeks old.

If you are going to take them in, you have to take THEM ALL, MOM AND KITS.
What you do with mom once the kittens are old enough is up to you. But the kittens need her for the first 3 months of their lives, no matter what.

And it's not the "father cat" killing the kittens... it's PEOPLE.
Cats do not kill their offspring.
But whether its starvation from living on the street eating garbage, being run over by a car, being killed by a psycho (ie burning their tails off is a form of torture only done by PEOPLE), or whatever, PEOPLE are killing previous kittens.

The mother cat needs to be spayed so she doesn't have more kittens.
It's about $50 at low cost spay.

Good luck.

It's really best for kittens to stay with their mum for minimum 8 weeks, and 12 weeks is even better. but in a situation like this it is also good if they get more contact with humans so they dont grow up wild, and can have a chance to get adopted.
It sounds like maybe these cats are not totally feral, though? Can you and your mate manage to bring the mum and the kits ( would she follow if you carried the kittens?) all inside for a while, keep them in one room for at least about a month? That would really be best for everyone concerned. If you can't lure the mom inside, you might be able to trap her in a humane trap that you might be able to borrow from a shelter.

( You would need to set up a litter pan or two, at least one with low sides that the kittens can use, and at first fill with some dirt from the area where they are from, especially if you know where she usually uses )

That would keep them safe and give a chance to get the kittens more socialization to humans, while still letting them get the benefit of staying with their mum ( which is not just about nursing. it's also psychological comfort and things that they learn from her... like the mum helps teach kittens to not bite hard when playing. and they learn cat language and "manners" from her, which is important if they ever have to deal with other cats later.
Not that the nursing thing is not important too. Weaning is normally a gradual process, not something that happens instantly as soon as they can manage to eat other food. Kittens often nurse up to 8 weeks or even longer, though at that point it is more about comfort nursing.

Then you could take the mum to get spayed when the kittens are about 2 months old. That way you put a stop to more and more kittens being born and getting killed off or lost or something.
( and you can search for low-cost spay neuter and your area .. there are some clinics who will do that and vaccinations for cheaper than at a regular vet. and often they have a special low rate for ferals )

If these kittens are running and chasing each other, they must be at least 4 -5 weeks old. You have seen they will drink something from a dish so if you absolutely can't manage to catch the mum, but you can catch the kittens, you could take them. But really it would be best to bring in BOTH mum and kittens.

BTW if you give them any sort of milk, it would be best to give them formula made especially for kittens, or goat's milk, or evaporated milk. Regular cow's milk may cause digestive upset and you dont want them getting diarrhea, it can be dangerous for kittens.
Ideally you can give some kitten formula ( either store bought, or look up recipes online for " kitten glop" ) then start mixing it with some tinned kitten food or pate style cat food with no grains and made from chicken, turkey, duck, or rabbit (those are usually the easiest for kittens to digest) .

ill take the cats altogether, including mum, leave them in a house, somewhere indoors and let them grow until there older then give them to a shelter or give them away or leave them with you

You could try trapping all of them and keeping them together in a spare bathroom or garage so the momma cat would still take care of the babies but no one would be able to hurt the kittens. If you don't have a humane trap a lot of shelters will rent them or allow people to check them out (like a library book). It may take several days to catch them all and you risk catching the momma cat before the kittens leaving the kittens to fend for themselves, but if you DO use a trap and you DO catch the momma first, you can always just open the door and let her go then try again. Hopefully it would only take two or three tries to get them all. That's what I would try in order to keep them together as a group and to allow the mother cat to take care of her babies until they are old enough to eat on their own.

They're too young to be seperated from the mother. Secondly, most cats are lacotose intolerant so it's a bad idea to give them cow's milk. If you feel that they should be seperated, then use mother's milk replacement.

Call animal control and get rid

3-5 weeks is just a little to young to take them from her. It means you would have to start bottle feeding them mother's replacement milk....never ever feed them cow milk, only mother cats replacement milk. And that is a huge undertaking to feed 4 of them, and you have to know what you are doing. You have to stimulate them in order for them to pee and pooh, you have to rub their bellies after eating to stimulate a burp, it is a lot of work. Is there anyway you can get the mother and the 4 kittens into the house at least until the kittens are 6-8 weeks old? At about 5-6 weeks old, you can introduced watered down wet kitten food and tiny kitten kibble. If you are really concerned about them, can you google up some animal rescue organizations in your area and ask them if they would take the kittens? Yes, outdoor kittens are subjected to many horrors and all types of infections.