First want to say, I wish I had found this subreddit a month ago, but I kept finding conflicting info online about when to separate and when to get her fixed. Shes getting spayed and released very soon, but I’ve had her in my sunroom since August 17th. The sunroom is not insulated or heated so I assume it should still he fine to release her even though its getting cold.

On to the main topic of the post, I finally separated the kittens because I noticed that they were taking on more and more of her feral tendencies and it was becoming harder to get them to approach me while still in the same space as her. The mama cat has been around for three years according to the neighbors, shes a sweetheart (in her own feral way), and she had a very sad birth where she lost 8 of her kittens due to having been born premature. Only one was healthy enough to stay with her, 7 died, and 1 went to a rescue to keep growing in an incubator while being tube fed. shortly after she lost her kittens, I was contacted by someone who found 2 orphan kittens, which I introduced to the mother cat and she accepted them immediately. She is the most loving and attentive mother cat I’ve ever seen.

I am torn up trying to find any way to comfort her and help her understand her kittens are okay. I showed her the kittens through the door today when I heard her crying again and as soon as she saw the kittens she was doing the most desperate meows and chirps to them and came very close to the door immediately despite being afraid of me. I took them back downstairs because the kittens were trying to jump out of my hands back to the mom. I came back up and talked softly to her for awhile and she was making the smallest saddest meows and then went back to the nest to sleep. The only other time I have heard her meow is when she was in labor. I’ve noticed her meowing loudly and searching for them probably every hour, I feel so bad and I have no clue what to do.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!