Kittens and adult cats

Question
Two stray cats that hang around my house had kittens almost five weeks ago, and the kittens are now starting to follow their mom's up to the house to eat at night. They're all friendly kittens because we've been able to have contact with them since birth, but a couple of the other adult cats have been attacking them. Is this part of them learning to defend themselves, or could the cats actually go as far as killing them?

Answer
Amy,

At 5 weeks of age a kitten could certainly be killed by an adult cat, particularly if it's an intact male cat who isn't the father. Toms will kill kittens in an effort to bring mom back in season more quickly so that they can mate with her and produce more kittens. I'd recommend that you consider bringining mom and her babies indoors until the kittens are big and strong enough to get away. Since these babies have been socialized with people it might be a good time to start getting them accustomed to living in a house since they'd be more adoptable that way. A mother cat teachs her kittens to defend themselves, they then practice their new skill by play fighting and wrestling amongst themselves which also helps them to figure out who stands where in the household hierarchy.

It's certainly within the colony's best interests if each member is spayed/neutered as this will reduce aggression between the cats within the colony and help to reduce their risks of certain types of bacterial infections and cancers. I can provide you with further information on the benefits of spaying and neutering each member of this stray colony if you're interested. If you'd like information on starting a trap, neuter, release program in your area to humanely control the population I'd be more than happy to provide you with information that would help you to get this stray colony spayed/neutered before the population explodes out of control.