reintroducing family cats after a feline birth

Question
HI thamks for your help, I currently have 3 cats one I adopted a year ago as a kitten and was a delight I took in two kittens a year later that were born outside male and female the one year old is a female, she bonded with them very well and just fell in love with the male, six months later the one year old female became competetive with the other female and attacked her  without being provoked I separated them and learned the one year old female was pregnant from the male which is now fixed ,she had her kittens 2 days ago I dont know when to reintroduce them all as far as safety for the kittens and her need for private bonding time and do you think the two females can bond again post pregnancy

Answer
Rose,

It's safest and best for the newborn kittens and nursing queen to be kept separated from the other resident cats. At this point the kittens are far to young to be with any other cats besides their mother. Newborn kittens are very vulnerable to viral and bacterial infections which may not even show any symptoms in your older cats because they have more developed immune systems. It's important to have your human family members handle the kittens for brief periods of time several times a day, but be sure not to overdo it because these babies should be pretty much eating and sleeping for now. It's important to ensure that anyone who handles mom or her newborn family makes sure to wash their hands thoroughly to prevent infections. Family friends that the mother cat is familiar with can start handling the kittens around the time that their eyes open for short periods of time, and of course clean hands are a must for the safety of mom and her babies. Having different people handle the kittens is crucial to their socialization, the more they experience during their early development the more well rounded the kittens will tend to be.

At present mom needs to feed, bond with and care for her newborns without the distraction of the other cats in your household so keeping her separated from the other cats will ensure that she's comfortable, secure and able to be a good mom to her babies. It's very important that the kittens stay with their mother and siblings for the first 10, preferably 12 weeks of life as many important lessons are learned, their immune systems are stronger and they're usually fully weaned by this age. Contrary to popular belief cats don't require human assistance to wean their kittens, mothers will do so gradually on their own when they're ready which is normally within the first few weeks of life. It's very important to make sure that mom is getting as much of a high quality, holistic pet food as she wants, and plenty of fresh, clean water - after all, she's now meeting her own nutritional needs as well as those of her rapidly growing babies. I would highly recommend having a kitten sized litter box available for the new family because mom will need it when she's potty training her little ones. When the kittens are old enough to be vaccinated you will need to decide whether you would like their new adoptive families to take that responsibility on or if you'd rather make sure they're protected against serious viral infections like distemper which is often fatal in cats. I'd recommend against introducing unvaccinated kittens to your older cats, especially if any of your resident cats go outside.

Mom will probably be grateful for some breaks from her little ones in the form of coming out of her nursery to walk around, see the other cats, use the litter box, etc when they're around 5 weeks old or so, but bear in mind she'll still be nursing at that point and will need to be back with her babies within a couple of hours. Once the kittens are 12 weeks old they can be placed into their adoptive homes. At 12 weeks of age kittens are stronger, more confident and resilient as well as being more able to handle changes to their life and environment than younger kittens so this is a perfect age for them to go into good adoptive homes. There shouldn't be any problems reintegrating mom back into your household once her babies are around 12 weeks of age. After all the other cats will still be aware that she's in the house and as the kittens get older a few short sanity breaks now and then will allow her to come out and say hi to the other cats in your home.

There is a very serious pet overpopulation problem being faced by animal shelters and rescue organizations worldwide. Making sure to spay and neuter our pets is a responsible and ethical choice as well as having many long term health and behavioral benefits for them. Euthanasia is unfortunately the method of choice within shelters and some rescue groups to control the pet population, sadly it's also one of the leading causes of death in owned cats in North America as a result of behavioral problems. Spaying/neutering pets prevents territorial aggression, wandering, using urine/feces to mark territory and caterwauling to advertise a pet's availability to mate. Medical benefits resulting from surgical sterilization include prevention of uterine, testicular and ovarian cancers, a significantly reduced incidence of breast cancer and the prevention of serious infections in the reproductive organs which can be fatal to cats if not detected and treated immediately. Spaying and neutering will not make your pets fat and lazy or negatively affect their personality and simply put choosing to surgically sterilize our pets saves countless lives each year worldwide.