mother cat behaviour

Question
(If you cant help me then thats fine!) Hi. My family cat gave birth four days ago, and so far she has been a great Mum. the kittens have nice big bellies, theyre going to the toilet fine and one of them even opened one eye this morning! However, yesterday, she started to get a bit antsy. the kittens started to mewl for food, and she tried to drag them one by one out of the box. shes only a young, first time mum, and hasnt quite worked out how to picked them up, so she struggled and looked quite upset. so we picked them all up for her and put them to where she lay. she then fed them as she usually did. We decided to make her a new open top box in case she felt claustrophobic in the other one (where she orginally gave brith) but she did the same again today. she slept with them last night, but she just does not want to feed them in the box. shes not hiding them away, but we're worried because theyre in an open space they'll scoot away (they move very fast!) or they will get cold; the room she had them in is not the warmest. Anyway we were wondering is this normal behaviour? Or is something wrong? the kittens are fine and healthy; she just doesn't want to feed them in any box we give her! Do you have any suggestions as to what we could do?
Thank you, and apologies for the long explanation!

Answer
Sophie,

Some first time mothers do some bizarre things! I had one one time that didn't know how to pick up her babies either. She would put the kitten's head in her mouth and drag them! None got hurt though! Little ones are pretty tough.

Let her put the kittens where she feels feels most comfortable and safe. Mothers will usually move the kittens a couple of times anyway. If you move the babies where she doesn't want them to be it can stress her and affect her milk supply. Put a blanket down and maybe a little space heater to warm the room, but that really isn't necessary.

Be sure to feed her about 4 times as much food as she normally eats. That will replace what the babies drain out of her and help her milk supply. A good quality kitten chow is very good to feed her until the babies are weaned. It is high in protein and has what she needs in it.

Also keep in mind that a cat can come into heat and get pregnant again 48 hours to two weeks after giving birth. If you don't want more kittens on top of kittens I would keep an eye on her, then get her spayed when it's time.

Have fun with the babies! They are so cute when they first start trying to play and are all wobbly!

Carol