Help with 5 week old kittens

Question
A cat who is semi-Feral had kittens in my basement. I have played with them
and tried to make them tame each night. I am getting there. One is 90% and
the other two still need work. I have them in a box where only the mother cat
can get out.......except somehow when I came in last night they were all out.
The tame one was just laying on a rug and it took me two hours to find and
get the other two. Should I be keeping them in this box? Only one will nibble
chicken baby food off my finger. The others are not yet ready to eat alone.
Should I put food and litter in box. I have a home for one of the kittens. When
is it safe to allow kittens to go to a new home. I know the general rule but
these cats are sort of different due to their nature

Answer
Jennifer,

It sounds as though these kittens will need some work in order to get them ready for new families. I would recommend that you think about removing them from their mother when they are 6 weeks old. I normally don't recommend that kittens be removed from mom until they are 10-12 weeks of age. This is a special set of circumstances. It is best if you help these kittens with the socialization that would normally take place during the time that they will miss with their mom. I would also like to recommend that you try to catch mom and see if you can have her spayed either on your own or through a feral cat rescue organization in your area so that she will not continue to produce kittens that have the potential to be unadoptable due to the lack of socialization. I would strongly suggest that these kittens be either placed in a bigger box that they can't scramble out of or that you try to bring mom and babies into a bedroom or bathroom in your home until the kittens are old enough to be separated from mom. These circumstances will not be ideal, but maybe mom will come around and can be rehomed as well. I have tamed feral cats before, but it takes loads of patience, bribery with something that is smelly (tuna, sardines and salmon work well as does chicken that has been cooked). At the very least bringing mom and her little ones into your home will show her that you are not going to hurt her or her babies. She may settle when she realizes that you are feeding her and her babies and that she is safe with you. It might not be a bad idea to play the radio softly for the mom and babies in the bedroom while you can't be there to socialize with them just so that they get used to the sound of human voices and they realize that there is no reason to be afraid. Litter box manners are not hard to teach cats, the bathroom behaviors are the same from the tiniest kittens to the larger cats like lions and tigers. It is instinctual for the cat to want to use the toilet and cover the urine or feces with some sort of substrate. You may initially have to use dirt from outside if mom is truly feral. If mom has simply been on her own for a long time after having been abandoned then she will remember what a litter box is and should take to it fairly easily. In terms of a litter box it is a good idea to make sure that you have a couple of kitten sized litter pans so that mom can teach her little ones how to use the litter. Kittens are not hard to toilet train, if you have to train them you will have to spend some time watching them. If the kittens have just eaten, woken up, or played and they start circling or sniffing the floor you will need to gently pick them up and take them to the litter box. Once you put the kittens in the litter box you will very gently use one of their front paws to scratch in the litter and make a small hole. Sometimes that is all that needs to be done to teach the kittens, sometimes this will have to be repeated several times. At least while these babies are still fairly young you will want to make sure that you save a kitten poop and pee to put into the clean litter box so that they have the smell to guide them to the proper place to go to the washroom. Hopefully this helps. If  you have any further questions or concerns you can either speak to a feral cat rescue organization in your area or you can contact me again. I will do the best that I can to help you, the mother cat and her little ones. Do take care.