Lactating Mother Cat

Question
I took in a skinny scrawny stray grey tortoise-shell female in May that my daughter had been feeding a few weeks. She went into heat and I put her in an upstairs room, as I have other cats (fixed). She broke out a second story screen to have her fun anyway. She reappeared four days later, luckily. But soon got fat. I knew. Had cats all my life with some experience with kittens, but not for last 20yrs. She delivered 6 kittens, and was so uncomfortable in the end. But no difficulty with delivery, approx. 4-5hrs. Short ginger male, fluffy ginger male, short black male, short black tortie female, fluffy calico female, and my fave, a short Birman female. Had a Birman before, they're lovely. Anyways, I am unable to find homes for them and they are 10wks old now. I will keep Birman and Calico, maybe another? That will be 6 cats if so, with Mum. I live in Cottage Country in Ontario and we have fishers, cougars, wolves, bears, etc. So I don't like cats outside.  So it is difficult to find a GOOD HOME. My question is..in order to get Mum fixed, the vet told me she must be not lactating. I put the kittens in a separate room yeterday, as Mum gets aggravated with them at times. Now she is crying alot, and her glands are swollen. But not engorged as of yet. I am a nurse so can recognize this at least. But should I wean them so abrubtly? Or let her feed occassionaly still? I want to do what's best for them and her. Even if I find homes, and keeping some kittens, what do I do to decrease lactation? Or will she decrease naturally soon? Thank you.

Answer
Hi Tamara, Well it sounds like you have a house full there !!
Mom will wean the kittens naturally but you don't want to wait until that happens because she will be in heat and out the window again before you know it ! The kittens are fine to eat on their own at this age but if you wean them abruptly they may not drink as much as they should because it is more fun to drink off mom that to lap out of a bowl of water!! If they are not drinking enough you will see them get constipated and this can cause distress. What I would recommend is to keep mom in her own SECURE room and just let the kittens with her twice a day for no more than 5 minutes at a time. After two days just have them go into her room once at mid day for 5 minutes. This will relieve some of the pressure for her and it will keep the fluid levels in the kittens up while they wean. Keep shortening the time until they are completely weaned. It should not take more than a week. After the last feeding of 1 minute or so... she will still fill up with milk but it will not be so much at that point and her body will be able to absorb it and she can get spayed. Just give her dry food during this time so that she is not getting any more liquid in her diet than necessary.
Good Luck !
Teresa