kittens nursing

Question
"Hi. The pregnant stray we adopted recently had a litter of 10 kittens five days
ago. with such a large brood, she's obviously exhausted, but is a trooper and
has barely left the nesting box. I've been feeding her small portions of canned
kitten food (mixed with KMR) througout the day, but she will only eat half. I've
noticed not all of the kittens are gaining weight equally, and there are several that
are routinely at a loss when she nurses, as she doesn't have enough teats, and
the more aggressive/mobile kittens hog them. My questions:
1.) How can I get my queen to eat more to keep her strength up?

2.) I've tried to bottle/syringe feed the babies (keeping them in the box together, but
they will NOT accept it at all, they just cry for their mom. Mom is too tired to
continually nurse, and doesn't appreciate my intrusion with the kids. that is
understandable and normally I would not, but I'm concerned about the 'runts'.
How can I get these babies to nurse and give mom a break?

Sorry this is so long. I appreciate your time.


Answer
You need to remove the kittens from the box and feed them by bottle one at a time. I know this seems an intrusion but mom can't handle them all and in nature, frankly, the runts would die. That is the way nature works. You will need to intervene. Also, since she was a stray, you will need to take the kittens to the vet for dewormings and otehr shots. Again, in nature it would be cruel and they would just perish if they carry parasites.  Intruding yes. This is really the only way.