lactation and weaning

Question
QUESTION: female feral cat returned after 3-1/2 month absence. she's been nursing.  age/location of kittens unknown.  mama is tame enough now that i want to adopt her and bring her inside.  is there a way to tell from examing mama how old her kittens are and if they've been weaned?  i do NOT want to jeopardize her kittens.  any ideas on how to find the kittens?
ANSWER: Hi Sue, that is a tough one. I would try to see first of all if she is pregnant as that will help give you an indication. Any unspayed cat roaming outside will most likely be pregnant unless she JUST had kittens. So, if she does not appear pregnant then she may have some young kittens some where. Of course you can try to follow her and see if she leads you to the litter. If she hangs around your house for hours at a time and does not seem to want to leave then she probably is not caring for kittens. You can also try keeping her inside for half a day and see if she fills up with milk. If she has been nursing the milk will engorge her and also when you let her out she will run to where the kittens are to get it emptied.
Teresa

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QUESTION: its taken SO long to tame her that i dont wanna risk undoing it by holding her prisoner (until she can be a prisoner - albeit a "prisoner of love" - forever).  she might not come back!  i swear im not some perv weirdo but i thought maybe i could tell what stage she's at with the litter by the condition of her teets?  (i have a mama with 7-wk olds available to look at for comparison.)

Answer
Hi, It is really difficult if not impossible to tell the age of the kittens by the teats. If you can handle her easily you may be able to detect if there is milk in them, but if they have JUST nursed off her it is not easy to tell that. If she is around for a couple of hours and you are then able to touch her you should be able to tell if the nipples are full or not. It still will not indicate the age of the kittens... so I guess the only other thing to do is to track her..
Good luck ! Teresa