Hi there, I hope you can help. My family and I have had two cats (brother and sister) for around 2 years now (who are probably around 3 years old now). We recently inherited another two cats (two sisters who are around 9 months) from our daughter who couldn't look after them anymore.

The problem is that when we inherited the other two cats, we found out they were both pregnant. We did originally look at getting them terminated but by the time we had booked them in, the vet told us they were heavily pregnant and as such we dediced to let them have the babies with the aim to finding new homes for the kittens when the time is right.

All good so far.

So now, each of the two younger girl cats had 4 kittens. One had them under my daughters bed (these are now 2 weeks old) and the other in the dining room (these are 1 week old). All appear to be healthy and happy.

The main problem now is that we really need to see if we can move the first set of kittens from under to bed to another location, perferably where the second cat had hers in the dining room. We attempted to move the kittens yesterday all to the same room, but the mum just picked them up and tried to take them upstairs again... so we moved them all back under the bed.

Is there any way we can move them into the same room? Or should we just leave them where they are? What techniques can we use to get the mum happy to move them? Naturally we'd like to move them for a couple of reasons - their current position is inconveniant; they are upstairs so when the want to start using a litter tray, we want that down stairs (and I guess little kittens can't make their way up and down stairs); and also because the bedroom and being upstairs isn't probably the safest place for them.

Also, I understand that at around 3 weeks they will start to want to feed themselves... is that correct? How does one actually get them to start eating food? Do you need to place food by the kittens, or will them make their own way to the food?

Oh and one final question, one of my daughters insists on picking up the kittens by the skin on the back of the necks like the mums do themselves... I hate this and consitant tell her not to, but is it safe? After all, the cats do it that way themselves?

Oh and one more final, final question... when we do find homes for the kittens once they are weaned, how will the mums react? Will they be very "upset" that their babies have gone? Is there a particular way that one should separate kittens from their mums? By that I mean, should they all be rehomed let's say at the same time to make it a short, sharp pain for the mum, or perhaps take a kitten away every day or so? Or doesn't it matter? Should we consider letting each mum keep at least one kitten (although that would mean we'd end up with 6 cats!), or doesn't it really matter too much?

Thanks.

Any advise you can give would be much appreciated.