OK, we've had this family of cats living in our house for the past 2 weeks - a mother and 4 kittens.

One of the kittens is very friendly - the others run away when you so much as reach out to them. Their mother is extremely shy and meows and meows and meows. When she manages to sneak outside, the kittens sometimes gather at the window and meow to her.

We're trying to get them used to people enough so that they can be adopted. We've already talked to an adoption agency, but we kind of want to expedite the process, 'cause the cats we already have are getting antsy. We're not sure if we should separate the kittens from the mother so they rely more on us, but they're crying for her, so that seems rather cruel. We want to rehabilitate the mother too to the point where she can live in a house with people and not feel so edgy. All the cats are safe and well-fed, but it's frustrating, especially when one of the kittens is really good around people and the others don't seem to be coming around.

I know it won't be an overnight thing, but any tips are appreciated.

feed them everyday and try to pet them when they are eating.
good luck?

they should be with momma for at least six weeks for normal kitty socialization and continue to introduce yourself, especially with food treats when theya re old enough for such things

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they may just be that way and stay that way depending on how old they are and especially the mother cat
i tried to take in a cat once which freaked out if you closed the door so it was impossible
also i had a cat that had kittens and for some reason the one orange kitten was always like that
never grew out of it
wouldn't go near anyone really except its mom
i gave it away- admittedly not to the top choice of person it turned out in the end and the woman ended up to give him back to me
he didn't like to be in the house at all and hid under her couch the entire time she had him which was worse even than when i had him
i used to let him out because he truly seemed wild and only happy outside and he eventually got run over it was very sad
for the wild acting kittens i would say go so far as to visit the house of any potential owners and make sure its a very calm environment
the lady that took the one i had turned out to have literally a house full of cats and it was too much for that kitten to deal with

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if i did i'd only show up late and sick
and they would stare at me with hatred
plus my only natural talent's wasted

don't remove them from the mother until they're 6 weeks old, they might end up a bit retarded

i got my two cats at 4 weeks old. the one i still have seemed normal but her sister couldn't do things right... she didn't know how to clean herself (my cat had to clean her), she kept forgetting where her bowl was, getting stuck behind furniture etc.

one day after they'd both been going outside for a while, she never came back. my mum thinks she just got lost or stuck somewhere and died my cat searched for her for a month but we never did find her