A few weeks ago I started to see a cat around my barn. I have five horses and a Auzzie Cattle Dog. The cat had accidentally been locked in one of my storage rooms. Next I saw her in my hay storage and put out some food as I have mice so I wanted her to stay around. Next I caught site of a kitten, small but eyes open and moving around. I now know there are two kittens and mom. They live in the hay and the kittens mostly stay under the hay pallets but one is now coming out when I come in with the food. Sometimes mom is there other times not but she will come out at night and lead me to where I put the food but so far I have only touched her twice while she was gulping down the food. I'm in Colorado and it is well below freezing at night but the hay is warm. Ok, I'm sure the kittens are still nursing although they also gulp the food. One kitten has gotten used to me and I can pick it up for a brief time and then put it back. I want to cat all of them when the time is right and have them neutered or spayed and keep them in the barn. I'm just not sure when or how to do it. The vet says the kittens need to be about six months old. As I have no idea when they were born this is difficult. Right now they are very tiny and I don't want Mom to get pregnant again but it is too early to take the kittens I think.

<moved from Zoology to Cats>

The mom can get pregnant at any time. However, you really want the kittens weaned and for mom to have stopped producing milk before getting her spayed. But I'd do it as soon as you can after that.

As for the kittens... a female can get pregnant before even reaching 6 months! They can actually be neutered fairly young. The shelters around here do it even as early as 2 months. (They do it so they know it's done, and it's done before they are ever adopted out.) I've read it's OK once they are about 2 pounds. You don't really need to do it that soon, but personally, I wouldn't wait until they're more than 4 months. Not with outdoor cats anyway.

I know you don't know their ages. Do you have a guess, within a couple of weeks, or at least within a month? Since there isn't some "perfect" time to get the kittens done, you've got leeway in there anyway. If I didn't know their age at all, I think I'd do it when they're around 3 pounds. My opinion.