I found a pregnant mama cat, made her a closet bed in my house not a moment too soon, she had 4 kittens last night, all seems well but she has not used the litter box I provided for her in her room. She has eaten and drank some water and even though she now has my closet for a home I'm wondering if she has ever used a litter box before, I've showed her where it is and she seems to gave no interest to use it or leave the babies at all to go outside, what do I do? Thx Dina

Make sure the litter is clean (the scoopable kind?) and that she knows where the box is (close to where she has her kittens?). Put her in the box and drag her front paws across the litter, like she would do herself. Cats naturally bury their pee and poop, so I'd be surprised if she doesn't figure this out. Keep an eye on her and let us know how it goes.

DO NOT let her go outside!

You said the reason yourself. She will not use the litter box until she feels safe leaving the kittens. Don't worry about it, she knows what to do. Any intervention with her will jeopardize the care of the kittens.

It's possible she's never used a litter box, which means going through the process of litter training her.

However, mother cats are often at least slightly malnourished and dehydrated after giving birth, especially if she didn't have a reliable food source. Their bodies funnel as much as possible to their babies, and nursing means it doesn't rebuild quickly. It's very possible that she just hadn't needed to use the litter box, yet. It's also possible that she didn't feel safe leaving her babies, and was essentially 'holding' it.

I'm sure, by now, you know which one is the most likely cause, but I hope I was at least a little helpful.