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One way to tell if afemale cat may benursing is to look at herbelly. Lift up the trap andlook at her abdomen fromunderneath. If her nipplesare noticeably distended,this could be a sign ofcurrent or recent nursing.• Litters of unknown age and unknown locationIf you catch a nursing mom and have no idea how old the kittens are or where they’relocated, you have a difficult choice to make. You can let the cat go, knowing you maynever catch her again and she may go on to have numerous more litters. Or you could gether spayed and release her as quickly as possible, hoping if there are any kittens waitingfor her, they survive in her absence.When making this decision, there are several things to consider. Feral kittenstypically suffer a high mortality rate, often 50 percent or more. Even if you do releasethe mom immediately, there’s still a significant risk some of the kittens, if they’re alive,will soon die, anyway. Another fact to weigh is that kittens more than two weeks old willlikely survive a day without nursing, while those younger probably will not. So if youcan get the mom spayed and released within 24 hours, there’s a reasonable chance thekittens will survive unless they are less than two weeks old.Some caretakers believe it is wrong to ever take the risk there are kittens who will diein the absence of their mother. Others believe you should always get the mom spayedwhile you can. If you do not firmly hold to one extreme or the other, then the context ofthe particular TNR project you’re working on may guide your decision.Imagine, for example, you’re TNR’ing a large colony of cats, say 50 or more, in aremote industrial park. The cats are fed sporadically by employees and forage scrapsfrom garbage cans and dumpsters. There is no single caretaker who knows all the catswell and, after the trapping is completed, no one on-site will keep close track of thecolony and help re-capture a nursing mother in several weeks. In these circumstances, ifyou immediately release nursing mothers, there’s a good chance you’ll never see themagain and never have an opportunity to re-trap them. This could lead to the failure of theproject to bring the cat population in the park under control. In this context, getting thenursing moms spayed and releasing them back as soon as possible makes a lot of sense.By contrast, let’s say you’re TNR’ing a small colony of six cats who are fed daily andsheltered in the caretaker’s backyard. As the trapping proceeds, the caretaker is surprisedto learn one of the trapped females may be nursing. The caretaker is confident thenursing mom will continue to frequent the backyard and eventually bring any survivingkittens with her when they’re old enough to eat on their own. In these circumstances, if83