Im new here and im hoping someone may be able to help me. Our cat had kittens 9 days ago, all very healthy, all weighing 8oz at the moment, gaining weight well and feeding well but the problem we now have is the mother was always allowed outside. when we got her we were told she was spayed so thought nothing about letting her out, clearly she wasnt spayed as she has had a litter, anyway, because she was an outdoor cat she has hated being kept in. we have made sure she wasnt allowed out and her and the kittens are living in our upstairs bedroom, the problem is, it was so hot last night i opened the bedroom window and she has escaped, at about midnight last night! i wouldnt have thought she would go out of the upstairs window but she has and now hasnt come back. the kittens are crying for food as obviously its now been 11 hours since she was last in. and i dont know what to do?

We do know how to look after kittens as we ha kittens from our other female who sadly passed away last year, we had to hand rear the litter last year when she died. But we dont want to interfere if we dont need to, yet im feeling that 11 hours is way too long to leave them unfed. should we feed them ourselves and hope the mum comes back soon to continue or do we start hand rearing?

I just dont want to feed them and get our scent all over them anf then for her to come back and completely reject them, but i also dont want to leave them much longer. ive checked them all over and they are still very active but crying for mum.

What should i do?