A couple days ago I found a mother cat and saw she had 4 kittens in my front yard and kept observing them. I found that they hang around the space between my neighbor's house and my house. The mother is very friendly, she allows me to feed her, pet her, she even purrs when I pet her.
I would not suggest trapping the mother cat in order to get the kittens to come out of bidding. I adopted 2 cats that were only 3 weeks old and when I had to leave I ended up raising them in a rabbit cage to keep them safe. But when I did allow them out when I was home they would take off and go hide for the entire day and come back out at night when they were hungry. I would suggest allowing the mother to take care of the cats and I am sure they are somewhere sleeping and keeping safe. The mom knows where her kittens are and she will take care of them. Just keep taking care of her and the kitten will come around soon.
Mother cats move their kittens fairly often for many reasons: something scared her and she felt her kittens might be in jeopardy, something unwanted came near her kittens where she was hiding them so she moved them, the hiding spot became unsafe, smells build up in a hiding spot and the mom wanted a fresh place...you never really know for sure why a cat moves her kittens hiding spot, but the mother cat knows best. Just keep caring for the mom and she will care for her kittens.
She probably has found a safe place to hide her kittens.
Perhaps something scared her and she decided it may not be safe.
If there is any way that you can observe her without calling attention to what you are doing, you may see in what direction she heads after eating.
No matter what, you will have to decide what you are going to do with her and her kittens. You may decide to keep them for a while but it is not easy to find home for stray kittens.
My daughter placed a free ad on Craigslist, Freecycle, and Nextdoor with pictures and was able to find good homes for the mother and also 4 kittens but these were well loved cats (before they were adopted and hopefully after). We did not let anyone with very small children have one.
most likely the cat found a safe space for the kittens
one warning, however: sometimes a cat will move the kitten to a place she things is safe, but is not really.
Check your attic, basement, and anywhere else you do not like to have cats. As well the bottom of vehicles and lawnmowers and such that have been maybe parked for a long time.
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This morning a neighbor's cat had kittens in my tree (a hollowed out hole in the trunk, not out on a limb.) It has rained a couple of days and the tree is wet.
