Why is my mama cat still nursing her 8 wk old kittens

I thought around this time she would start weaning them. I was told by mama cat's vet to wait until she weans her kittens to get her spayed and i'm patiently waiting. The kittens don't eat any solids and are not interested in any food except mommy milk. I've been trying very hard to get them to eat solids. They are litter trained but that's about it. Is this normal?

This is a very common situation. As a DVM who does primarily surgery these days, I deal with it often.

They were plenty old enough to start eating solids at 3 weeks of age. They can..and will..do it. They just don't WANT to do it, because they *know* Zoe's milk is still available. (She can keep making milk and nursing those kittens for several more weeks, btw..though most mamas put a stop to it sooner due to those sharp little teeth.) They've been ABLE to eat plain dry kitten food for several weeks now.but you often have to soften it with warm water or a tiny bit of canned kitten food or kitten milk (for a short time only) to 'convince' them that they can indeed eat it without their world coming to an end. (Kittens can sometimes be *slightly* dramatic about such things, LOL.)

When we say to take the kittens away from the mama so the milk can dry up enough for her to have surgery, we mean for them to be COMPLETELY taken away.as in another house, if possible (just as if you gave them away to someone else.) If Zoe can even hear the kittens cry, it will stimulate her to keep making milk (just like with women.) It takes 10-14 days after they are COMPLETELY away from her before her breast tissue will return to normal enough to safely spay her. We have to make the incision right in between there..and while she's making milk, there are HUGE blood vessels that cross over the midline where we need to cut. Also..when the breast tissue is swollen like that, sometimes the breast to the left of the incision site and the one on the other side will be touching. That makes it really hard to incise between them without accidentally nicking the breast tissue itself and causing milk leakage where the sutures are..which can cause them to come apart and herniate her abdominal organs before she's healed. That's not a good thing, and we like to avoid it as much as possible. (Edited to add: PLEASE stick with your first veterinarian.and avoid like the plague the type of DVM Princess NIsa worked for. Just because it "can" be done, doesn't mean it should be. Your current veterinarian is giving you proper, professional, ethical advice..and protecting the best interests of his patient, Zoe. Trust me.you don't want or need the types of complications that can come from breast milk leaking into the incision site of an ovariohysterectomy. This is not a stray or a shelter cat. This is YOUR cat.your pet.)