What Age Should Kittens Leave Their Mother

The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks.

What age should kittens leave their mother. In many cases kittens begin eating strictly solid foods at around 8 weeks and then may be ready to leave their mothers for good. During this time the kittens will still occasionally nurse on their mother but they will also start to eat liquid kitten food. Why the wait is necessary. More specifically there are three main reasons for our 12 14 week recommendation.

By waiting until the kitten is 12 14 weeks old you will have minimized the risk for health and behavioral issues and maximized the chance for getting a healthy and happy cat. By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks. The earliest a kitten can leave its mother while you may want your kitten to stay as long as is needed with the mother the conditions on ground may leave you with no option.

Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old. Benefits of staying with the mother and siblings. The queen mother cat even cleaned up after the infant and by six weeks old weaning has usually only just begun and can last until the kitten is ten weeks old. Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother.

First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama. That clever lady mother nature has designed cat mommies to encourage her kittens to leave the nest so that she can get busy with the next lot. Twelve to thirteen weeks of age is the time that is almost universally considered to be the optimum earliest time to remove kittens from their queen and by this age the kittens should be ready to go out into the world and begin the next stage of their learning development.

However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age. The weaning process usually continues for about another month until the kittens are fully weaned between eight and 10 weeks of age. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development.