When Do Kittens Leave Their Mom
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.
When do kittens leave their mom. By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. 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. The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old. This is because they will need to stay with their mother to feed on her nutritious milk as well as stay with their siblings to learn valuable social skills.
Why the wait is necessary. Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother. In fact according to the cat fanciers association one of the ways to tell if a breeder is reputableis that he or she will never sell a kitten younger than 12 weeks old. However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age.
This does not mean that this is the time that the kittens can go home though. The short answer is that kittens should stay with the mother cat until they are 12 16 weeks old. The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks. 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 next month of life is still full of essentials for a growing kitten even if it isn t consuming its mother s milk all of the time. How soon can kittens leave their mother. It could be any number of things.
First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done. Sometimes the cat in question might be sick or old. Timeline for weaning kittens mother cats will typically start to wean their kittens off their milk at one month of age. A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks.
Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama.