When Should Kittens Leave Mom
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.
When should kittens leave mom. But at this age they still have valuable skills to learn and they also have to receive their first vaccinations. So the best time for them to be separated from their mother is at 12 weeks. A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks. By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave.
However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old. The weaning process usually continues for about another month until the kittens are fully weaned between eight and 10 weeks of age. Until kittens are a year old give them as much as they want to eat.
Benefits of staying with the mother and siblings. Kittens can leave their mother by the eighth week and by this time they would have developed socially physically and emotionally. The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama.
Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old. In the wild kittens will usually stay with their mother until the mother becomes pregnant again when she will naturally begin to push them away in preparation for raising her new litter. How soon can kittens leave their mother. During this time the kittens will still occasionally nurse on their mother but they will also start to eat liquid kitten food.
At about eight weeks of age kittens are ready to leave the mother. 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. Unlike puppies most kittens are unlikely to overeat and they won t get the bone and joint problems that fat puppies can develop. Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother.
Why the wait is necessary. 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.