When Can Kittens Leave Their Mum
Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother.
When can kittens leave their mum. The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old. However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. 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. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age.
A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks. 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. By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama.
Benefits of staying with the mother and siblings. How soon can kittens leave their mother. The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. 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.
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. Why the wait is necessary. The short answer is that kittens should stay with the mother cat until they are 12 16 weeks old. Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old.
This does not mean that this is the time that the kittens can go home though. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development. Timeline for weaning kittens mother cats will typically start to wean their kittens off their milk at one month of age. Curious as to why this is the recommended age span.
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.