When Should Kittens Leave Their Mothers

Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama.

When should kittens leave their mothers. 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. At around the fourth week feline mothers will naturally begin to wean their kittens. However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done.

In many cases kittens begin eating strictly solid foods at around 8 weeks and then may be ready to leave their mothers for good. It can be due to stress she senses something is wrong fear of a predator the list goes on. While you probably don t want to bring an older cat home if you are looking for a long term pet you also do not want to bring home a kitten too early as this can do more harm than good to the cat. By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave.

How soon should kittens leave their mothers. 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. So when can kittens leave their mothers. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age.

The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. Kittens should ideally be kept with their mothers as long as possible. Mother cats will typically start to wean their kittens off their milk at one month of age. As a way to prepare for her new litter she will start to distance herself from the old litter.

Kittens in the wild remain with their mother until they reach sexual maturity or until the mother becomes pregnant again. 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. There is no real time frame for this to happen. At the absolutely earliest they shouldn t be taken from their mothers until they are able to feed on their own and keep warms.

Most people agree that at least 8 weeks is the minimum age that kittens can leave their mothers. Mother cats begin to wean their litter around 4 5 weeks and it can last several weeks as they bounce between nursing and eating and killing things. This does not mean that this is the time that the kittens can go home though.