How Soon Can Kittens Leave Their Mother

While most kittens are weaned by 8 10 weeks most experts recommend leaving kittens with their littermates until 12 13 weeks so they can be properly socialized.

How soon can kittens leave their mother. After weaning mom cats teach kittens manners and survival skills. Why the wait is necessary. The weaning process usually continues for about another month until the kittens are fully weaned between eight and 10 weeks of age. During this time the kittens will still occasionally nurse on their mother but they will also start to eat liquid kitten food.

Age kittens are ready to leave their mothers at around 10 12 weeks of age. In many cases kittens begin eating strictly solid foods at around 8 weeks and then may be ready to leave their mothers for good. One mother cat that lost her kittens took over mothering of another mother cats kittens. The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks.

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. According to the cat doctor kittens cannot defecate on their own for the first 2 3 weeks. By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age.

Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old. If they are separated earlier than that they can have severe issues when they get older. It is best to wait. 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.

We have collected all the information you need to know about kittens between the time of their birth to the time when they are considered ready to leave their mother for your perusal. Eight weeks is a common point at which non pedigree kittens are taken away from the queen but again this is far from ideal as kittens still have a lot of learning to do and can benefit from spending this very valuable stage of their lives with their queen and littermates as there are lessons that only they can teach. The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old. Kittens should not be separated from their mothers until they are at least 12 weeks old.

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. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development. The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play.