When Can Kittens Leave Their Mom
Why the wait is necessary.
When can kittens leave their mom. Expect to separate the kittens from their mother when they are around 12 weeks old. While some kittens can go home earlier the closer you wait until 12 or 13 weeks the better off the kitten will be. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama. 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.
Ideally kittens should go to their new home around 12 weeks of age. How soon can kittens leave their mother. 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. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age.
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. 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. The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks. First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done.
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. It can be due to stress she senses something is wrong fear of a predator the list goes on. 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.
In many cases kittens begin eating strictly solid foods at around 8 weeks and then may be ready to leave their mothers for good. The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old.