When Should Kittens Leave Their Mothers

So when can kittens leave their mothers.

When should kittens leave their mothers. How soon 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. 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 is the right time.

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. The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. Kittens in the wild remain with their mother until they reach sexual maturity or until the mother becomes pregnant again. At around the fourth week feline mothers will naturally begin to wean their kittens.

The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks. 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. As a way to prepare for her new litter she will start to distance herself from the old litter.

This process could take from a few months up to a year and would be the natural way for a kitten to be separated from its mother. There is no real time frame for this to happen. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age. First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done.

By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. In many cases kittens begin eating strictly solid foods at around 8 weeks and then may be ready to leave their mothers for good. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama. Kittens should ideally be kept with their mothers as long as possible.

Most people agree that at least 8 weeks is the minimum age that kittens can leave their mothers. This does not mean that this is the time that the kittens can go home though. However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age.