What Age Do Kittens Leave Their Mother

More specifically there are three main reasons for our 12 14 week recommendation.

What age do kittens leave their mother. Feral kittens that are from the same litter may remain together for a time but they face disease cars predators and starvation that may separate them. Benefits of staying with the mother and siblings. A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks. The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play.

During this time the kittens will still occasionally nurse on their mother but they will also start to eat liquid kitten food. By waiting until the kitten is 12 14 weeks old you will have minimized the risk for health and behavioral issues and maximized the chance for getting a healthy and happy cat. 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. At what age can you take kittens away from their mother.

The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks. By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. One goes to seek food and never returns. Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother.

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. First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done. Expect to separate the kittens from their mother when they are around 12 weeks old. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development.

Plus the female kitten can be impregnated as young as 4 months old and have several litters a year. 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. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama.