What Age Can Kittens Leave Their Mum

The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old.

What age can kittens leave their mum. 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. However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old. More specifically there are three main reasons for our 12 14 week recommendation.

Why the wait is necessary. 6 8 weeks kittens are now eating 4 small meals a day but still nursing from mum. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development. 4 5 weeks kittens begin eating small amounts of food which should be soft such as canned but they are still very much dependent on their mother s milk.

The weaning process usually continues for about another month until the kittens are fully weaned between eight and 10 weeks of age. At what age can you take kittens away from their mother. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age. Expect to separate the kittens from their mother when they are around 12 weeks old. 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.