What Age Do Kittens Leave Their Mom

The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play.

What age do kittens leave their mom. The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old. In many cases kittens begin eating strictly solid foods at around 8 weeks and then may be ready to leave their mothers for good. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development. Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother.

A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks. Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old. Benefits of staying with the mother and siblings. 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.

Why the wait is necessary. 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. However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama.

8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age. 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. The weaning process usually continues for about another month until the kittens are fully weaned between eight and 10 weeks of age. 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.