How Long Before Baby Kittens Can Leave Their Mother

Typical kitten development from birth to two weeks of age those little fuzz balls are in the neonatal stage.

How long before baby kittens can 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. First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done. The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks. By the time they hit three weeks of age those tiny balls of fur open their eyes ears and taste buds to the outside world.

Expect to separate the kittens from their mother when they are around 12 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. The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. While some kittens can go home earlier the closer you wait until 12 or 13 weeks the better off the kitten will be.

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. Unable to do much more than roll around they rely on their mother for everything from meals to baths. 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. There is no real time frame for this to happen.

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. 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. Separating them promptly can lead to the appearance of behavioral problems and even serious nutritional. Ideally kittens should go to their new home around 12 weeks of age.

By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age.