How Long Until Kittens Can Leave Their Mother

While some kittens can go home earlier the closer you wait until 12 or 13 weeks the better off the kitten will be.

How long until kittens can leave their mother. Expect to separate the kittens from their mother when they are around 12 weeks old. That will help them live a long and happy life in the future. 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 best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old.

So when can kittens leave their mothers. By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. However all of these processes can take several months to a year and of course when we. First time queens normally have a maximum of three or four kittens but experienced mothers may have as many as 10 or 12 in a single litter.

Ideally kittens should go to their new home around 12 weeks of age. The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks. However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. Which at the end of the day is what we all really want.

If the queen does not have any further litters or lives as part of a colony of cats the kittens will begin to gradually draw away as they reach sexual maturity and set out in search of mates of their own. You want the most amount of time that kittens can grow big and strong. In the wild kittens will usually stay with their mother until the mother becomes pregnant again when she will naturally begin to push them away in preparation for raising her new litter. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development.

When in doubt keep them with their mothers as long as possible. But in their forever homes the little ones won t. The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. Why the wait is necessary.

Human siblings learn how to talk play and fight sooner if they re surrounded by brothers and sisters and kittens learn how to hunt eat and play better when they come from big litters. And those kittens won t stay kittens for long soon they ll be busy with kittens of their own unless they re neutered. The bigger the family the sooner they learn how to be cats. Most people agree that at least 8 weeks is the minimum age that kittens can leave their mothers.

We have collected all the information you need to know about kittens between the time of their birth to the time when they are considered ready to leave their mother for your perusal. 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 mother is the sole nutritional source for kittens until they re about 4 weeks of age although weaning often continues until the cuties are between 8 and 10 weeks according to the aspca. 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.

Your cat s chances of being healthy well socialized and properly developed are dramatically increased by allowing it to spend extra time with its mother and littermates. The earliest a kitten can leave its mother 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. Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old.