What Age Can Kittens Leave Their Mom

A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks.

What age can kittens leave their mom. The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old. The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks. 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. Expect to separate the kittens from their mother when they are around 12 weeks old.

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. Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without 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. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama.

First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done. 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. Benefits of staying with the mother and siblings. More specifically there are three main reasons for our 12 14 week recommendation.

Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old. Why the wait is necessary. 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. At what age can you take kittens away from their mother.

However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. The weaning process usually continues for about another month until the kittens are fully weaned between eight and 10 weeks of age. 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.