When Can Kittens Leave Their Mum

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

When can kittens leave their mum. Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother. How soon can kittens leave their mother. The short answer is that kittens should stay with the mother cat until they are 12 16 weeks old. Benefits of staying with the mother and siblings.

Timeline for weaning kittens mother cats will typically start to wean their kittens off their milk at one month of 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. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development. 8 weeks the organization cats international recommends keeping kittens with their fellow litter mates and mothers until about 8 weeks in age.

The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. In fact according to the cat fanciers association one of the ways to tell if a breeder is reputableis that he or she will never sell a kitten younger than 12 weeks old. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama.

Why the wait is necessary. 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. 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.

Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old. Curious as to why this is the recommended age span. 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. 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.

This does not mean that this is the time that the kittens can go home though.