When Should A Kitten Leave Its Mom
The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks.
When should a kitten leave its mom. A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks. 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. The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old. Leave it to instinct mama cat knows best kittens can acquire a lot of negative behaviors because of this early separation as well as health deficiencies.
First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done. Expect to separate the kittens from their mother when they are around 12 weeks old. Unlike puppies most kittens are unlikely to overeat and they won t get the bone and joint problems that fat puppies can develop. So when can kittens leave their mothers.
Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother. By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. She might search the house looking for them or meow expecting a response. 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 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. At about eight weeks of age kittens are ready to leave the mother. Until kittens are a year old give them as much as they want to eat.
A mother cat wean her babies naturally when kittens are about 2 3 months old by starting to reject her kittens. When her kittens first leave your cat may be a little upset. How soon can kittens leave their mother. While it may seem cold that she lets go so easily it s natural.
The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. Normally this only happens for a couple of days and then mom will go back to her normal routine. 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. During this time the kittens will still occasionally nurse on their mother but they will also start to eat liquid kitten food.
Why the wait is necessary. 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.