What Age Should Kittens Leave Their Mother

They get 100 of all nutrition from her milk.

What age should kittens leave their mother. Ideally kittens should go to their new home around 12 weeks of age. While some kittens can go home earlier the closer you wait until 12 or 13 weeks the better off the kitten will be. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development. And this they learn from playing and socializing with their mother and siblings.

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. Once the kittens are fully weaned around 10 to 12 weeks old they are old enough to move away from their mama. Expect to separate the kittens from their mother when they are around 12 weeks old.

This first stage is all about basic survival. Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old. Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother there are health and social benefits to staying with the mother and siblings. However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age.

She will clean them keep them warm and safe and stimulate the bowl movements and bladder to help them urinate and defecate. 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. A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks. 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.

Until they are about 4 weeks old the kittens are completely dependant on their mother. Also kittens should receive their first vaccinations prior to leaving their birth home something that cannot be achieved at eight weeks old. Why the wait is necessary as mentioned earlier felines just like other pets learn the essentials better early on in their life. 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.

By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. 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.