What Age Do Kittens Have To Be To Leave Their Mother

Curious as to why this is the recommended age span.

What age do kittens have to be to leave 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. The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. 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. Why the wait is necessary.

The perfect age seems to be between eight and twelve weeks. The best time to separate a kitten from their mother and siblings is when they are 12 13 weeks old. 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. Kittens rely on their mother s milk for proper growth and development.

How soon can kittens leave their mother. First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done. They can begin using the litter box around 4 weeks old. If you re caring for newborn kittens that have no mother cat around first make sure that she is truly gone.

By the way don t worry about mommy being upset when her babies leave. 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. So when can kittens leave their mothers.

The short answer is that kittens should stay with the mother cat until they are 12 16 weeks old. Despite this however you should ensure that the earliest your kitten leaves its mother is 4 weeks old. In many cases kittens begin eating strictly solid foods at around 8 weeks and then may be ready to leave their mothers for good. 2 care for abandoned newborn kittens.

The weaning process usually continues for about another month until the kittens are fully weaned between eight and 10 weeks of age.