Whether you are a cat owner (and your feline friend recently gave birth to cute kittens), you want to adopt a cat, or you run a shelter house, in each scenario, one question will surely arise in your mind: “When Can Kittens Leave Their Mom?”
To be quick, in the wild, kittens stay with their moms for 12 weeks or even more. However, most shelter houses shift the kittens to their new homes at eight weeks to preserve their resources and create space for needy kittens. However, most feline experts recommend not separating the kittens from the queen before 12 weeks of age because, like humans, motherhood in cats involves much more than just nursing.
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A queen has a lot of skills to impart to her offspring during the first few weeks of their lives. Kittens taken from their mother too soon may struggle to perform different chores later on and find it difficult to acclimate to their new human parents and environment.
Now, a few more questions may arise in your mind, like “what skills kittens learn from queen?” “What if kittens are separated from the mom too early?” or “How do you tell when a kitten is ready to leave mom?” and “what are Best Essentials for new kittens?” etc. Continue reading the text below, and you will get answers to every question in your mind.
What Do Kittens Learn From A Queen?
Understanding the kitten-queen bond and the development of the kittens in the first few weeks of their lives will help you answer this question. According to the AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) and the AAFP (American Association of Feline Practitioners), in addition to nursing, kittens learn a lot from the queen, like accepting food, self-grooming, hunting, using litter boxes, fear response, socialization, and interacting with humans. All this happens between the first 2–10 weeks of their lives.
How To Tell When A Kitten Is Ready To Leave Mom?
To determine whether the kitten is ready to be rehomed or adopted, you need to take into account the following points:
- Is the kitten healthy and bears optimum weight according to age?
- Has the kitten begun consuming solid food, either moist or dry?
- Is the kitten active, playful, and inquisitive about his surroundings?
- Has the kitten developed the habit of using the litter box?
- Does the kitten know how to groom itself?
Related: Adopting a Cat or Kitten: 8 Things to Consider
If all the above factors answer “yes,” the kitten is ready to be adopted or rehomed.
What If Kittens Are Separated From Their Mom Too Early?
Sometimes, kittens are separated from the queen earlier than the recommended age due to the unawareness of the owner, injury or illness to the dam or kitten, or the mother’s death. Irrespective of the cause, when a kitten is separated from the mom too early, it can lead to many complications, like:
Health And Developmental Issues
During the first 3–4 weeks, kittens depend solely on their mother’s milk to fulfill their body requirements. Queen’s milk is not only a source of energy and essential nutrients required for optimal growth; it also provides the necessary antibodies to fight infections. So, kittens taken away from their mothers too early are more prone to health issues and may not grow properly.
Behavioral Issues
Spending time with the mother and other litter mates is part of socialization, and kittens learn many lifelong lessons from the moms. A kitten separated from his mother too early will likely develop behavioral issues. Such kittens may not know how to interact with other cats, animals, or humans. So, they are more likely to develop fear and anxiety, aggressive behavior, and find it difficult to adjust to humans. These kittens might also struggle with self-grooming, using litter boxes, burying their waste after elimination, and hunting food.
Conclusion (When Can Kittens Leave Their Mom)
The best-case scenario is that the kittens should not be separated from their moms until 12 weeks. Though at eight weeks, most kittens stop feeding their mother and begin eating solid food, are well socialized, and are healthy enough to join a new home, some may not be ready at this stage.
Allowing such kittens to spend 3–4 weeks more with their mother and littermates helps them gain more health and confidence and learn other life skills. Whatever the case, whether you want to separate your cat’s kitten from its mom or adopt a kitten, ensure it fulfills the criteria mentioned above.