What Age Can Kittens Leave Their Mother Rspca
However a kitten is typically ready to leave his mother at about 8 to 12 weeks of age.
What age can kittens leave their mother rspca. Timeline for weaning kittens. Maybe they feel the kittens aren t getting optimal care with your friend as she is inexperienced but then i would suggest they bring the mother and the kittens to an experienced foster carer and return the mother to your friend when the kittens are 12 weeks old. But to be honest rearing kittens with their mother isn t rocket science if these kittens are gaining the appropriate amount of weight and there is nothing. Human care at that early stage may not compare to a feline mother s care but it can go a long way when combined with lots of love and dedication.
Even though kittens are relatively independent by 8 10 weeks and can survive without their mother. Rspca australia considers the minimum acceptable age for a kitten to be removed from the mother cat for adoption or purchase to be 8 weeks of age. 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. However because certain conditions may affect when kittens can leave their moms they must be well cared for when they leave their mother earlier than what is ideal.
This does not mean that this is the time that the kittens can go home though. Kittens should be desexed before 16 weeks of age as they can mate and. A kitten should stay with his mother until a minimum of 10 weeks but preferably 12 weeks. Waiting until the kitten is at least 8 weeks of age will help to ensure that the kitten has received adequate amounts of milk from the mother cat.
The time varies from one kitten to another since several factors come to play. Rspca australia advocates the desexing of all pet cats which are kept as companion animals to reduce the population of unwanted cats and kittens in the community. Also kittens should receive their first vaccinations prior to leaving their birth home something that cannot be achieved at eight weeks old. 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.
Consult your vet for more information about cat desexing and please consider having your cat desexed after she has weaned her kittens. Milk contains important nutrients needed for normal kitten growth and development and confers a certain degree of immunity to disease kittens will still need to be vaccinated please see your local vet. Talk to your vet about kitten vaccinations desexing microchipping and health care such as worming and flea prevention. Mother cats will typically start to wean their kittens off their milk at one month of age.
Use the kitten checklist use this checklist to help you find a healthy friendly kitten and avoid buying from an irresponsible breeder. First of all there is no set age on when the separation should be done. I would say this is irresponsible on the part of the rspca. Rspca australia considers the minimum acceptable age for a puppy to be removed from the mother dog for adoption or purchase to be 8 weeks of age.