Many creatures need the care and support of their mothers in their earliest weeks, and cats are no exception. At most shelters and rescues, kittens can be adopted starting at 8 weeks. Breeders will often wait until the kitten has been with their mother for at least 12 weeks, with many breeders waiting until 14 weeks.

That’s because there are many perks to sticking around their furry family members. One of the biggest: socialization. “When kittens stay with their mother and other littermates, they learn how to play appropriately and how to communicate with other cats,” says Bruce Kornreich, Ph.D., DVM, DACVIM, director of Cornell Feline Health Center at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, New York.

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In other words, this is how cats learn to be a cat. For instance, mothers and littermates help teach their kittens the difference between a hard bite and a soft one. “If a kitten bites their littermates, a lot of times their littermates squeal or meow, and then they run off,” says Marci L. Koski, Ph.D., a certified feline behavior and training consultant and owner of Feline Behavior Solutions in Vancouver, Washington. “That’s a lesson: ‘OK, I can’t bite that hard or when I do this with my claws, it hurts.’” Mother cats will also walk away when their kittens play too rough.

Kittens also pick up other valuable behaviors from their mom—how to bury their waste, how to hunt for prey (if they’re outdoor cats) and how to groom themselves, Koski says.

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The bulk of a kitten’s nutrition comes from their mother for the first few weeks of life, too. Kittens are fully weaned by 8 weeks, but for the first two, they’re solely drinking their mothers’ milk, which provides antibodies to keep them from getting infections, especially in the first 24 hours, Dr. Kornreich says. “When they’re between 3 weeks of age and 8 weeks of age, they can start to eat canned and dry foods,” but will still need supplemental milk from their moms, he adds. So if you’re wondering when kittens can be adopted or brought home from a breeder, you have to take weaning into account, too.

And though kittens can be fully weaned by 8 weeks, there are big benefits to giving them up to 12 weeks with their mamas, Dr. Kornreich says. That’s because kittens enter another socialization period around about 9 weeks of age, lasting until about week 16. “Although the cat is eating solid food at this point, they still continue to learn how to play and interact with other cats and people appropriately. They also become a little more explorative,” he says. All those lessons in play and cat behavior give kittens more confidence—and can lead to a more stable and friendly cat later in life.

Find out more about the stages of kitten development.

Source: https://t-tees.com
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