Kittens only need a few days to adjust to being alive.
Once they’re born, they are expected to be playful and adventurous. It’s essential to keep your new pet healthy throughout its first months at home.
So, can kittens leave mom at 7 weeks?
No, kittens shouldn’t leave their mother at 7 weeks.
Kittens should nurse for 4-5 months. Leaving mom at 7 weeks will put the kitten at great risk because kittens need their mother’s milk to help them grow strong and healthy.
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Can Kittens Leave Mom At 7 Weeks?
Kittens can leave mom at 7 weeks, but most won’t.
Kittens have to stay with the mom cat for 8 weeks for Mom to teach them how to be independent.
Kittens need Mom to teach them how to hunt, get food, and take care of themselves.
Mom cats also take care of their kittens until they can learn to take care of themselves.
Once kittens leave Mom, most won’t find their own homes, which means they’ll have to go to a shelter or rescue.
A rescue group can help you find a good home for your kitten.
Why Doesn’t a 7-Week-Old Kitten Leave Her Mother?
Psychological Anxiety
Both the mother cat and the kitten may suffer from anxiety if they are separated too soon.
The baby will be afraid of leaving its mother because it feels safe with her there. As a result, the little one will be very afraid when it finally does leave its mother.
This fear may cause the kitten to become sick or even die because it will struggle to eat or go to the bathroom on its own.
On the other hand, the mother cat may suffer anxiety and loneliness once her kitten leaves her.
Building Strength
Most kittens will begin to gain strength between the time they leave their birth canal and the time they reach the age of eight to ten weeks old.
During those few weeks, they need a lot of calories to develop properly and become healthy adults.
Since they don’t have the energy to hunt on their own yet, they have to rely on their mother to provide for them.
Therefore, if a mother has more than one baby to care for, she won’t be able to feed her babies properly since she’s only going to have enough energy for herself.
Nursing
At this age, most children will begin to walk and stand on their own.
There is a point when a baby is old enough to be weaned from its mother’s milk. However, this usually doesn’t happen until the baby is at least a year old.
When babies are still nursing from their moms, they are only able to digest one form of nutrition at a time: breast milk or formula. They don’t have the energy or the ability to digest both at the same time.
As a result, you must be careful about when and how you wean your baby off of its mother’s milk.
Otherwise, it will get agitated and fussy because it doesn’t receive enough nutrition for itself.
It is advisable to keep the baby on its mother’s milk for at least 12 months but preferably until the age of two or even three.
Also Read: How Long Can A Kitten Go Without Eating?
Conclusion
It is never a good idea for a cat to be separated from its mother after the age of eight weeks unless absolutely necessary.
The mother cat will help her offspring adapt to life outside of the nest by teaching them how to find food and how to defend themselves against predators.
However, a domesticated cat can easily adapt to living without its mother and doing so isn’t necessary in order for them to survive into adulthood.
This will cause the kitten to suffer from separation anxiety since it will be unable to care for itself on its own.
Since the mother cat can’t take care of its offspring at the same time, the cat will be left to suffer while the little one stays in its home alone with no one to look after it.
