Kitten Weaned Too Soon

When they are around 8 weeks old their mother will wean them from her milk naturally but if they re taken away too.

Kitten weaned too soon. A mother cat wean her babies naturally when kittens are about 2 3 months old by starting to reject her kittens. Normally the kitten weaning process begins at about four weeks of age. Stray or feral kittens are often found without a mother and therefor end up weaned too young which can cause suckling behavior. There has been some changes over the past decade or so about how some animal control facilities or shelters deal with the problem of orphaned kittens who are too young to eat on their own.

Ideally kittens should stay with their littermates or other role model cats for at least 12 weeks. The first few months of life are essential to a young and growing kitten s well being and their mother is responsible for a lot of that. So what happens when you separate the kittens too early. But if you re weaning a kitten that has been orphaned you can start a little earlier between three and four weeks.

As in most countries the kittens are weaned at 8 weeks old which is decided to be like this in consideration that critical period of socialization process in kittens end at that age so the study decides that the better weaning process should be weaned at 14 weeks old. In total the weaning process can last as long as ten weeks at which point your kitten should be eating strictly kitty chow. Kittens can acquire a lot of negative behaviors because of this early separation as well as health deficiencies. If the kitten is orphaned or intentionally weaned too early that comfort chain is broken and the kitten searches to replace it often for life.

Professor hannes lohi stated that by weaning kitten at 14 weeks old it can give significant positive influence to the life s quality of the cats and their owner. Very young kittens who are too young to be weaned are called neonates. Kitty milk is full of crucial nutritional elements that. When you wean a cat too late you could have a very hard time getting him to take to solid foods.

Orphaned kittens or those weaned too soon are more likely to exhibit inappropriate suckling behaviors later in life such as sucking on blankets pillows or your arm. The biggest concern for cats that have been weaned too soon is not the silly little habits that danger held on to but their overall health. Newborn kittens get 100 percent of their nutrients from their mother s milk. In an extreme case a cat will suck on just about everything he sees such as blankets clothes and even people when he is weaned too soon.

Kittens are usually weaned at six to seven weeks but they may continue to suckle for comfort as their mother gradually leaves them for longer periods of time.