CONFUSED?

[Gillian Harvey]

The only reason pedigree cats stay with the breeder till 13 wks is because its GCCF rules.  Some behaviorists feel that this is too long, especially if the kitten ISNT properly socialised while at the breeder, which of course can happen. Breeders  that have quiet homes, or bring mum and kittens up in pens away from the household probably won't have properly socialised kittens, wheareas if they'd gone to their new home earlier during the main learning period (between 2-8 wks) then they probably would be better socialised. 

[Yvonne]

Yes, quite right - I think the longer with mum the better.

However I was speaking to somebody yesterday who had adopted a kitten at four weeks he has had the kitten two weeks, kitty is now six weeks and doing fine, apparently.  I said the kitten should still be with his mum unless you had to do a bit of hand rearing for some reason he just shook his head and said no, I repeated my statement and he just looked a bit bemused.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I would not want to rehome a kitten under 8 weeks.  I think later is ideal but rescues usually need to free up space as soon as they can so sometimes rehome at 8 weeks which is, imo, ok but the minimum age to rehome.  I'm not keen on the idea of any rehoming at less than 8 weeks unless the kittens are orphaned and being rehomed in pairs at least.   And the person rehoming them is experienced with young kittens. You're right that 13 weeks is the recommendation for pedigree kittens.  That's partly so that they can complete their vaccinations before going to their new homes and partly to be sure they're socialised and fully litter trained etc.  Many pedigree breeds mature more slowly than moggies too.

[MBll]

I always believed that it was best to keep kittens & pups with mum  till atleast 8 weeks old as mum  does more then just feed them but talking to a couple of rescues they rehome under the 8 weeks & says by 6 weeks mum would have taught them everything?


Now I know rescues have their own way of doing things  but to me this is not the best interest/welfare of kittens/pups & how is it that breeders keep kittens till 13 weeks old ..........bit contradictoryhere. The kittens i fostered awhile were 6 weeks old & out of that litter 1 died & i nearly lost the other 2 both were rushed into the vets for emergency treatment.  So to me taking a litter away under 8 weeks is irresponsible.