Can my kittens be adopted already??

Question

My 3 kittens are now 10 weeks old, and I've already found a home for them. The adopter is willing to adopt all three of them together. The kittens have been eating dry "Royal Canin Babycat" biscuits for six days now (not moistened) and are doing fine. Before that, it was wet food mixed with moistened Purina Kitten Chow (they didn't like it when we stopped adding in the wet food and moisture to the biscuits). They really took a liking to the Royal Canin brand. Now my concern is, the kittens are still taking milk from their mum.. they've been eating solids since the age of 5 weeks, and I'm planning to hand them over to the new owner tommorow (she has good experience with cats, loves them, and has some of her own). Will they do fine? Will they miss their mum or anything? I'm sending them all together so as to avoid this, but i'm still concerned. Is 10 weeks an 'alright' age for them to be adopted??

Answer 1

   Your kittens are able to be adopted at 10 weeks, certainly.  The fact that they are still nursing from their mother simply means that she hasn't "cut them off" just yet.  We have had kittens in the home that weren't cut off by their mum til they were over 12 weeks old.  They have been on solid foods long enough to do quite well on their own.  Sorry to hear about the lost little one.  Good luck to you (and them) and God bless.

Answer 2

Yes- 10 weeks is the min age to be adopted but it is often recomended to keep them with there mother for another week or 2, which is likely to make them stronger and more healthy.

Answer 3

Hi Valar,

You can already rehome the kittens at 10 weeks old. Thank you for caring for them up till now. I know that you are very concerned if the kittens will do well in their new home but rest assured that at 10 weeks old, they are ready. As for still nursing from home, this happens when mom allows them to still nurse but it won't harm them if they were taken away now. It would of course have been better if they were separated from mom to discourage suckling but since they are already heading to their new homes, it should be okay.

Remember to let the new caretaker knows what kind of food you have been feeding so she will allow them to eat the same food to begin and gradually transition to other brands of the new caretaker's choosing.

It would be best that when you rehome them, send them away with a few of their possessions, ie. a favorite blanket perhaps or if you can spare the litter box, give that away too so kittens will have something familiar in their new home.

Kittens are very resilient and they will learn to adapt fast in a new environment. Furthermore, you are rehoming all the littermates together and that is a wonderful arrangements. They might miss mum but they will have a host of new adventures waiting for them, so they will do absolutely fine. They still have each other to keep company, so I'd say the kittens are in good hands.

Thank you for finding them what seems to be a really good home to go to. And I am sorry to hear about your situation at home. Hopefully, things will work out eventually.  

Answer 4

They should be fine. All young animals miss they're mom's when they first leave her.

They will adapt to their new living situations, most cats do, quite quickly too.

If the lady you are handing them over to is a cat lover, then if anything goes wrong, I am quite confident she will have enough knowledge to know what to do.

Best of wishes! Sorry to hear about the one that passed.:(

Hope this helped

_-_LadyLawyer_-_

|-Julie K-|