![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I have no new pictures, sorry.
Many people would be giving them away at this point. Indeed, if you go to google you can find people recommending that YOU (not mama - you!) start the weaning process at one month or six weeks so they're totally off milk and ready to be parceled out at two months.
As I've said before, I don't think is the right thing unless you have a compelling reason to do so, say, if they're unhealthy. I say that the kittens really *need* an additional month with their mother and littermates to be emotionally healthy, and also physically healthy. Weaning is the most dangerous time in the life of a kitten, after all.
The thinking person might ask why humans have to force wean kittens. And the answer is that kittens really don't wean that early. These guys still nurse several times a day. Even in just the few hours between me dropping Eva off at school and then going to pick her up, Mom calls for her kittens (she calls for them! this isn't even bringing up the times they go to her as she's resting and start nursing on their own!) about once an hour or so. Maybe a little less often.
As a kid, I wasn't a very responsible cat owner. I don't like this fact, but it's the truth. However, the one benefit of this is that I had an opportunity to observe a lot of cats, and many many litters of kittens. The truth is that kittens don't, on their own, leave their moms at three months either. I call it an "extra" month, but only because if they get any bigger than that they get increasingly difficult to give away. On their own, they still have occasional nursing sessions another month after that (more if there's a new litter around, as many cats would nurse any kitten who comes by (a helpful bit of information if you happen to find an abandoned newborn, they're much better off if you can get them with another mama cat, even if the kittens aren't the same ages), and I actually had one who managed to keep it up until he was a year old that way!) and don't generally leave home until they're grown or very nearly. Females especially might NEVER leave if their mother and other older cats don't mind their company. Even the males sometimes stay in the whole group, or go and come back.
I'm still giving these kittens away at three months (or at least, I'm starting a real push then. I hope to give them away fast!) In the long term, it's better if they get given away, and that gets hard once they're big.
The point I want to make here, and reiterate until it sticks with all of you :) is that there is simply no good reason to separate a healthy, non-feral kitten from its mother and littermates at two months. Even if it's a feral cat situation and the mother WILL not stay around so you can socialize the kittens without separating them, it's better to keep the littermates together as long as possible. (Feral kittens are a difficult situation, as it's generally best for them to socialize with humans, and their mothers won't like that at all. But if you can convince the mom to stick around for the free food, you may be able to make it work that the kittens aren't separated as soon as they could've been. In truth, I'm inclined to think that the best thing for feral cats is to get them fixed and then let them be. It's easier than trying to acclimate them to people, anyway.)
People do hand out kittens at that age, but it's not developmentally appropriate, and it's not at all good for them. Psychologically it's like tearing a kindergartener away from her family and giving her to a new group of people. They still even have all their baby teeth! And it's not even good for their health. Kittens who are weaned too early are much more prone to disease, and being so little they're less able to fight it.
And six weeks, as you hear sometimes, is absolutely not justifiable at all. Anybody who suggests that to you, ever, you have my permission to smack them hard on the head.
Many people would be giving them away at this point. Indeed, if you go to google you can find people recommending that YOU (not mama - you!) start the weaning process at one month or six weeks so they're totally off milk and ready to be parceled out at two months.
As I've said before, I don't think is the right thing unless you have a compelling reason to do so, say, if they're unhealthy. I say that the kittens really *need* an additional month with their mother and littermates to be emotionally healthy, and also physically healthy. Weaning is the most dangerous time in the life of a kitten, after all.
The thinking person might ask why humans have to force wean kittens. And the answer is that kittens really don't wean that early. These guys still nurse several times a day. Even in just the few hours between me dropping Eva off at school and then going to pick her up, Mom calls for her kittens (she calls for them! this isn't even bringing up the times they go to her as she's resting and start nursing on their own!) about once an hour or so. Maybe a little less often.
As a kid, I wasn't a very responsible cat owner. I don't like this fact, but it's the truth. However, the one benefit of this is that I had an opportunity to observe a lot of cats, and many many litters of kittens. The truth is that kittens don't, on their own, leave their moms at three months either. I call it an "extra" month, but only because if they get any bigger than that they get increasingly difficult to give away. On their own, they still have occasional nursing sessions another month after that (more if there's a new litter around, as many cats would nurse any kitten who comes by (a helpful bit of information if you happen to find an abandoned newborn, they're much better off if you can get them with another mama cat, even if the kittens aren't the same ages), and I actually had one who managed to keep it up until he was a year old that way!) and don't generally leave home until they're grown or very nearly. Females especially might NEVER leave if their mother and other older cats don't mind their company. Even the males sometimes stay in the whole group, or go and come back.
I'm still giving these kittens away at three months (or at least, I'm starting a real push then. I hope to give them away fast!) In the long term, it's better if they get given away, and that gets hard once they're big.
The point I want to make here, and reiterate until it sticks with all of you :) is that there is simply no good reason to separate a healthy, non-feral kitten from its mother and littermates at two months. Even if it's a feral cat situation and the mother WILL not stay around so you can socialize the kittens without separating them, it's better to keep the littermates together as long as possible. (Feral kittens are a difficult situation, as it's generally best for them to socialize with humans, and their mothers won't like that at all. But if you can convince the mom to stick around for the free food, you may be able to make it work that the kittens aren't separated as soon as they could've been. In truth, I'm inclined to think that the best thing for feral cats is to get them fixed and then let them be. It's easier than trying to acclimate them to people, anyway.)
People do hand out kittens at that age, but it's not developmentally appropriate, and it's not at all good for them. Psychologically it's like tearing a kindergartener away from her family and giving her to a new group of people. They still even have all their baby teeth! And it's not even good for their health. Kittens who are weaned too early are much more prone to disease, and being so little they're less able to fight it.
And six weeks, as you hear sometimes, is absolutely not justifiable at all. Anybody who suggests that to you, ever, you have my permission to smack them hard on the head.
