How old to be adopted out?

It worries me that anyone thinks a kitten older than 8 weeks is too old. Don't they realise that they grow up anyway? Mosi was 14 weeks old when I got him and he was still a tiny, playful little thing. I don't feel I missed out on his kittenhood. Jaffa was 8 weeks old but I think that was because he was in a shelter and wasn't with his mum so he was probably better off in a new home than in a pen there. I think 10 weeks or older is best for rehoming. I can understand rescues needing to free up space so letting them go at 8 weeks. I don't think they should go any younger though, unless they are orphaned so not with mum anyway (and so long as they are rehomed with a sibling). Over here, GCCF guidelines (which breeders agree to when they register their kittens) say that kittens should not be rehomed until they are 13 weeks old. That is partly so that they are fully vaccinated by the time they go to their new homes.

The kid I got Holden from said he was 7 weeks old and the kid had him for 2 weeks before his Mom said to get rid of him.

GCCF rules here in the UK state that no GCCF breeder can let a kitten go until it is at least 13 weeks old - that is 7 days after the last lot of kitten vaccinations, a safety period in case of adverse reactions/lumps at the injection site etc.

I think with shelters it is different, and to be quite honest, they don't usually have the room to keep kittens that long- rehoming them a bit younger is making space for more to be brought in and cared for. How much is a kitten learning if it is in a shelter cage anyway? Obviously some shelters have better facilities than others, but with the best will in the world, they can't provide the ideal environment. With fostered mums and kittens ideally leave it as long as possible before rehoming the kittens, but again while people do an admirable job providing temporary homes for these waifs and strays, rehoming makes space for new ones to be helped. Orphans are again a different matter, and probably as long as they are weaned ok they should go to their forever homes.

So I think it depends on the circumstances - 13 weeks if at all possible, but I do recognise that realistically for rescued kittens that is not always feasible. Where rehoming them younger, it's probably best to rehome in pairs or more - at least that way they can learn from interacting with each other

When I was a kid, we always got new kittens & puppies at 6 weeks old. Now cat breeders won't let their kittens go to new homes until they're 12 weeks & fixed. In my state its illegal to sell or give away a puppy until 8 weeks. I don't know how old kittens have to be to be adopted from shelters.

This is something I don't understand at all - why would you take a kitten so young if it also had the choice to stay with mother/siblings until 10-12 weeks?

It may be smaller and cuter but this doesn't seem enough to not wait a little while and get a kitten that has a more developed personality, learns from siblings and mother to not bite and scratch, and is less likely to have odd habits such as suckling or kneading amongst other things. The amount of people you see complaining about these issues I mentioned alone *sigh*.

I got my kitty from the shelter at 4 months old, he was still small and cute and has never even considered biting or scratching me in play or hostility. I do consider the fact that I never had one scratch mark from him in nearly a year since I got him partly down to his being with his family until I adopted him, so he was taught how to behave well.

I do of course understand that not all kittens can wait, and not all have a mother or siblings, but so so many are taken because otherwise, as people have previously mentioned, they are "too old" at a sensible age. Some people also seem to think the cat bonds better at a younger age, but this is just not true.. the bonding will depend on the cat and yourself and will have nothing to do with the age you get the animal. I'm sure many people have had a more affectionate companion after adopting an adult cat compared to a cat they had bottle raised.

Yup, not only those reasons but when you think about how many kittens you think you're giving to their forever homes that get passed around to one person or the next!! I think when people take adults, it really is for their forever home! Or at least stands a better chance! I do think that kittens should be with their moms as long as possible, and I want a family of cats, I think that would be fun! To get a mommy who's all preggers and then her have the babies, and keep them ALL!! Oh wouldn't that be great! A family living with another family!!

Most breeders I know won't let any kittens go before 12 weeks or older. I'm getting a Maine Coon and many of the breeders of them wait until 14 weeks at least, and Maine Coon kittens sometimes continue to nurse until 12-14 weeks old!
However if you have kittens in a shelter where they are in a cage all day or alone with other unrelated cats in a room I think you have to consider whether they are getting any benefit from staying until 12+ weeks old...

At our shelter the younger the better. Snickers came in at 4 weeks. She wouldn't eat on her own and you had to stimulate her hiney to get her to relieve herself. We had other kittens that were 8 weeks old and perfectly healthy but no one looked at them. They went straight to Snickers. I eventually adopted her because I didn't want her to stay alone over night without eating. At our shelter we adopt them out if they are atleast 6 weeks old and eating on their own. Most of the kittens that get turned into us do not have their mothers with them. If they do have their mothers than we keep them together longer but unfortuantly if someone is willing to adopt them then we will adopt them out because we are not a no-kill shelter.

If the mom is around, I'd say 12 weeks minimum. I adopted Chloe at 12 weeks (we think that was her age at least), she was rescued at 4 weeks by a rescue/foster group. She was with her sister and they were kept together (no mom), which I think gave her the important kitten-kitten socialization. She also was with the foster mom's older cat that sort of took care of Chloe as well. I wouldn't have minded bottle feeding Chloe if I had found her that early but I'm glad that she had time to spend with her kitten-sister.

If someone doesn't want to adopt a kitten because it's over 10 weeks, than I would think twice about giving them the kitten. Kittens only stay little for a few months. The cute baby stage is very quick and a cat is a long commitment (up to 20+ years) that shouldn't be taken lightly.

I remember seeing *really* young kittens at the humane society once when I was dropping off some wet food. They were ready for adoption and must have been 10 weeks? I don't know. They were just itty bitty.

I've helped out a local rescue house here, because ALL of the surrounding shelters are kill shelters. And I agree, they should be kept with their mother or siblings much longer than they usually are. I can understand its not always possible, but even being around other somewhat younger cats (that are tolerant of them of course) can be benefitial. I've seen numerous cases of kittens having whats basically a godfather, or surrogate family with cats not related to them at all, and my biggest issue is what they're taught by the mother (or whatever depending). I work from home a lot of the time (graphics artist) and I fell very far behind once because I was looking after a -younger than- 4 week old kitten. He was extremely malnourished when he was taken to the rescue house, and rather than his mother or another cat keeping him from venturing off and doing things that could hurt or kill him, it was my job. After that week, I don't even want to imagine what being a father is going to be like... lol.

FYI - He eventually grew into his own with a lot of care, and was adopted out. He's actually a bit overweight now..

At least 8 weeks. Ours are usually around 10-12 weeks.

This is a tough question. As a rule, I never release my kits before 12 weeks. I had one lady call me up for an Aby recently - she came with the right referrals and after a phone interview I had already decided that she could have one of my cats.

And then she said:

"4 months?? Oh, that's too old for me".

I asked her why she thought that and she said:

"oh, I don't want to miss the growing up stage".

What she really wanted was an 8 week old kitten. I replied gently,

"It's against my policy to release my cats, even to the best of homes before 12 weeks. The simple reason is because I want to ensure that the cats are properly weaned, socialized and litter box trained. I also want to ensure that the cat is neutered and fully vaccinated."

As for shelter kittens ... if the kittens are orphaned and hand raised, then I believe that anytime after first vaccinations is fine to the right homes. However, if the kittens are not orphans, I still believe 12 weeks or more is best.

The first cat I adopted was 12 weeks old, but wasn't raised in a family and had spend too much time in a cage. He wasn't very well socialized and had already learned to "meow" all the time in a very loud way! Under these conditions, I think that maybe the earlier the kitty can leave it's cage, the better it is. But still, never under 8 weeks old, they are so young and fragile! Otherwise, 12 weeks seems to be the best. Although I adopted Zoe and Tania at 8 weeks old (the people owning them wanted to get rid of them before they were moving) and they are the nicest cats I've ever seen. Healthy, happy, playfull and respectful of the rules.

I'm thinking, if people need so much to have tiny little kitties, they should think of being foster parents for a pregnant cat until her babies are old enough to be adopted. In my case, that's what I'm gonna do (and I'll need advice!), because I can't stand knowing that a cat and her babies might be put to sleep because no one wants to take care of them and there's not enough resources at the shelter for all of them .

The problem is that kittens are so cute at 8 weeks, that people don't stop and think about the social/physical/mental behaviors that still have to be dealt with.

My rex kittens were barely eating solid foods at 8 weeks old and certainly would not survive being taken from mom/siblings at that age - they still were nursing too. Just cause a kitten is eating solids at 8 weeks and using the litter pan, does NOT mean they are emotionally ready for a new home.

I think most of on here should be doing our best to get the word out there thru friends/familys of the WHYs of not adopting before 10-12 weeks minimum. Even when we were finding homes for the barn kittens (DH used to let them go at 6-8 weeks old) he discovered how much better and social the kittens were when adopted out at 12 weeks old instead Now in his conversations, he will tell people about why its better for an older kitten.

That is the reason we took 2 babies today. They are about 7-8 weeks old and very shy. I knew if I didn't take them, then someone else would have split them up. The whole time I was there, her phone was ringing off the hook for kitties. One had already been taken before I got there and now she has one left. She is probably gone now too. I hope that the other 2 are with people that will be patient with them. I kinda got the idea that the lady didn't know much about kittens or cats when she didn't even know that her mama kitty was a tortie. And to say that the one we took was not a pretty kitty and she is just adorable

But Rusty and Dusty are eating and drinking, and both used the litterbox. Is the reason they are sleeping so much is that they ARE so young?

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

What caught my attention was someone who took a kitten home from a breeder under 10 weeks for Christmas, I thought most shelters and breeders alike did not allow Christmas cats and not that young

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I got my cat from breeder at 10 weeks and he was fine.
Already knew how to use a litter box, and has been using it without accident ever since.
In fact I got my other cat from a breeder at four months and the first thing that cat did is too poop outside the litter box.

Thankfully he figured it out since then.

Originally Posted by Leila

This is something I don't understand at all - why would you take a kitten so young if it also had the choice to stay with mother/siblings until 10-12 weeks?

It may be smaller and cuter but this doesn't seem enough to not wait a little while and get a kitten that has a more developed personality, learns from siblings and mother to not bite and scratch, and is less likely to have odd habits such as suckling or kneading amongst other things. The amount of people you see complaining about these issues I mentioned alone *sigh*.

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You are right, but I think the problem is that most people are ignorant about these things. They see no difference for the kitten to be taken away at 8, 10 or 14 weeks. However, they find them cuter and are more naturally inclined to adopt a cute vulnerable kitty than one that already knows how to run and jump gracefully. I myself adopted Zoe and Tania at 8 weeks old after watching different pictures of kittens on the internet. I found them so cute I couldn't resist and I just didn't know then that 8 weeks was too young. I'm happy and lucky that they have a great personality (maybe because I adopted two sisters from the same litter) and always behave (for example, they don't bite, they rarely do what they're not supposed to -like getting on the table- and when they do, if I say ''no'', they'll immediatly listen. However, they don't like being held in my arms or being pet if they didn't ask to). But, now that I know more about kittens, if it was to do all over again, I would adopt more mature ones.

Again, in my opinion, miscunceptions and ignorance are the causes to the problem. I don't think that people want their cats to be separated to young from their family, they just don't know that a cat can be too young for that (I hear people say: hey, it's just a cat, it doesn't care!).