Should orphans stay with their litter mates longer?

I have a litter of orphan kittens that I estimate are about 8 weeks old (they are weaned). I have homes lined up for most of them, so now I'm wondering at what age I should rehome them. I know 8 weeks is the minimum and some people prefer to wait til 12 weeks, or some time in between. My question is, do you think it's especially important for orphaned kittens to stay with their litter mates longer as opposed to kittens that are with their mother?

The fact they can still play and tussle with each other helps them learn to socialize almost as well as being with mom.

I personally think they are better off going to their forever homes later rather than earlier, since they have each other.

I often recommend rehoming in pairs for this very reason. They have a buddy their own age as a friend and playmate, and they tend to be happier and better behaved.

I would vote on the side of keeping the litter together for 12 weeks. [emoji]128522[/emoji]

I agree with Sarthur about keeping the kittens together longer and adopting out as pairs if you can do so.  I have never fostered or hand-reared kittens myself.  However my oldest cat Starbuck was adopted when she was six weeks old. She was orphaned from her family around 4 weeks old when some ass threw her out a car window. When I adopted her at 6 weeks old she was very under-socialized. She thought nose biting was a form of communication.  She also thought that chomping on my other cats heads was how to ask them to play. One of my senior boys Tegato took on the role of teaching her kitty manners and boundaries.  I was very lucky that this happened as it does not always work out this way.  His brother Claude was actually scared of Starbuck at first.  Starbuck is a munchkin and is not able to jump well so Claude could easily avoid her.  It took Tegato a couple of months to fix her issues.  Hubby and I took care of dealing with the nose biting issue.  She almost never nose bites anymore and now it is little love bites without teeth involved.  I do think it would have been much harder for us to teach her the manners and boundaries she learned from Tegato.  Kittens learn things differently from other cats or siblings than the would if this had to be done by humans,  I still remember how Starbuck used to scream at Tegato when he first started pinning her to the floor to teach her not to chomp his head as play.  He pinned her until she quit screaming and then got up and walked away from her.  The first time it happened I separated them because I was afraid she would get hurt.  The 2nd time I just stayed in the room and watched.  I realized very quickly that he was not trying to hurt her at all.  He was not biting or clawing at her.  He was not hissing and growling.  She was being noisy because she did not like being told no. Once she learned how to play correctly with Tegato his brother Claude was no longer scared of her anymore.  Claude also bonded with her after this.  There is a lot that kittens can teach each other.  I think the additional time could be helpful to the kittens to continue to learn boundaries and manners. I love my Starbuck but I felt bad about her lack of socilization when I first adopted her nine years ago.

I've been suggesting people adopt them in pairs, but of course not everyone wants to. I'm adopting two and my parents are adopting two. Someone else is adopting one (that person lives with another cat, so that could be good, depending on the other cat), so there's one left that hasn't found a home. I think I will hold onto them a little longer, especially since I don't know exactly how old they are. My adult cat Hester and my dog are also doing a good job socializing them, playing with them, cleaning them, and putting them in their place when they're rude.