Adopt 6 weeks old kitten really a problem/too soon?

raphael lippi

raphael lippi

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I found a litter of Kittens on a Facebook page for adoption, they were from a vet shelter. They were 35 days old. I got one, a female , one week later. She was with the last sister, and sadly, I had to take It from her( I had no idea there are suposed to keep more time with siblings). She was already eating kitten dry food, and using the litter box, no need to teach anything, it was a piece of cake, not sure why is everyone saying here in this site the oposite, that is too soon for the kittens to do it all. Sure, there is surely a biting problem, but that can also be teached by a human, although not as easily as another cat. So, is It possible the people at the vet took good care of her, or is It really still a fault like everyone says here?

They( the vet) said they got the kittens from the mamma on the street, so I think it's better this way. The kittens wouldn't be as healthy as they would be with humans taking Care of them, specialy a vet.

It was my first kitten, so I did mess up a little in the First days. First, I let the kitten Free roam around the house with my family and a poodle( adult cat size) around. The kitten would just hide everywhere and my mother saying to keep her away from certain furnitures , this give me a lot of trouble, and the kitten was scaried of me. Yeah, I should have kept her in one safe room, I know, my mistake. That's her hidding after she just arrived.
IMG_20161103_135203154.jpg

IMG_20161103_135203154.jpg

Second, she wanted to sleep with me, so I picked her to sleep on my bed. Unfortunately, my Poodle always slept with me, and I made the Dumb choice of letting both sleep on the bed. The kitten slept cuddling with the dog as you can see in the pictures below, she probably used to do this with her sister.
IMG_20161104_080421121.jpg

IMG_20161104_080421121.jpg

It was alright on the first night, but on the second, the dog scaried her to keep her away, and she never ever slept cuddling, not with the dog, and not even with me anymore , I really miss how she slept on my arms
IMG_20161105_014136704.jpg

IMG_20161105_014136704.jpg

, now she only sleeps around my legs, so I think my dog kinda teached( and ruined) her to not sleep together sadly. I should have kept the dog away from the bedroom.

So, besides my obvious mistakes, there was no major problem with the kitten, she is a lovely one that follows me around the house. What do you guys think, adopting a kitten before the recommemded age of 10 weeks old really a problem? Thanks for reading.
 
Kieka

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At around 8 weeks old is when the mom cat starts to get antsy and want less time with the kittens, that is the standard acceptable lower end. Some kittens won't start eating all solid foods until the 8 week mark. By the 12 week mark the mom usually doesn't want much to do with the kittens and they are considered ready to go to their new homes by many breeders, usually the upper end of when ready to re-home. The theory tends towards up to 8 weeks old they can still get nutritional and immune support from continuing to nurse occasionally. Between the 8 and 12 week mark they learn good behavior traits from their mother (how to interact with other cats, humans, hunting, what is safe and not, etc) and siblings (how hard to play, how to interact, how hard is too hard to bite, etc). 

If you have ever interacted with a bottle baby compared to a kitten kept with mom until older you can tell the little differences in behavior.

My Moms cat was dropped in a box outside the local shelter at (best guess) 3-4 weeks and under a pound. We assume that he was seen trying cat food so the moms owners decided he was old enough. Sadly, they left in in a cardboard box overnight with a bowl of food and when we found him he wasn't responsive. My mom had to force his mouth open and drip KMR into it until he responded and she stayed up for 24 hours with him that first day. We gave him KMR for a few more weeks and mixed it as a slurry with wet food to help him get the extra nutrients. While we taught him about not biting too hard, not using claws in play, and provided him with attention and love it isn't the same as a mom cat and siblings. You can tell in how he interacts with our other two cats that there is a missing lesson that only a mom cat can fill. Which isn't to say he is bad, he is a love and super sweet, he just sometimes misunderstands our other cats. 

My boy was probably 6 weeks, but the people told me 8 weeks, when I got him. The vet felt he was 6 weeks old and wouldn't vaccine for 2 weeks. I had guessed he was younger when I got him but the people who gave him to me were not in a situation to keep him any longer. My girls mom abandoned her litter at around 5 weeks old and the year old male (same mom) took over care of the litter. It was really cute to watch him herding kittens around the feral/hoarder situation they lived in. For both of my two those few extra weeks with their mom and other cats made a huge difference in how they interact with other cats and humans.

There are situations, like yours and mine, where the kittens can't or don't stay with mom for the recommended period. Many feral kittens are taken away from mom at 6-8 weeks so they don't gain the human is bad perspective. Most kittens don't suffer horribly because of it. They just miss out on those formative weeks and may miss some "how-to-be-a-cat" lessons and nutrition. Good human training and quality nutrition can negate a lot of those lacks but some can't be duplicated by any human. 

The best example, is hyperactivity. A mom cat will smack her kids when they get too hyper or start grooming them to calm them down. Humans? We play until they are tired because we don't have the ability to smack them and calm them down with grooming. Kittens who don't learn to calm down from Mom can grow into hyperactive cats who act out. Hyperactive cats who act out can end up having troubles keeping a home when their humans don't understand that they need to play with them and misinterpret play biting and batting as aggressive behaviors.  

The bottom line, is adopting before the 10 weeks really a problem?

  * If you know how to work with kittens, train them, ensure proper nutrition, AND the situation requires it, no.

  * If there is a choice, yes it is better to wait until the 10 weeks.  
 
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raphael lippi

raphael lippi

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Kieka said:
At around 8 weeks old is when the mom cat starts to get antsy and want less time with the kittens, that is the standard acceptable lower end. Some kittens won't start eating all solid foods until the 8 week mark. By the 12 week mark the mom usually doesn't want much to do with the kittens and they are considered ready to go to their new homes by many breeders, usually the upper end of when ready to re-home. The theory tends towards up to 8 weeks old they can still get nutritional and immune support from continuing to nurse occasionally. Between the 8 and 12 week mark they learn good behavior traits from their mother (how to interact with other cats, humans, hunting, what is safe and not, etc) and siblings (how hard to play, how to interact, how hard is too hard to bite, etc). 

If you have ever interacted with a bottle baby compared to a kitten kept with mom until older you can tell the little differences in behavior.

My Moms cat was dropped in a box outside the local shelter at (best guess) 3-4 weeks and under a pound. We assume that he was seen trying cat food so the moms owners decided he was old enough. Sadly, they left in in a cardboard box overnight with a bowl of food and when we found him he wasn't responsive. My mom had to force his mouth open and drip KMR into it until he responded and she stayed up for 24 hours with him that first day. We gave him KMR for a few more weeks and mixed it as a slurry with wet food to help him get the extra nutrients. While we taught him about not biting too hard, not using claws in play, and provided him with attention and love it isn't the same as a mom cat and siblings. You can tell in how he interacts with our other two cats that there is a missing lesson that only a mom cat can fill. Which isn't to say he is bad, he is a love and super sweet, he just sometimes misunderstands our other cats. 

My boy was probably 6 weeks, but the people told me 8 weeks, when I got him. The vet felt he was 6 weeks old and wouldn't vaccine for 2 weeks. I had guessed he was younger when I got him but the people who gave him to me were not in a situation to keep him any longer. My girls mom abandoned her litter at around 5 weeks old and the year old male (same mom) took over care of the litter. It was really cute to watch him herding kittens around the feral/hoarder situation they lived in. For both of my two those few extra weeks with their mom and other cats made a huge difference in how they interact with other cats and humans.

There are situations, like yours and mine, where the kittens can't or don't stay with mom for the recommended period. Many feral kittens are taken away from mom at 6-8 weeks so they don't gain the human is bad perspective. Most kittens don't suffer horribly because of it. They just miss out on those formative weeks and may miss some "how-to-be-a-cat" lessons and nutrition. Good human training and quality nutrition can negate a lot of those lacks but some can't be duplicated by any human. 

The best example, is hyperactivity. A mom cat will smack her kids when they get too hyper or start grooming them to calm them down. Humans? We play until they are tired because we don't have the ability to smack them and calm them down with grooming. Kittens who don't learn to calm down from Mom can grow into hyperactive cats who act out. Hyperactive cats who act out can end up having troubles keeping a home when their humans don't understand that they need to play with them and misinterpret play biting and batting as aggressive behaviors.  

The bottom line, is adopting before the 10 weeks really a problem?

  * If you know how to work with kittens, train them, ensure proper nutrition, AND the situation requires it, no.

  * If there is a choice, yes it is better to wait until the 10 weeks.  
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Too bad, I didn't have a choice, they were taken from the mother probably under 1 month old. They were kinda forced to grow up too fast.

I have tried mimicing some of cat mother's tricks. If they bite too hard, and ignore wouldn't be the best idea for the situation, I would bite them back , although it's not the same as we don't have sharp tooth. So Just taped her nose with the finger and she would stop. Mother cat constantly picks her kittens to be on the right place. Same can be done by a human. I was trying to teach mine to sleep again with me yesterday, so I Just picked her, and picked back again until she stoped running away, they will give up sometime, just like they would do with the mother cat. She woke me up with her face on mine licking for the first time ever, and that's because I "forced" her to sleep with me, it's hilarious. They Understand it all.
 
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