What age can Kittens leave the Mama?

My Little Stray's kittens are now 5 weeks old and I am not sure when they will be old enough to leave MaMa and go to their new homes. They are starting to eat kitten food and they are also still nursing. Another question, how do I determine the kittens sexes? That seems to be the first thing that people are asking and I am unsure of what I see. I am not at all anxious for the kittys to leave my home, we love everyone of them and this has been a wonderful experience for my family.

From all the reading ive been doing they suggest 12 wks is a good age to send the kittens to a new home. If you find out differntly please let me know
Kathi

I would say minumum 8 weeks. That's how old the hurricane twins were but times are a changing and the limits are being extended. They had no mom so....taking them home was the only option. Humane Society kittys.

If the mother is tame, they should stay with her until they weigh at least 2 pounds. Then they are big enough to be spayed/neutered and adopted. Ideally, they should stay with her until 12 weeks.

Here's a website that explains how to tell the sex of a kitten: http://www.thepetcenter.com/exa/kitx.html

In general, it takes practice to tell the sex of a kitten at first glance but if you see a male and a female side by side it is pretty easy to tell which is which. So you can look at different pairs of kittens until you find two that look different, and then you'll have an easier time.

Minimum 12 WEEKSHere's why:
http://www.breedlist.com/faq/young.html

I agree with 12 weeks, we're keeping our 12 week old babies and they are still learning so much from their momma and daddy I can't imagine them being ready to go before 12 weeks.
I'm glad I don't have to part with the cheeky monkeys.

I got one at 6 weeks and 2 at 8 weeks, they are all doing great they are almost a year old now, no health issues or socialization and behavoural issues. All doing just beautifully.

ive had lots of cats theres always been at least one cat in my house ever since i was a baby. ive had them at different ages ranging from 5wks to 8wks but never older than that i personally did not know they had to be older than that i thought the 'norm' was 8 wks.

i had no problems with any of the kittens except the 2 we had at 5 wks they were eating food but when they came to us they stoped so for a few days we had to syringe feed them but they turned out to be 2 beautiful cats i am keeping all 3 of my kittens who r 3 wks old today but i have to admit if i was giving them away i would have done it around 8 wks, not because i wanted to but because i never knew they should be with their moms untill 12 wks