Can a kitten leave it's mum at 3 weeks?

calicocat

Aww......poor little thing.

My current critter I rescued at 4 wks old ,mother had been dumped etc, it was thought mother was dying and whole litter too much for her,n but I had CPL on the end of the blower for any assistance..........it is doable though with hard work. Regular feeds,teaching them to groom themselves,rubbing the bottom to get them to use toilet etc , I hope she knows what she is doing or gets help/advice.
I took 3 weeks off work to be on 'kitten-call' 24/7.

And I hope there was a good reason for this !!

rising_from_the_ashes

gettingready wrote: »

WHY was the kitten given away so young? Any valid reason? Not that I can think of any - unless mum rejected it?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

No.

BUT.

And that's a BIG BUT.

If the mother has rejected her litter or has been unable to cope with a large litter, then it is possible to rear a kitten yourself.

It's extremely hard work. And nerve wracking, to say the least.

But I've done it. And it would have appeared to be a terrible thing to somebody else who didn't necessarily know the full story.

Both my current 2 were hand reared by me:

Big cat - ended up with him at 4 weeks as the mother had totally rejected the litter and the owner was struggling to try to raise 6 kittens. As both my pal & I were having a kitten & we were experienced owners, we took our kittens to give the others a bit more of a chance ..... the whole litter survived!

Wee cat - even younger at 3.5 weeks as the mothers owner had decided to have her neutered (great as she was a young cat & it was already her 2nd litter but not with babies that age) and she wouldn't have anything to do with any of them when she came back from the vets.

As I'd already hand reared big cat, ended up taking her (and same pal also ended up having one of her litter mates so we now have 2 brothers & a brother & sister .... all hand reared:)).

Not something I would advocate and I would say that both of them have totally different traits from cats I've had that haven't been hand reared (can't really explain it - have others who've hand reared noticed anything different?)

And .... as Jojo says, it's really hard work ...... they are best with Mum except in an emergency situation.

calicocat

Difference with hand reared ?

It's hard to judge what is down to that or personality , but mine is more dependant on me I think,quite clingy,would never dream of catching a bird. She is Very protective of me and gets jealous easily.

I also think she had identity issues as I had house guinea-pigs and a dog when I got her and it seemed she didn't know which one to 'be' or copy ,one minute she would sleep with the pigs , then chase the postman along with the dog..and growl at him. She follows me everywhere into all neighbours houses ,howls outside if she can't come in and doesn't like me being in another house without her.

But to be honest she is also the first tortie I've had and only one I have reared so no real clue whether it's down to being away from mum too early or just her. She also doesn't really like anyone except me unless she's known them for around 2yrs.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

calicocat wrote: »

Difference with hand reared ?

It's hard to judge what is down to that or personality , but mine is more dependant on me I think,quite clingy,would never dream of catching a bird. She is Very protective of me and gets jealous easily.

I also think she had identity issues as I had house guinea-pigs and a dog when I got her and it seemed she didn't know which one to 'be' or copy ,one minute she would sleep with the pigs , then chase the postman along with the dog..and growl at him. She follows me everywhere into all neighbours houses ,howls outside if she can't come in and doesn't like me being in another house without her.

But to be honest she is also the first tortie I've had and only one I have reared so no real clue whether it's down to being away from mum too early or just her. She also doesn't really like anyone except me unless she's known them for around 2yrs.

Nah. That's normal handreared mog for you. Mine is a 14 year old tabby and does the Alien Face hugger thing even now. She adored the children and took on a supervisory role with them, but still gets jealous if the Fella sits closer to me than she is. Will just about cuddle up to him if I'm not there, but as soon as she sees me, it's still MUUUUUUMMMMMMMYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

rising_from_the_ashes

calicocat wrote: »

It's hard to judge what is down to that or personality , but mine is more dependant on me I think,quite clingy,would never dream of catching a bird. She is Very protective of me and gets jealous easily.

I also think she had identity issues as I had house guinea-pigs and a dog when I got her and it seemed she didn't know which one to 'be' or copy ,one minute she would sleep with the pigs , then chase the postman along with the dog..and growl at him. She follows me everywhere into all neighbours houses ,howls outside if she can't come in and doesn't like me being in another house without her.

But to be honest she is also the first tortie I've had and only one I have reared so no real clue whether it's down to being away from mum too early or just her. She also doesn't really like anyone except me unless she's known them for around 2yrs.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Nah. That's normal handreared mog for you. Mine is a 14 year old tabby and does the Alien Face hugger thing even now. She adored the children and took on a supervisory role with them, but still gets jealous if the Fella sits closer to me than she is. Will just about cuddle up to him if I'm not there, but as soon as she sees me, it's still MUUUUUUMMMMMMMYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

Haha :rotfl:interesting isn't it!

He is so a mummmmmmmyyyyyyy's boy ..... a total yeowler - think there is some Siamese or Bombay (he's huge) in there somewhere ..... all the time - for in / out / hungry / cuddle / I'm annoyed etc etc - everyone else is "does that not drive you nuts?" - but he's always been like that so I guess I'm just used to it (and yes his brother is exactly the same;)).

I was in hospital recently and the poor wee mite looks like he's not eaten the whole time I've been away which he can ill afford as he's way too skinny in the first place...... he's been sooooo clingy since I got home he's hardly been out which isn't like him at all.

Her on the other hand - typical tortie - she loathes other cats but loves dogs (see they are different than other cats;)) - and I think she does think she is part dog as I have to make sure she's in the house before setting off with the dog ..... or she comes too (not good as road to cross & walk up the side of a railway line:eek:) ...... and has the temper to match :eek:....... she'll be purring away giving you big cuddles ...... and then bite (hard) and stick every claw in as far as it will go and not let go :mad:

Cats eh ...... wouldn't be without em!;)

shegirl

I used to have a cat (who managed to crawl to my front door after being hit,bless his little soul ) who was removed too young.When I went to get him I discovered he was just 6 weeks old and had already had two owners:eek: The woman I got him from,well god knows where he'd have ended up -on the streets no doubt,no longer wanted him.

He was a very very clingy kitty and I've never known a cat to 'suckle' on a human so much.It was his clingyness that made the second owner give up.Aswell as being a little lost shadow he really would constantly try to suckle on clothing and skin,a ridiculous amount.

RIP my ickle pilchard

zaksmum

Wow...thanks everyone. there were no special reasons for taking the kitten. It didn't need hand rearing or anything like that.

The neighbour was walking up the road with it wrapped in a blanket cooing at it and stopped to show me. I was horrified when she said it was 3 weeks old today.

It's such a tiny little scrap. I asked her how come it left it's mum so young and she said the owner wants as many as possible to go as the mother cat had 8 kittens, and they were getting under her feet.

The neighbour said she'd been assured it was fine to eat commercial kitten food but at 3 weeks old I'm really amazed if this proved true.

gettingready

oh dear..

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

zaksmum wrote: »

Wow...thanks everyone. there were no special reasons for taking the kitten. It didn't need hand rearing or anything like that.

The neighbour was walking up the road with it wrapped in a blanket cooing at it and stopped to show me. I was horrified when she said it was 3 weeks old today.

It's such a tiny little scrap. I asked her how come it left it's mum so young and she said the owner wants as many as possible to go as the mother cat had 8 kittens, and they were getting under her feet.

The neighbour said she'd been assured it was fine to eat commercial kitten food but at 3 weeks old I'm really amazed if this proved true.

Probably dead by the end of next week, then.

Along with the rest of the litter.

jen007

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Probably dead by the end of next week, then.

Along with the rest of the litter.

Harsh but probably true.

Get the wee thing to a vet ASAP. Shame on your pal/neighbour for taking one when it was so wee and shame on the Mother cat's owner for being so...... EURGH! No words.
And for lords sake, don't let her feed it cows milk thinking it'll do good. It will need a supplemented milk full of the nutrition which the wee thing could have got from it's mother.

And if she doesn't take it to a vet, report to RSPCA/Cats protection ASAP.

I give you this link to show where she might be breaking the law:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/45/section/4